Canadian Mortgage rates on the rise

 

OTTAWA — CIBC and Bank of Montreal announced Tuesday that they will be raising their mortgage rates.
CIBC raised the rates on fixed-rate mortgages, following other major Canadian banks that did so Monday.
CIBC raised rates on closed mortgages by 0.10 to 0.15 percentage points, with the popular five-year closed option rising 0.15 per cent to 5.54 per cent, in line with the new rates announced by Royal Bank, TD Canada Trust and Laurentian Bank on Monday.
CIBC's new rates become effective Wednesday.
BMO Bank of Montreal also announced its changes in residential mortgage rates, effective Wednesday.
A five-year fixed rate closed is going up to 5.54%, a 0.15% increase.

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Cat: Canada Real Estate

New Town Planned For Construction in Vancouver Island, BC

 

Vancouver Island's Comox Valley will see the addition of up to 1,300 homes and 800,000 square feet of shops and services, the Trilogy group of companies' John deCourcey Evans has announced in unveiling a project to be called CAYET.

Trilogy has obtained approval from the Village of Cumberland's council to proceed with the project.

Evans expects the company will spend about $110 million preparing the property for eventual transformation, either by other companies, developers or builders (or by Trilogy in partnership with others) into a new neighbourhood within the village.

That figure includes Trilogy's costs of purchasing the property and installing water and waste disposal and new or renovated roadways.

"This figure does not account for the cost of 'on-site' servicing of individual parcels of land within the 719 acres of CAYET," Evans said in a release.

Trilogy also has the provincial approvals it needs for the infrastructure work.

It expects to begin tendering in the first quarter of 2012, Evans said in the release.

"Planning and executing a comprehensive development in a magical place like the Comox Valley is a privilege and a rare opportunity," Evans said in his release.

The Trilogy property investment and management group, which Evans started 20 years ago, has brought to market projects in Whistler, Vancouver and Montreal.

Cat: BC Real Estate

Vancouver House Prices Up 25% - Sales Up 7%

 

VANCOUVER - Home sales and prices in the Vancouver area rose in May, as a surge at the high-end of the market overcame a drop in condo deals.
An industry group says total sales rose seven per cent from a year earlier and prices rose six per cent. Sales of detached homes shot 25 per cent higher last month and the average price climbed 10 per cent to $891,000.
But sales of apartment-style condos actually fell nine per cent as the adjusted average price rose two per cent to $407,000.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says homes of at least a million dollars now account for one in five sales of all types. Three-quarters of the million-dollar properties are in Vancouver's west side, West Vancouver, and Richmond.
The unadjusted selling price for detached houses last month was $1.2 million, which is 28 per cent higher than a year earlier and up $19,000 from April.

Cat: Vancouver Real Estate Market

Vancouver's average rent, at $1,181, most expensive in Canada

 

OTTAWA — Demand is outstripping supply in the country’s apartment rental market, pushing the national vacancy rate lower and making it more difficult for renters to find accommodations, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported Thursday.

The vacancy rate fell to 2.5% in April from 2.9% a year earlier, the national housing agency said.

“Immigration continues to be a factor in supporting rental housing demand. Recent immigrants tend to rent first before becoming homeowners,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist.

“In addition, condominium completions moved lower in the past months, while rental apartment unit completions remained relatively stable. As a result, the overall demand for rental apartment units increased faster than supply for this type of housing. Accordingly, this pushed Canada’s vacancy rate downward.”

The average monthly rent in new and existing structures for a two-bedroom apartment edged up to $864 in April from $848 in April 2010.

The highest average rents were found in Vancouver, at $1,181; Toronto, at $1,124; Ottawa-Gatineau, at $1,056 for the Ontario portion; Calgary, at $1,040; Edmonton, at $1,029; and Victoria, at $1,024.

The lowest monthly rents were found in the Quebec centres of Saguenay, at $542; Trois-Rivieres, at $546; and Sherbrooke, at $577.

The major urban centres with the lowest vacancy rates were Winnipeg and Regina, at 0.7%; Quebec City, at one per cent; Toronto, at 1.6%; and Kingston, Ont., at 1.7%.

Those with the highest vacancy rates were Windsor, Ont., at 9.4%; Kelowna and Abbotsford in B.C., at 6.6 per cent; and Charlottetown at 4.9%.

Factoring out newly built structures, which carry higher rents and can skew the national average, rents across Canada’s 35 major centres rose 2.2% year over year.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Cat:Vancouver Rental Real Estate

Where Rich Chinese Are Buying Real Estate

 

Vancouver, London and the big cities down under are second homes of choice for China’s super rich, according to real estate services firm Colliers International.

One of the reasons the China real estate market is so hot is because wealthy Chinese are buying up property to hold onto real assets, rather than put money in low yielding bank bonds and volatile equities. The super rich are buying real estate outside of China in an effort to avoid taxes.

In the past six months, Chinese spent 1.3 billion yuan ($200 million) through Colliers’ international property department, with Canada, the UK and Australia topping list.  “We are expecting a clear increase in the extent of mainland buyers’ purchases of overseas properties this year because of the government’s rigorous restraint on the number of homes a family can buy in key cities,” Alan Liu, managing director of Colliers International, said in China Daily Tuesday.

Chinese demand has pushed the average price of a Vancouver home up 12% in 2010 and is expected to rise another 3% this year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Demand from mainland immigrants now accounts for 29% of all new homes in Vancouver, China Daily reports.

In London, China buyers accounted for 28% of all prime London property sales and 54% by sales value in the prime central London area, where houses go for 5 million pounds ($8 million) on average, according to a recent report by Savills research.

“If the money from China were to start flowing into London at the same rate it does from billionaires in other countries, we would expect the value of ultra-prime London properties to grow by as much as 15%,” Yolande Barnes, head of Savills residential research told China Daily. “The issue at present is that Chinese buyers aren’t taking, or can’t take, their money out of China.”

The biggest increase in global billionaires since 2007 has occurred in China and Russia. The oligarchs from the old USSR account for 15% of prime London real estate by value.  Chinese billionaires have yet to have a real impact, accounting for just 3% so far, but that is expected to change as China’s uber-rich discover new ways to invest offshore.

Cat: Vancouver Real Estate

CMHC ups 2011 housing starts view

 

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) slightly raised its forecast for 2011 housing starts on Monday, citing an improving economy and still-low interest rates.

In a second-quarter housing outlook, the federal housing agency also forecast higher existing home sales than industry group Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

It said it expected housing starts to total 179,500 units this year, then climb to 185,300 units in 2012.

In February, CMHC had said it expected 2011 housing starts of 177,600, rising to 183,800 in 2012.

New Canadian government regulations are expected to take the heat off the housing market, once the main source of Canada's economic growth. The latest changes, aimed at mortgage amortization and refinancing, came into effect in the spring.

"We are expecting new and existing housing markets to fall in line with demographic fundamentals, as changes to mortgage rules take hold," said Bob Dugan, chief economist for CMHC.

Additionally, Canadian interest rates are expected to stay low for a little while longer despite Monday's data that showed Canadian growth accelerated to almost 4 percent in the first quarter. Second-quarter growth is expected to be around half of that.

The Bank of Canada will raise interest rates some time in the third quarter, in either July or September, a Reuters survey last week showed.

CMHC predicted existing home sales of 452,100 units this year, which would be 1.16 percent above the 2010 tally of 446,936 units. That is also slightly ahead of CREA, which sees 2011 sales dipping 1.3 percent to 441,100 units from 2010.

In 2012, CMHC sees sales moving up to 461,300 units, also higher than CREA's forecast of 452,500 units.

Both groups say the recent increase in the average national price reflected strong sales in Vancouver's resale market. CMHC expects the average price to moderate for the remainder of the year but gave no figure.

Cat: Canada Real Estate

One-fifth of Greater Vancouver real estate sales over $1M

More than one-fifth of homes sold in Greater Vancouver so far this year went for $1 million or more, according to the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board.

Three-quarters of those million or multi-million dollar properties are located in West Vancouver, the West Side or Richmond. Another fifth sold for $350,000 or less at locations throughout the lower mainland.

The region's notoriously pricy market has already spurred a sequel to the popular online game Crack Shack or Mansion, which challenges players to distinguish between pictures of million-dollar homes and properties involved in alleged drug production.

Real Estate Board president Rosario Setticasi says high-end listings are seeing more activity than they did one year ago.

"This is causing today's average prices in the region to be less reflective of the total activity occurring in the marketplace," Setticasi said in a release.

The Multiple Listing Service Link Housing Price Index benchmark price for all residential properties in the area in the last year has increased more than six per cent to $627,568.

But May still saw a seven per cent increase in detached, attached and apartment sales over the same month last year, from 3,156 to 3,377, and an increase of nearly 5 per cent over April 2011.

Despite the fact that sales are on the rise, they're still below the 10-year average by 8.1 per cent. There were also fewer properties listed this May than last.

The current market favours sellers, according to the board.

Cat: Vancouver Real Estate

Vancouver River District – The last water front community in the city

 

River District, a 130-acre development on the shores of the Fraser River and Southeast Vancouver, celebrated its official opening Saturday.

"It's a truly sustainable, walkable green community," said Ben Taddei of developer ParkLane Homes, in partnership in the massive project with Polygon Homes.

The waterfront development -adjacent to Champlain Heights and the West Fraserlands -features over 20 acres of parks, 10 volleyball courts, and retail space in its newly unveiled "Experience Centre": a multi-use building that already includes Romer's Burger Bar and Urban Rec store.

The Experience Centre, a privately funded community building, is also in partnership with Family Place and includes a drop-in centre for parents and children in the area. Seventy units of the first phase of apartments have been sold within the first three weeks.

River District is expected to become a community of approximately 15,000 residents over the next 15-20 years, and "will be the town centre for this part of the city," said Taddei. Polygon Homes is also a developer in the project. River District has received national attention, winning the "Best Neighbourhood Plan" award for the Canadian Institute of Planning in 2006. Future phases of the community will include a restaurant on the water, two schools -including a high school and elementary school -a community centre, park space and a waterfront pier.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Cat: Vancouver South Real Estate

BCREA Housing Market Update - BCREA June Mortgage Rate Forecast (June 2011)

 

BC Real Estate Association (BCREA) Chief Economist Cameron Muir discusses the May 2011 statistics and an in depth look at BCREA's June Mortgage Rate Forecast.

Cat: Vancouver Real Estate

Canadian home sales stable in May - Canadian Real Estate Board of Vancouver

 

Sales activity held steady from April to May, but posted the first year-over-year gain in over a year due to falling demand in May 2010.
Year-to-date sales are in line with the ten-year average.

Cat: Vancouver Real Estate