Real eState

Anshul Ruparell Wants to Change Real Estate in Canada – CB – CanadianBusiness.com

Published

3 years ago

October 7, 2021

Anshul Ruparell quit the banking business to follow in his dad’s entrepreneurial footsteps. His start-up, Properly, is revolutionizing the art of the real estate transaction—and racking up millions in VC capital.

When I graduated from the Ivey Business School in 2010, I did what all my peers were doing: I got a job at an investment bank. I spent two years as an analyst at Merrill Lynch, where I used to work 70 to 100 hours a week. One time, I pulled two all-nighters in a row to prepare for a presentation. I didn’t leave the office for three days—not even to go home and shower. At the meeting, I kept falling asleep. My heart wasn’t in the work. I quit the bank and spent three years in private equity. Soon I realized I wanted to build a business of my own. So I decided to get my MBA at Columbia University.

In the summer of 2016, between my first and second years in business school, I met the entrepreneur Fabrice Grinda when he did a lecture at Columbia. He’d scaled and sold a couple of multibillion-dollar companies and now heads up a VC firm called FJ Labs, which was an early investor in Alibaba and Airbnb. I told Fabrice about one of my early business ideas—a marketplace where restaurants could rent their space to people who want to host events during off hours. He said, “Listen, I think you’re really smart. But that’s a terrible idea. Why don’t you just come work for me instead?”

And that’s how I became a core member of the investment team at FJ Labs. During my years there, I spent a lot of time thinking about real estate. My family lives in Calgary, and in 2014, when oil prices dropped, the city went through a recession. I had relatives who wanted to sell their homes but couldn’t find buyers.

This sparked the idea for Properly, a business that could streamline the process for sellers by purchasing property directly from them. FJ Labs led a $3.6-million seed round, which helped me start the company. Here’s how it worked: A client who wanted to sell their home would visit our website and enter information about the property, which we would run through an algorithm to predict its value on the open market. We’d buy the home from the customer in cash for that price, minus a five per cent broker’s fee. We’d then get it ready for sale and put it on the market. If we sold the home for more than what we quoted the homeowner, we’d refund that money back to them. If the home sold for less, we’d eat the costs.

“We came up with the idea for a new service called ‘sale assurance,’ which allows people to unlock the equity on their old home before it sells”

We started out in Calgary, because I knew the market there. My co-founder Sheldon McCormick and I crashed on my parents’ couch while we drummed up business. We called people who listed their homes on Kijiji and tried to convince them to sell their home with us. We had a lot of doors shut in our faces. But in the end it worked. We purchased our first house for $600,000 and sold it for the same amount. Within a year, 20 per cent of sellers in Calgary were coming to us before listing their homes on the market. Soon after, we raised $12 million in Series A financing, most of which came from a fund called Prudence.

When the pandemic hit, we took a pause—we didn’t know what changes were coming in the market and how long they were going to last. In August 2020, we shut down our Calgary office and focused all our energy on building a new business in Toronto. We started offering something we call “sale assurance,” which allows people to unlock the equity on their old home before it sells. That way, they can buy their dream home as soon as they find it and avoid the listing process. Within two months, we were matching our revenues with the old business model. Since then, we’ve been growing by 100 per cent every couple of months. We just closed our Series B round of financing, raising $44 million led by Bain Capital. From here, the plan is to build Properly into an end-to-end partner for Canadians in every major city across the country. Despite the success I’ve had thus far, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible.

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Real eState

Greater Toronto home sales jump in October after Bank of Canada rate cuts: board

Published

3 days ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says home sales in October surged as buyers continued moving off the sidelines amid lower interest rates.

The board said 6,658 homes changed hands last month in the Greater Toronto Area, up 44.4 per cent compared with 4,611 in the same month last year. Sales were up 14 per cent from September on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The average selling price was up 1.1 per cent compared with a year earlier at $1,135,215. The composite benchmark price, meant to represent the typical home, was down 3.3 per cent year-over-year.

“While we are still early in the Bank of Canada’s rate cutting cycle, it definitely does appear that an increasing number of buyers moved off the sidelines and back into the marketplace in October,” said TRREB president Jennifer Pearce in a news release.

“The positive affordability picture brought about by lower borrowing costs and relatively flat home prices prompted this improvement in market activity.”

The Bank of Canada has slashed its key interest rate four times since June, including a half-percentage point cut on Oct. 23. The rate now stands at 3.75 per cent, down from the high of five per cent that deterred many would-be buyers from the housing market.

New listings last month totalled 15,328, up 4.3 per cent from a year earlier.

In the City of Toronto, there were 2,509 sales last month, a 37.6 per cent jump from October 2023. Throughout the rest of the GTA, home sales rose 48.9 per cent to 4,149.

The sales uptick is encouraging, said Cameron Forbes, general manager and broker for Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc., who added the figures for October were stronger than he anticipated.

“I thought they’d be up for sure, but not necessarily that much,” said Forbes.

“Obviously, the 50 basis points was certainly a great move in the right direction. I just thought it would take more to get things going.”

He said it shows confidence in the market is returning faster than expected, especially among existing homeowners looking for a new property.

“The average consumer who’s employed and may have been able to get some increases in their wages over the last little bit to make up some ground with inflation, I think they’re confident, so they’re looking in the market.

“The conditions are nice because you’ve got a little more time, you’ve got more choice, you’ve got fewer other buyers to compete against.”

All property types saw more sales in October compared with a year ago throughout the GTA.

Townhouses led the surge with 56.8 per cent more sales, followed by detached homes at 46.6 per cent and semi-detached homes at 44 per cent. There were 33.4 per cent more condos that changed hands year-over-year.

“Market conditions did tighten in October, but there is still a lot of inventory and therefore choice for homebuyers,” said TRREB chief market analyst Jason Mercer.

“This choice will keep home price growth moderate over the next few months. However, as inventory is absorbed and home construction continues to lag population growth, selling price growth will accelerate, likely as we move through the spring of 2025.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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Homelessness: Tiny home village to open next week in Halifax suburb

Published

2 weeks ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – A village of tiny homes is set to open next month in a Halifax suburb, the latest project by the provincial government to address homelessness.

Located in Lower Sackville, N.S., the tiny home community will house up to 34 people when the first 26 units open Nov. 4.

Another 35 people are scheduled to move in when construction on another 29 units should be complete in December, under a partnership between the province, the Halifax Regional Municipality, United Way Halifax, The Shaw Group and Dexter Construction.

The province invested $9.4 million to build the village and will contribute $935,000 annually for operating costs.

Residents have been chosen from a list of people experiencing homelessness maintained by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.

They will pay rent that is tied to their income for a unit that is fully furnished with a private bathroom, shower and a kitchen equipped with a cooktop, small fridge and microwave.

The Atlantic Community Shelters Society will also provide support to residents, ranging from counselling and mental health supports to employment and educational services.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.

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Here are some facts about British Columbia’s housing market

Published

3 weeks ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.

Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.

Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500

Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438

Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103

Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359

Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent

How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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