Friday 18 December 2015
Monday 14 December 2015
Friday 6 November 2015
Friday 2 October 2015
Interested Read: Surge in Canadian home prices among fastest in the world
I came across this article in the Globe in Mail.
Very interesting read and wanted to share it will everyone of you.
Housing market on rise
Canadian home prices are rising at a rapid-fire pace that is among the fastest in the world.
A quarterly look by Bank of Nova Scotia’s Adrienne Warren shows prices in Canada rose 8.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2015, compared to a year earlier.
Ireland topped the list, at 13.3 per cent, followed by Sweden, at 10.5 per cent. Australia was just a shade above Canada, at 8.3 per cent.
“Canadian home sales and pricing are proving resilient in the face of a more challenging economic environment, buoyed by ultra-low borrowing costs and favourable home buying demographics,” Ms. Warren said in her recent report.
She also warned, however, that “among the more robust housing markets globally, including Canada, Australia, the U.K. and Ireland, stretched affordability could pose an increasing challenge.”
The Canadian cities of Vancouver and Toronto, of course, are well known for high housing costs and fast-rising prices, so much so that the former is seen by some to be suffering an affordability crisis.
“Foreign demand, especially for luxury properties in top-tier cities, will likely remain high, as investors seek geographical and asset diversification,” Ms. Warren said.
“Traditionally popular markets for foreign buyers include the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Canada,” she added.
“Foreign exchange considerations are taking on a bigger role, increasing the attractiveness of properties in countries whose currencies have weakened at the expensive of relatively stronger currency markets in the U.S. and U.K.”
The pickup in the second quarter in Canada compared to a first-quarter annual pace of 6 per cent.
WOW set to launch
An Icelandic low-cost carrier is out to create some turbulence in the Canadian market with plans to offer deep-discount fares on transatlantic flights out of Toronto and Montreal, The Globe and Mail’s Bertrand Marotte reports.
WOW air, founded by entrepreneur Skuli Mogensen, is launching two new routes from Montreal and Toronto to the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, starting at $99 one-way.
The upstart airline is the latest European-based company to offer low-cost fares on long-haul routes across the Atlantic as the continent’s budget carriers extend their territory outside home base.
Chart of the day
Federal elections tend to have little effect on the “underlying trend” in currency movements, Bank of Nova Scotia says, and this one may be no different.
“Our own work suggests that while there has been a fair degree of currency market volatility around the election itself, it is very hard to distinguish moves related to domestic politics from the general trend in the markets,” Scotiabank foreign exchange strategists Shaun Osborne and Eric Theoret said in a recent report.
In terms of the immediate aftermath, the loonie rose in the three weeks after the 2004 Liberal victory and the 2011 win by the Conservatives.
“But these moves reflect the trend in place well before the vote itself,” they said.
“Frequently, a trend in motion before the election stays in motion after it. Prospects for something similar this time around appear strong, we think.”
Thursday 1 October 2015
Wednesday 9 September 2015
Friday 4 September 2015
Great Words: Thank you:)
Thank you for your great words.
Carmen is very responsible realtor. If you need to buy or to
sell your property, call her. Her work style is amazing. Her
approach is flawless. You can trust her.
A. Dynko
Saturday 4 April 2015
New protection for new home buyers
Home buyers can expect higher standards from the residential construction sector thanks to a newly enhanced licensing system.
The BC government is establishing new qualifications and continuing education requirements for residential home builders and renovators, under the Homeowner Protection Act.
Their goal is to protect new homebuyers across BC:
To obtain a new licence, home builders will be required to demonstrate proficiency in seven areas:
* The BC Building Code and other relevant laws and regulations.
* The principles of construction management such as project planning, cost estimating, and project supervision.
* Residential construction and building science including building envelope and mechanical systems such as heating.
* Managing and maintaining positive customer relations including response to defects identified under home warranty.
* Financial planning and budgeting.
* Legal issues, provincial laws and municipal bylaws affecting residential construction.
* Strategic business planning, management and administration.
These qualifications can be met through a combination of education and experience or equivalencies.
Home builders with existing licences will not need to re-qualify under the enhanced licensing system.
To renew their licence, home builders will be required to take continuing professional development courses directly related to residential construction each year.
The enhanced licensing system will be phased in over the next 16 months to give the industry time to prepare for the new requirements.
Did you know?
* There are 6,000+ licensed residential builders in BC.
* In 2014, more than 30,000 new homes were built in BC including 11,695 detached homes and 19,069 home in multi-unit buildings.
For more information Contact:
Carmen Leal
Macdonald Realty Ltd.
www.CarmenLeal.ca
carmen@carmenleal.ca
604.218.4846
Tuesday 3 March 2015
Gastown-The-neighbourhood-at-a-glance
It's ironic that a city famous for its old-fashioned liquor laws owes its origins to an unlicensed saloon. Back in the mid-1800s, New Westminster was the Lower Mainland’s only bustling city while the area now known as Gastown was a sparsely populated neck of the woods called Luck Lucky (or Luk’luk’i, meaning “grove of maple trees”) by the Coast Salish people and populated primarily by a few dozen millworkers.
This all changed in 1867 after a Yorkshireman and former Fraser River steamship captain by the name of John “Gassy Jack” Deighton pulled up in a canoe with a barrel of whiskey and told locals they could drink their fill if they helped build him a pub.
The story goes that the Globe Saloon — located near where a statue of its founder now stands at the corner of Water Street and Carrall — was open for business less than 24 hours later, and a makeshift community soon sprung up around the new watering hole that became known as Gassy’s Town.
(“Gassy,” it should be noted, was a former colloquial term for being talkative, and the hard-drinking Deighton was known for his loquaciousness rather than for gastrointestinal reasons.)
A massive fire burnt the settlement to the ground in 1886 but a new community quickly reappeared due to the arrival of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway on the nearby waterfront the same year.
The actual boundaries of Vancouver’s earliest neighbourhood aren’t strictly defined but are generally considered to stretch eastward from Richards Street between Water and Hastings streets as far as Main Street.
Gastown eventually fell on hard times after becoming overshadowed by the downtown area and was set to be demolished back in the ‘70s until a group of citizens successfully lobbied the city for a heritage preservation order.
A dedicated effort to clean up the area has since pushed the grittier elements to the Downtown Eastside.
While some decry the gentrification of the city’s historic district, whose cobblestone streets and antique street lamps provide a one-of-a-kind ambience, others take pride in the area’s recent emergence as both a tourist attraction and hotspot for upscale businesses and restaurants.
Yours,
Carmen Leal
Macdonald Realty Ltd.
www.CarmenLeal.ca
604-218-4846
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