Condominium apartments accounted for 381 units sold—the lowest level for January in 14 years.

Commercial property tax rates climbed and commercial-to-residential tax ratios widened this year in the majority of large Canadian cities Altus Group surveys for its annual benchmark report.

A new report estimates commercial real estate made a $148.4 billion total contribution to Canada’s GDP last year, when factoring its direct, indirect and induced impacts.

Rising interest rates have Canadian commercial real estate players adjusting their expectations about cap rates and internal rates of return.

Food-anchored retail plazas remain a staple on the commercial real estate menu, again emerging as the preferred asset type in Altus Group’s survey of Canadian investment trends in Q2.

Total May new home sales of 2,549 units were down 40 per cent from May 2021 and 26 per cent below the 10-year average.

Assessed values in Ottawa and Toronto will be at least seven years out of date and Winnipeg’s will be nearly five years behind before new assessment cycles begin in those cities.

Condos, including units in low, medium and high-rise buildings, stacked townhouses and loft units, accounted for 2,396 new home sales in May.

Economic fallout from COVID-19 is shifting more of the tax burden to this flourishing group of assets via the mill rate, while also driving up the tax rate, for a double-whammy of consequences in jurisdictions that update valuations annually.

Multi-residential construction costs are rising in Canada due to the pandemic’s impact on everything from labour and material costs to shifting supply and demand dynamics.

An influx of new office supply was always expected to shake up the status quo in the downtown Toronto market given that approximately two-thirds of the 8+ million square feet of space currently under construction is already preleased.

The supply of townhouse land remains scarce. As a key component of the “missing middle,” this land is often prohibitively expensive in urban areas.

The commercial property tax rate is at least double the residential rate in eight of the 11 surveyed cities, with commercial ratepayers in Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City shouldering the most disproportionate shares.

Altus Group's Q3 investment trends survey for the four benchmark asset classes show that the Overall Capitalization Rate (OCR) was little changed at 5.14 per cent.

The bulk of findings in the newly released Altus Group Global Property Development Trends Report are tied to opinions collected in early 2020 before COVID-19’s full hit landed in the world’s commercial real estate markets.

Given the uncertainty of the travel and tourism sector, could converting hotels into affordable apartments serve as an effective solution to the housing crisis?

Pension funds and life insurance companies appeared most anxious to get back into the game, with more than 50 per cent of reporting they were pursuing acquisitions.