Barbara Carss
Canadian Property Management
Tech finds highly competitive options in Canada
Eight Canadian cities rank among the top 50 North American markets for fostering tech employment, with Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Waterloo Region and Calgary all placed in the top half of the list.
Canadian Property Management
Human capital elusive for real estate employers
Employers are pressed to fill new kinds of positions and to bolster tech savviness throughout their organizations, while facing labour shortages and a highly competitive market for certain skills.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Office conversion prospects judged challenging
Viable conversion candidates must begin with a basic structural prerequisite, but construction costs, location, surrounding amenities and assumptions about future office values all influence the business case.
Canadian Property Management
Range of CRE stakeholders demand ESG metrics
Canada’s leading commercial real estate players are increasingly turning to ESG metrics to track responsiveness to a range of emerging risks and business imperatives.
Canadian Property Management
Trophy office towers widening gap from the pack
Trophy office towers could be anchored atop the market for the long term as the past decade’s wave of new building subsides and little further development is anticipated.
Canadian Property Management
Office building values still trending downward
Appraisers generally expect office building values to keep slipping over the course of 2023 as a range of factors undermine cash flow, push up cap rates and make investors skittish.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Multifamily asset values hold steady
Multifamily asset values appear to be holding steady, but transaction volume plummeted in the first quarter of 2023.
CondoBusiness
Ontario awaits patchy debut of discount power
Most condominium corporations and rental housing landlords will need to make capital investments in energy storage to realize the benefits of Ontario's ultra-low overnight electricity rate.
Canadian Property Management
Sustainable finance products forge way to 2050
Sustainable finance products, are expected to increasingly come into play as building owners/managers pursue decarbonization and look to bolster the climate resiliency of their properties.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Cooling deemed key amenity for Ontario renters
Conceptually, the proposed rules establish air conditioning as a protected option that tenants cannot be prevented from obtaining rather than an essential that landlords would be compelled to supply.
Canadian Property Management
REITs unexpectedly tapped for new tax measure
Advocates for the Canadian commercial real estate industry are asking the federal finance department to clarify why real estate investment trusts have been included in a pending new tax measure.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Multifamily remains favoured investment asset
Industry analysts cite Canada’s demographic trends and seemingly chronic housing supply-demand imbalance as fundamentals that should drive robust returns on new purpose-built rental projects.
Canadian Property Management
Department store drain continues
Nordstrom Canada’s sudden swoosh into the department store drain will leave empty anchor space in some of the country’s top-performing and most prestigious regional malls.
Canadian Property Management
Dim future for fluorescents and metal halides
Fluorescents and metal halides will be further marginalized in the lighting market with pending amendments to Canada’s regulations governing products containing mercury.
Canadian Facility Management & Design
Accessible public bathrooms show bad form
Low-cost investments and practical adjustments to the configuration of fixtures could improve safety, convenience and assurance for people with disabilities.
Canadian Property Management
New oversight regime set for Ontario elevators
A new oversight regime for Ontario’s elevators and escalators will come into force on March 1, bringing shorter timelines for rectifying an extensive list of designated high-risk deficiencies.
Canadian Property Management
CRE’s professional profile hinges on retention
An uptick in women and people of colour in the junior and mid-level ranks of commercial real estate belies the leakage of underrepresented groups higher on the career ladder.
