Evan Dunfee won an Olympic bronze medal in the 50-kilometre racewalk last summer in Tokyo. This fall, the 32-year-old is running for city council in his hometown of Richmond, the fourth largest municipality in Metro Vancouver.

A top election priority is getting more housing built in a city that, like much of Canada, is a sea of low-density, detached homes. With housing a hot political issue, there’s been a tendency for politicians to promise the easy and vague – which usually involves pledging to get lots of new homes built, without specifying how.

Mr. Dunfee is getting more specific, as are some other candidates in municipal elections this month in British Columbia and Ontario. He’s talking about the mechanics of how. Among his specific ideas are loosening rules around minimum lot sizes to allow more homes on less land, ditching parking minimums and allowing townhomes to be built in older neighbourhoods.

What is currently an underutilized parking lot could soon be the site of over 250 new homes, just steps from many of Toronto’s marquee downtown attractions.

An application for a Site Plan Approval and Zoning Bylaw has been put forth to the city for a new mixed-use development at 237 Victoria Street. Developed by Spire Properties and designed by IBI Group, the 24-storey tower will include a total of 256 residential units, as well as 416 sq. m of at-grade retail. 

Sitting atop a six-storey podium, it’ll reach an overall height of 79 m including the mechanical penthouse, on a relatively slender floorplate of 741 sq. m, with an overall combined Gross Floor Area of 17,826 m, 17,410 sq. m of which will be residential. 

Real estate developers have resumed promoting high-end properties to investors and homebuyers in the US, UAE, the UK and Southeast Asia as they start witnessing traction in these markets, partly driven by a depreciating rupee.

According to a recent industry report, NRI investments in Indian real estate may rise to $14.9 billion in FY22.

The housing supply situation in Canada, Ontario, and the GTA has hit a new low. Inventory levels in many major markets are dwindling and home ownership appears to be on the decline.

Figures in a couple of reports released recently paint a relatively gloomy picture for those seeking a home. The findings also suggest that many have given up on owning a home and are moving to rentals.

A report by Re/Max which was based on Canadian Real Estate Association data looked at listings in eight Canadian centres between 2013 and 2022 and found that seven of them fell short of the 10-year average. In the GTA, the housing inventory was down almost seven per cent from the 10-year average.

The situation is only expected to get worse due to projected demographics and population growth.

Calgary property sales cooled in September by nearly 12 per cent when compared with last year, but the market for more affordable housing options is making gains, the Calgary Real Estate Board said Monday.

Demand for detached housing slowed for the sixth month in a row, CREB said in a report on September’s sales, and the decline is being attributed to a narrowing segment of the market: homes priced around $500,000.

A “significant” reduction in supply has left few options for potential purchasers, while condos and row houses have seen increased sales activity, CREB said.

Calgary presents an interesting case in the world of Canadian real estate, as the market in the city has seemed to follow its own course for many years. Now, as the rest of Canada corrects heavily amid rising interest rates, Calgary is holding much better than other markets, and the city that already presents great appeal to investors is starting to look even more appealing, especially in the multifamily sector.

To find out more about new opportunities in Calgary multifamily real estate, we spoke to Natasha Phipps, an investor, agent and founder of  Phipps Real Estate Group at CIR Realty. Phipps is also one of CREW’s top investor agents for the city of Calgary.

According to Phipps, the market in the downtown core of Calgary was previously suppressed, first by the recession the city experienced in 2015, and later by the COVID pandemic that caused many to move towards the suburbs. Despite this, downtown Calgary is now making its comeback, and savvy investors may find great opportunities here.

Ontario’s astronomical cost of living has residents fleeing by the tens of thousands. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows interprovincial migration soar in Q2 2022. Ontario’s talent is fleeing to more affordable regions like Alberta and Nova Scotia. It’s so bad, a Big Six bank warned investors that immigration is having a harder time filling the gap. Ontario has never seen people leave at this scale, as the province fails to compete for young adults.

Housing prices have continued on their downward plunge amid Bank of Canada interest rate hikes and fears over a potential looming recession, but the effect isn’t being felt evenly across the country.

The latest numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show that the average price of a home in Canada was $637,673 in August 2022, down 3.9 per cent from the same month last year.

But according to the CREA’s Home Price Index, some regions have only recorded small dips, if at all, while home prices in others are in complete free-fall.

he Calgary Real Estate Board says August’s benchmark price for a home in the city rose by 11 per cent since last year, while the number of sales was almost unchanged in the same period.

The Albertan board says last month’s benchmark price across all housing types totalled $531,800 with detached homes averaging $633,000, semi-detached properties coming in at $569,300 and apartments reaching $277,700.

August’s sales amounted to 2,136, a 0.5 per cent fall from the same time the year before.

Detached home sales saw the greatest fall, dropping 18 per cent since last year, though semi-detached properties only decreased by three per cent.

Apartment sales rose by 58 per cent.

Words matter. And real estate is no exception — especially in conversations with investors.

According to a new year-long study titled, Building Opportunities: The Compelling Language of Real Estate Investment Trusts from global investment management firm Invesco Ltd. and research-driven language strategy firm Maslansky + Partners, language can complicate real estate deals. 

The study found that many commonplace words and phrases used in today’s real estate conversations fall may short when used in discussions with investors. One reason why may be that, while most financial professionals understand the importance of including potential benefits in communications with clients, many do not know how to articulate them using words that fully resonate with investors (or the rest of us, for that matter).