Our weekly round-up of real estate news in Toronto, across Canada and the world for the week ending December 9, 2016.
TORONTO
'Danger Report': Real estate pros fret court could break lock on secret sales data (CBC)
There's little doubt Canada's real estate industry feels under siege these days.
Just check out the recent Danger Report commissioned by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), which analyzes "negative game changers emerging in real estate."
This Toronto neighbourhood has seen the biggest spike in house prices over the past 15 years (BlogTO)
Pretty much everyone who resides in Toronto has some sense of the manner in which the value of real estate has increased over the last couple of decades, but I wonder how many of us know just how dramatic the spike has been in some neighbourhoods. A recent report from listings website Wishpad collects 15 years of real estate data to highlight a number of trends, including the area in which prices have appreciated the most.
CANADA
Vancouver real estate assessments continue to soar (Globe and Mail)
Real estate assessments for single-family detached houses in the Vancouver region soared 30 to 50 per cent in value over only a one-year period, underscoring the frenzied state of the market in mid-2016.
While property values have risen steadily over the past 16 years, the latest increase from July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2016, is the sharpest for any one-year valuation period in the Vancouver area in recent memory, said Jason Grant, an assessor with BC Assessment.
Bill Gross says Canada's housing market is growing ‘more tenuous’ (BNN)
Legendary bond fund manager Bill Gross is warning the state of the Canadian housing market has weakened in recent years, but says the domestic market isn’t headed to a U.S.-style housing crash.
In an interview on BNN, Gross said housing market stability has deteriorated over the course of the last decade, as prices in Vancouver and Toronto skyrocketed.
Foreign investors continue to gobble up Canadian commercial real estate: report (Financial Post)
Investment in Canadian commercial real estate in the third quarter reached almost $11.2 billion, setting a record for any 90-day period and marking the second consecutive quarter for a new high, according to a report out Monday.
CBRE Canada said foreign capital continues to be a driver of the market with $3 billion coming in from abroad to buy commercial property in the third quarter — 90 per cent of the amount directed at hotels.
USA
Forget the pool — this is Trump Tower's hottest new condo amenity (USA Today)
There are lots of perks if you live in Trump Tower. But the biggest amenity, at least according to a real estate agency trying to sell a condo there, is the built-in security of the Secret Service.
“Fifth Avenue Buyers Interested in Secret Service Protection?” reads an email from real estate agency Douglas Elliman, according to Politico. "The New Aminity [sic] — The United States Secret Service.”
Buffalo (yes, Buffalo) ranks among America’s 10 hottest real-estate markets (The Business Journals)
Home prices are rising with impressive vigor across much of the South — especially Texas — as well as in pockets of the West and the industrial Northeast.
And Buffalo is prominent in that group, ranking ninth in America for the growth in local real-estate values since 2006.
Miami's Luxury Real Estate Battles the Rising Tide (Bloomberg)
Miami's luxury real estate developers are looking for solutions to the problem of increased flooding from rising sea levels as they see a recent decrease of sales in the City's luxury market.
INTERNATIONAL
Asian Investors Shift to Seattle As a New Vancouver Tax Takes Effect (Fortune)
The 15 per cent levy on foreign property purchases was meant to cool rising costs.
More and more Chinese and other Asian investors appear to be moving their money to markets in Seattle and Toronto, after a new tax on foreign property investment was announced in Vancouver — which in the past has been a prime destination for overseas buyers.
The greening of Bangkok's commercial real estate (Bangkok Post)
In 2010, PTT and the Ministry of Energy moved into The Energy Complex, a brand new state-of-the-art 300,000-square-metre office complex. The structure was Bangkok's first new LEED-certified green building, achieving the top-level Platinum certification.
In the six years since, the number of new LEED-certified office buildings in Bangkok has risen to ten, while dozens of other projects, including existing building retrofits, new office and retail shop interiors, and industrial properties have also received LEED certification.
Global real estate investment sees a new high (Global Times)
The 3rd Real Estate Globalization and Overseas Investment Summit themed Investment Innovation and Global Triumph took place in Beijing on December 2. Chinese real estate investors gathered to discuss the growing opportunities in overseas property investment.
In the first half of 2016, China's merger and acquisition volume reached $135.3 billion, exceeding the full-year total in any previous year, according to a Forbes report on July 14.
