Our weekly roundup of real estate news from Toronto, Canada, the U.S., and around the world ending Nov. 3, 2017.
Toronto
How Toronto’s housing costs are hampering the city’s ability to attract talent (The Toronto Star)
They are the young professionals the Toronto region covets — highly educated and already earning good incomes in their 20s and 30s.
They are also the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to the region's challenging housing market. If they can't afford to live here, who can?
New mortgage rules expected to heat up Toronto housing before winter chill (BNN)
The sales slump in Toronto real estate is persisting into the fall, but average annual prices across the region are holding up thanks to double-digit price gains in the condo sector.
While the industry hoped for, and failed to see, a surge of back-to-school homebuyers, the further tightening of mortgage rules could add some temporary autumn heat.
Condo renters need more protection from scammers: NDP (Breakfast Television)
Some in Queens Park are calling for more protection for prospective renters against fraud as the average cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment recently topped $2,000 a month in Toronto.
This comes after at least two dozen people, mostly international students, came forward to CityNews, claiming they paid thousands of dollars in rent to a man to rent a suite he did not own.
Canada
Foreign buyers appear to be inching back into Vancouver’s housing market (Financial Post)
VICTORIA — The latest property transfer data released by the British Columbia government shows the percentage of sales involving foreign nationals in Metro Vancouver inched up between April and September.
The data shows five per cent of the 6,105 property transfers in September involved foreign nationals, up from 2.5 per cent in April.
Zillow looking to add Canadian real estate listings (The Toronto Star)
U.S. online real estate giant Zillow hopes to feature Canadian property listings on its site early in the New Year, although it says it has no plans to build a Canadian site.
Zillow spokesperson Emily Heffter confirmed the timing reported by industry publication Real Estate Magazine this week.
The Gap Between Canadian Real Estate Prices and Homeowner Expectations Is Shrinking (Better Dwelling)
If you ask a person how much their stuff is worth, they’ll almost always overestimate the value. The Canadian Census asks homeowners how much they believe their homes are worth. As you might have guessed, the self-estimates are a little higher than they were selling for at the time. This likely contributed to the meteoric climb many markets made.
Interesting enough, these expectations have tapered from 2011.
USA
What Manafort's Indictment Reveals About His New York City Real Estate Deals (NPR)
Special Counsel Robert Mueller unveiled a 12-count indictment against Paul Manafort that includes allegations of money laundering in the course of his work in Ukraine. Manafort has pleaded not guilty. In 2016, Manafort served as Donald Trump's campaign chairman.
In March, WNYC reported on three unusual real estate deals by Manafort in New York City.
Hackers prey on home buyers, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake (The Washington Post)
In this year of horrendous cyberheists — Equifax the most prominent — you’ve probably taken at least a few precautions: changed passwords, stopped opening files and links from unknown senders, upgraded your computer security measures, maybe put a freeze on your credit reports.
But if you’re buying a house and heading to settlement, you still may be far more vulnerable than you think to the fastest-growing form of real estate cybercrime in the United States: thefts of home-purchase money wired to complete closing transactions.
International
Rise of real estate tycoons: Billionaires keep bubbling up in China's soaring property market (Financial Post)
HONG KONG/SHANGHAI — Nowhere on Earth is wealth being created faster than in China’s mainland property market.
The collective net worth of the country’s richest developers has rocketed upward since the start of the year, adding US$44.3 billion to the fortunes of seven real estate tycoons. As China’s regulators move to tame a frenzied property market, investors are betting that the largest companies will squeeze out smaller competitors and extend their dominance in a consolidating industry.
CVEA to join international conference in Chicago (Khmer Times)
The 28 members of the Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association (CVEA) from across 14 local real estate companies will participate in the REALTORS® Conference & Expo in Chicago this week.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is America’s largest trading association and holds the REALTORS® Conference & Expo annually. The four-day event will take place from Friday to Monday, attracting 20,000 real estate professionals from 60 countries.
Real-estate agency Harcourts launched its own App store (Business Report)
CAPE TOWN - Harcourts International, recognised in the real estate industry for game-changing mobile technology, has launched the Harcourts App Store.
Built with Apple’s iOS (operating system), the store is an enterprise application through which Harcourt's team members can access, download, update and install its proprietary mobile applications eOne, eOpen and eCampaign.
