Toronto
Toronto man will only sell his condo for Bitcoin and here's why (CBC)
When most people hear the word Bitcoin, they think zero regulation and unpredictability, basically the Wild West of currency. But not businessman Derryn Shrosbree.
"I'm an ex-derivative trader from Wall Street, so I don't mind volatility that much," said Shrosbree. "I believe in cryptocurrency… I think it's the future."
Toronto’s housing supply challenge and the growth plan paradox (The Globe And Mail)
Toronto, Canada's largest city and one of the world's hottest property markets, has a supply problem and the nation's housing agency admits it is not quite sure why soaring prices have not spurred more construction.
New homes replace demolished ones at a sharply lower rate than early this decade, completion times for multi-family projects have doubled and prospective buyers have far fewer new homes to choose from than only a few years ago.
City looks to rename homeless services, ‘shelter’ to be phased out (Breakfast Television)
City hall is looking to change the language around homeless shelters by doing away with the word “shelter” altogether.
The move is part of a wider plan launched last April to rethink the way emergency shelters operate. Part of that plan looks to change public attitudes, or NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard), around adding shelters to communities.
Toronto to sell off almost 800 TCHC-owned buildings (Globe and Mail)
Toronto city council is looking to sell almost 800 residential homes and rooming houses owned by Toronto Community Housing Corp. to buyers who will keep the units as affordable housing.
While the Rob Ford administration pushed hard to sell these dwellings in 2011 to private investors for an estimated $336-million windfall, this latest move aims to shift the ownership of the city's "scattered housing" stock to non-profit housing co-ops, community land trusts and non-profit housing agencies.
Oxford reveals plan for 60-storey The HUB in Toronto (Real Estate News Exchange)
Oxford Properties has released the first details of its plans for its prime 30 Bay St. property in downtown Toronto. The HUB is proposed as a 1.4 million-square-foot office tower up to 60 storeys high.
U.K.-based architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners was chosen by Oxford to design the striking new structure. It is named after the tower’s proximity to the Toronto Harbour, the Union Station transportation hub and Bay Street
Canada
Hong Kong’s Aoyuan has big plans in Vancouver, Toronto (Real Estate News Exchange)
Hong Kong’s Aoyuan Property Group went international for the first time with a development in Sydney, Australia in 2015. Now it has projects planned for Vancouver and Toronto.
“It seemed like a logical extension from the market in Sydney, that’s very similar in a lot of ways,” said Aoyuan Property Holdings (Canada) Ltd. Eastern Canada deputy general manager Fan Yang. “They’re very stable and secure markets, with potential for growth.”
Evidence of mortgage fraud in Canada raises red flag at credit rating giant (Financial Post)
Evidence of mortgage fraud amid surging home prices and household debt has prompted S&P Global Ratings to lower a key risk metric for Canadian banks.
The credit ratings agency dropped its economic risk assessment by one notch due to evidence of residential-mortgage fraud at smaller Canadian banks, which could compound existing risks from the country’s hot housing market, according to a statement Friday. S&P lowered the Canadian banks’ economic risk level to 3 out of 10, with a higher number representing great risk, revising the trend to stable. That puts Canada in line with the U.S., but lower than the U.K. and Australia.
Shortage of industrial real estate is pushing companies out of Vancouver (Financial Post)
As e-retailers clamour for space to warehouse their goods, a lack of available industrial space in Vancouver is beginning to push businesses and jobs into other provinces, analysts say.
Demand is currently outpacing supply in the west coast city by more than a million square feet a month despite a raft of speculative construction.
USA
This Week in Celebrity Homes: Lindsey Vonn, Adam Levine (Wall Street Journal)
Take a video tour of the recent real estate deals from celebrity sellers
U.S. new home sales hit 5-month low; supply highest since 2009 (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell for a second straight month in January, weighed down by steep declines in the Northeast and South, which could raise concerns the housing market is losing momentum.
The weak report from the Commerce Department on Monday followed data last week that showed sales of previously owned homes dropped for a second consecutive month in January amid near-record low inventory. It also added to soft January retail and industrial production data in suggesting economic growth slowed at the start of the year.
America's richest people buy homes in 'power markets' — here are the 17 most expensive and exclusive places (Business Insider)
Location is paramount when money is no object, whether a home is steps from the beach, tucked in the mountains, or in the heart of a city.
The world's richest people own $2.7 trillion worth of real estate, according to Wealth-X, and they flock to many of the same cities to buy property.
In a new report on luxury real estate by Coldwell Banker, these places are called "power markets," where the "wealthiest and most powerful players" tend to own homes.
