Our weekly round-up of real estate news in Toronto, across Canada and the world for the week ending March 10, 2017.
Toronto
41% of Chinese buyers say they want Toronto real estate for schooling: study (CBC)
The top reason why foreign buyers from China want to get into the Canadian housing market is education, not investment, according to data from a popular global real estate listings website.
Figures released Tuesday by the Chinese website Juwai.com in partnership with Sotheby's International Realty Canada found that schooling was the primary motivation for potential Chinese homebuyers who viewed property listings in major Canadian cities in 2016.
Canadian new home prices rise in January, lifted by Toronto market (The Globe and Mail)
Canadian new home prices edged up at the start of the year, driven again by higher prices in the hot Toronto market, data from Statistics Canada showed on Thursday.
Prices rose 0.1 per cent in January, keeping pace with December’s increase. On a year-over-year basis, prices climbed 3.1 per cent. The new housing price index excludes apartments and condominiums, which account for about one-third of new housing.
Toronto’s real estate market is hotter than New York’s right now (blogTO)
In today's daily dose of news about the red hot Toronto real estate market, a wide-ranging feature from Bloomberg reveals that Toronto's well outpacing some of the strongest US markets when it comes to rising prices.
Low supply drives February price jump in Toronto real estate market (The Globe and Mail)
A year ago, real estate agent Christopher Bibby was turning down listings because he thought the sellers had unreasonable expectations for how much a buyer might be willing to pay. This week, he’s calling them back.
“I’m telling them what they wanted a year ago is now possible – and more.”
Canada
Housing starts, permits rise again as Canadian market stays hot (The Globe and Mail)
Canadian housing starts inched higher in February from the previous month, and building permits rose in January as the long housing boom continued to defy expectations of a slowdown, separate reports showed on Wednesday.
Groundbreaking on new homes climbed to seasonally adjusted annual pace of 210,207 units from an upwardly revised 208,934 in January as robust activity in Ontario offset cooling in British Columbia, data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp showed.
Canada’s red hot real estate heats up apartment market to heights not seen in 30 years (Financial Post)
How hot is the residential housing market? Well, for the first time in decades, developers are considering building rental housing because they can actually make money — buoyed by consumers priced out of becoming homeowners.
Here's the home $1M will get you here and across the country (Calgary Herald)
A report released by a Canadian real estate company says purchasers looking for $1 million two-storey properties in Calgary get about the same value they did 10 years ago.
In January 2017, the average property selling for $1 million in Calgary had 3.3 bedrooms, 2.8 bathrooms, 2,477 sq. ft. of living area and a lot size of 7,004 sq. ft.
USA
U.S. stocks down for third day as utilities, real estate slump (Bloomberg)
U.S. equities reversed early gains to end lower Wednesday after ADP data showed companies added the most workers in almost three years to payrolls last month and financial stocks pared an early advance.
The S&P 500 Index lost 0.2 percent to 2,362.98 as of 4 p.m. in New York for the third consecutive loss in as many days. That’s the longest losing streak in more than a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.3 percent to 20,855.73.
Commute facilities to lure Indore home buyers in Super Corridor (ET Realty)
INDORE: To lure prospective buyers for upcoming residential projects in Super Corridor area, plans by realtors to offer free transportation from the residential area to the main city are underway. Upcoming townships will have shopping complexes and food zones.
Targeted mostly at youngsters employed in leading IT firms in the country, real estate developers are coming up with projects on the concept of metro cities with modern amenities.
Chinese property investors could exit U.S. as Asia beckons (Bloomberg)
Chinese real-estate investors are losing interest in the U.S. as their concern over yuan depreciation eases and questions swirl around President Donald Trump's stance on protectionism.
That's the view of Andrew Haskins, executive director of Asia research and advisory services at Colliers International, who expects Chinese capital to return to Asia as investors pull out of America.
International
London house prices fall even as overall UK values stabilize (The National)
British house price growth remained stable in February but prices fell again in London, taking the capital’s losing streak to a full year, a monthly survey of property valuers showed on Thursday.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said its house price balance held at plus 24, matching a revised balance for February, slightly higher than a forecast of plus 23 in a Reuters poll of economists.
Australia holds rates as Sydney housing poses stability risk (The Business Times)
[SYDNEY] Australia kept interest rates unchanged Tuesday as risks from Sydney's soaring property prices outweighed subdued inflation.
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe and his board left the cash rate at 1.5 per cent following strong growth and trade performances in the final three months of last year. The decision was expected by all 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
China’s second-tier cities next in line for property boom, says Shanghai developer CIFI (South China Morning Post)
China’s housing boom is shifting from its biggest cities such as Beijing and Shanghai to provincial capitals, said Shanghai property developer CIFI holdings after the company posted a 28 per cent growth in 2016 full year net core profit.
First-tier cities are gradually transforming into markets dominated by leasing activities from developing and selling because property prices are already too high and new land supply is very limited, Lin Zhong, CIFI’s chairman, said during an annual results briefing in Hong Kong.
