MOVING DAY: Want to “buy, sell, dream and scheme” your way up the property ladder?
Head to the Marais, where Thai artist PZ Opassuksatit has set up shop as a faux-real estate agent to celebrate the release of her third book, “PZWorld Properties,” which contains tongue-in-cheek advice for anyone from worms looking for new digs to those looking to remodel — with a sledgehammer.
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“You can throw away Architectural Digest and Elle Decoration,” joked the designer, who has collaborated with a range of projects including Doublet’s fall 2024 collection and Virgil Abloh’s 2020 exhibition in Chicago. “This is the end-game for housing.”
The Paris-based designer said this latest volume was inspired by her desire to move apartments and the experience of arriving in the city as a student a decade ago: It’s the finale to a trilogy initiated in 2018 with “PZ World Amazon,” on the oddities available for purchase online, and “PZWorld Weddings,” triggered by her sister’s nuptials.
While finding a flat at the two-day pop-up opening April 12 is a long shot — unless you want a “pizza condo” stack of trays or the worst apartments in Tokyo — there will be plenty of gag items created by the wacky designer.
Opassukasatit wearing a key tag earring from her PZWorld Properties lineup.
Prices will range from 75 euros for an XXL “door tag” tote and 85 euros for a gaffer tape knit scarf up to 300 euros for a T-shirt with room to fit a moving box underneath.
The slimline book, in a limited run of 500, is priced at 40 euros and is also available from a range of bookstores around the world, including Twelvebooks in Japan and Idea in London. Inside, she invited some 30 contributors from the fashion and art world.
These include Doublet designer Masayuki Ino highlighting the weirdest houses in Japan such a “Rectangle of Sadness” flat and one shaped like a cat; Vaquera’s Bryn Taubensee and Patric DiCaprio giving tips on how to dress for successful apartment hunting; and Kiko Kostadinov’s womenswear designers Laura and Deanna Fanning, who dressed up architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house in a zesty print from the fall 2021 collection.
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A faux real estate listing in the window of the Parispop-up.
Meanwhile, home trends forecasting comes courtesy Sarah Andelman, for whom the perfect home has a water feature, plenty of photos and books — of course — and a Harry Nuriev tapestry sofa.
For the fire-sale launch event on Friday at 27 Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, the designer is expected to dress as a chair. The pop-up will conclude on Saturday.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
