According to experts, Lethbridge’s commercial real estate market is fairly stable — all things considered. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred some changes.
“I haven’t really seen something like this in the last ten years,” said Jillian Chaffee.
“Prior to the pandemic there would be more negotiation and prices would be lowered, and so what we’re seeing is people are getting more aggressive with existing real estate.”
A long-time commercial real estate agent with Royal LePage, Chaffee said some recent trends include the insurgence of more entrepreneurs looking for leasing opportunities, and the decline in interest for new builds.
“The cost of construction of new builds have increased, just due to supply and demand, shortage of trades,” she explained.
Bootsma Bakery, a family-owned business that’s seen an influx of support since opening in 2019, was in a position to find a new location.
“It was very crammed,” owner Jamie Bootsma said of the bakery’s initial storefront. “(It) actually got to the point where we were no longer meeting fire code.
“So it was a matter of we either needed to downscale our business, or move.”
After some searching and seeing properties that were either too small or much too large, they finally landed on a location off Mayor Magrath Dr. S. and moved in last month.
“It’s plenty of space for us, we would have just liked to have a little bit more space, (so) we definitely had to compromise on that,” Bootsma said.
“We’ve seen a number of expansions throughout the city,” said Economic Development Lethbridge CEO Trevor Lewington. “People going into a larger property or changing their location relative to their business.”
2:01 Even Realtors surprised by red-hot housing market in B.C.
Even Realtors surprised by red-hot housing market in B.C.
Having a stable inventory of properties is important both to attract new investment, and to support businesses that are growing and expanding that are already in the city.
In the first three quarters of 2020, there were 89 reported commercial real estate transactions in Lethbridge. During the same period in 2021, there were 88 transactions.
However, last year there were fewer leases.
“What we did see was a shift from less leases and more actual sales transactions,” Lewington added. “So businesses buying their building or buying into their property as opposed to leasing — which is an interesting shift. Not sure what’s driving that, frankly.”
Lewington added the shift to at-home working might have a continued impact on the sales of office spaces, but he expects industrial sales will continue to flourish.
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.
