Our weekly round-up of real estate news in Toronto, across Canada and the world for the week ending November 25, 2016.
TORONTO
Toronto Condo Inventory Disappearing Over 60% Faster Than Last Year (Better Dwelling)
Prices for Toronto condos continued to move higher for another month. The median price in the GTA is now $369,000, a 0.28 per cent increase from the month before. When compared to the same month last year, the median price increased by 11 per cent. It’s a solid gain, but lagged behind the benchmark average of all homes in Toronto which was 21 per cent.
New homes get cheaper in Toronto, but only because you’re getting less house for your money (Financial Post)
Toronto-area realtors say October saw a drop in prices in the region driven by an increase in supply but buyers had to settle for semi-detached homes and townhomes instead of detached homes.
The Building Industry and Land Development Association said Tuesday that the average price of a new low-rise home was $937,689 last month, a $54,702 decline from September, based on data from Altus Group.
CANADA
First Lumber, Now Drywall as Canada-U.S. Trade Tensions Escalate (Bloomberg)
A new trade dispute has broken out between Canada and the U.S. that threatens to raise prices in Canada’s already overheated housing markets.
The Canada Border Services Agency imposed a provisional tariff as high as 277 percent on U.S. drywall imports in September after ruling that manufacturers were dumping the product, or selling it below the price in their home market, undercutting local suppliers.
National Housing Strategy should target real estate’s investor allure, say experts (Metro)
Housing experts are giving a new report on Canada’s National Housing Strategy high marks for focusing on rental housing, but say it fails to address the inequities that have been created by treating homes as investments.
As Vancouver’s housing market cools, commercial property sales soar (Globe & Mail)
Claire Wyrostok, owner of popular Vancouver vegetarian restaurant Black Lodge, wonders how long it will be until Vancouver’s hot real estate market pushes her out of business. In the four years that Ms. Wyrostok has been at her current location, on Kingsway just off Fraser Street, many of the buildings in her strip have been sold and property values have more than doubled. Since Ms. Wyrostok’s three-year lease came up for renewal in March, she says the landlord is allowing her to rent only month to month.
USA
U.S. new home sales unexpectedly fall in October (Globe & Mail)
New U.S. single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in October, but this is likely a temporary setback for the new housing market against the backdrop of a strong labour market.
Cuomo’s ‘affordable housing’ fix: neither affordable, nor a fix (New York Post)
For 45 years, New York City has offered generous property-tax breaks to encourage construction of new rental housing. Since the mid-1980s, so-called 421-a abatements have been granted to developers who agree to make at least 20 percent of their new units “affordable.”
INTERNATIONAL
Rising Rates Threaten Global Property Investments (The Wall Street Journal)
Commercial property has been a big winner from years of ultralow interest rates around the world.
Now markets are signaling that change might be in the air.
Investors have been dumping government bonds in Europe, Asia and the U.S., sending prices tumbling. When bond prices fall, real-estate values often follow.
Post-Brexit housing market BOOM (Express)
The chancellor, during today's Autumn Statement, has pledged £2.3 billion for infrastructure to support 100,000 new homes and £1.4bn to build 40,000 more affordable houses - plus a boost to the Right to Buy scheme.
These Asian Cities Offer the Best Property Bargains of 2017 (Bloomberg)
Not only is India the world's fastest-growing major economy, it may also offer Asia's best real-estate investments next year.
A survey has ranked Bangalore and Mumbai as the region's top picks, vaulting both cities to lead a table of 22 Asian markets.
