TORONTO — CBRE says Canadian commercial real estate is pointing to a post-pandemic economic upswing.
The commercial real estate company says the pace of office vacancy increases eased in every major Canadian city in the second quarter and industrial demand picked up.
Downtown office leasing increased in major cities by the smallest amount since the pandemic’s onset last year with office tenants preparing to welcome employees back in the second half of the year.
CBRE says Canada has North America’s four tightest downtown office markets with Vancouver’s vacancy at 6.6 per cent, Toronto at 10 per cent, Ottawa at 10.6 per cent and Montreal at 11.1 per cent.
Halifax’s office vacancy decreased to 19.7 per cent downtown and 13 per cent in the suburbs in a possible sign of a return to normalcy as part of the reopening process.
Sublets, which flooded the market during the pandemic, are now in demand with some companies pulling the spaces off the market to reoccupy the offices.
The company says nearly 90,000 square metres (one million square feet) of office space previously put up for sublease was cancelled or leased in downtown cores in the second quarter, with half of that in Toronto.
“Sublet listings can be knee-jerk reactions in a sudden market correction. The fact that sublets are being cancelled or leased up by new business is a very good sign and this only just the beginning of the trend,” says CBRE Canada vice chairman Paul Morassutti.
“Canada’s major office markets have fared well over the past year compared to our global counterparts and we can expect the momentum to continue to build as lockdowns are eased.”
Prime industrial real estate is in high demand, with Waterloo Region having the lowest industrial availability rate in North America at 0.9 per cent.
All markets outside the Prairies have availability rates of three per cent or less, with Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal at 1.2, 1.1 and 1.4 per cent, respectively.
Rising land and construction costs are limiting options for industrial businesses.
The amount of space for lease or purchase decreased in the quarter by 35 per cent in Vancouver, 28 per cent in Montreal and 25 per cent in Toronto. Calgary’s rates decreased by 1.2 per cent while Edmonton’s rate fall by 0.7 per cent.
“The level of industrial demand is unprecedented and is now running up against very real limitations,” added Morassutti.
“We don’t have enough space to accommodate business demand and can’t build new space fast enough.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2021.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
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.
