Emerging Trends in Real Estate is an annual real estate report published jointly by PwC (Price, Waterhouse and Cooper) and the Urban Land Insitute (ULI).

The report is compiled by inviting real estate watchers and investors from more than 150 countries, including 63 respondents from Canada, to participate in a survey and interviews to identify the trends and forecasts in real estate, including investment and development trends, real estate finance and capital markets, in North America.

Based on responses, the new report, Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2025, shines a light on the City of Calgary as being a rising star in the real estate investment universe.

Uncertainty surrounding Canada’s trade relationship with the United States is expected to cloud economic decision making by businesses and households for months, economists are warning, with the outcome of a looming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) trade deal one of many unknowns.

Though Canada secured a 30-day reprieve from immediate U.S. tariffs on Monday, Bank of Nova Scotia economist Derek Holt is among those who aren’t ready to breathe a sigh of relief.

Holt noted the language used by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said it was his intention to see whether “a final economic deal with Canada can be structured” while tariffs are paused.

Traders of Canadian short-term interest rates have begun to price in meaningful odds of an emergency cut by the Bank of Canada to blunt the economic impact of tariffs the United States said will take effect Tuesday.

While a one-month reprieve for Mexico from U.S. tariffs on Monday led to a partial reversal in anticipation Canada also may avoid them, interest-rate swaps linked to the Canadian overnight repo rate average, or CORRA, sustained steep declines. At the same time, Canada’s two-year yield plummeted, reaching levels nearly 180 basis points lower than its U.S. counterpart, the widest margin since 1997.

In our February 8, 2024, News ReLease, we reported on The Canada Life Assurance Company et al. v Aphria Inc. (“Aphria”). In that case, the tenant wanted out of its lease and purported to “repudiate”, in an attempt to force the landlord to take the (office) space to market. The landlord took the position that it had no obligation to accept the tenant’s repudiation or look for a replacement tenant, and that the tenant was required to pay rent over the balance of the term.

According to one of the most important Court rulings in the field of commercial property leasing (the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1971 decision in Highway Properties Ltd. v Kelly, Douglas and Co. Ltd. (“Highway Properties”)), a landlord has 4 options when its tenant fundamentally breaches a commercial lease. One of those options is to keep the lease alive (or “affirm” the lease) and sue for rent over the balance of the term on the basis that the lease remains in force. The Courts have consistently held that when a landlord elects this option, it has no obligation to mitigate.

Toronto area condos may have lost their once-alluring sheen for prospective homeowners (especially investors), but another segment of the city’s real estate market is still seeing growing demand.

Defying the persistent trend of subdued buying that has swept the region during the last year-plus, an increasing number of townhomes are changing hands, making it the hottest property type on the GTA residential market as of December 2024.

Multiple reports on the state of things say as much, including one from industry data firm Zonda Urban, released on Thursday.

A looming trade war with the United States could be “problematic” for Canada’s housing market, industry experts warn, potentially driving up construction and renovation costs on both sides of the border.

The U.S. and Canada are each other’s top trading partners and exchange homebuilding materials worth billions of dollars each year.

Homebuilders are bracing for the impact of a trade war if U.S. President Donald Trump pulls the trigger on Feb. 1 with a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he supports the “principle of dollar-for-dollar matching tariffs” if Trump follows through on his threat.

Five-year-old Beau starts each day being carried by one of his parents to the family’s living room, where his wheelchair awaits in their Beamsville, Ont., home.

Diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at 17 months old, Beau is unable to walk independently due to the disease, which damages nerves and leads to severe muscle weakness.

Beau’s day-to-day living comes with barriers most would never think about when raising a child, said his mother, Rachel O’Hagan. The doorways in their home aren’t wide enough for a wheelchair to fit through, meaning Beau has to be carried from room to room, including the bathroom.

He can’t access the sink to wash his hands or brush his teeth on his own, nor reach the light switches. As he gets older, O’Hagan said she and her husband Bryce know these challenges will only compound, especially as he gets too heavy for them to lift.

If you want the very best deal on a big bank mortgage, get ready to sign up for more products, whether you like them or not.

Banks want your business, all of it — your chequing account, credit card, investments, creditor life insurance, auto loan. The whole enchilada. And if you don’t give them more than your mortgage, depending on the bank, you don’t get their lowest mortgage rates.

It’s typical for lenders to factor a client’s other business into their mortgage rates. In fact, this so-called ‘relationship pricing’ is as old as banking itself. But some banks (e.g., Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of Nova Scotia) are extra vocal about pushing multi-product commitments.

At CIBC, for example, “If the (mortgage) economics are not constructive, we look for the clients that understand the kind of relationship we want to build with them, and work with them,” said chief executive Victor Dodig at Tuesday’s Royal Bank of Canada Capital Market’s Canadian Bank CEO Conference.