RateSpy says mortgage stress test might be more lenient

Ephraim Vecina
Mortgage Broker News

Canada’s mortgage stress test might become a bit more lenient as early as this week, RateSpy.com predicted.

The forecast came in the wake of the Bank of Montreal deciding to cut its five-year rate to 4.94%. This move might be a decisive factor in the minimum stress test rate falling to around 4.99%, RateSpy said.

“It’ll mark the first time since January 2018 (when OSFI’s stress test began) that this benchmark rate has been under 5%. And, if one more bank matches BMO’s and RBC’s 4.94%, it could drop another 5 basis points,” RateSpy said in its analysis last week.

Even such a seemingly minute decline will prove valuable to the average Canadian household.

“If it does go to 4.99%, a household making $100,000 a year with 5% down and no other debt can afford about a $2,000 bigger mortgage, versus today,” RateSpy said.

However, in a recent report, Deloitte Chief Economist Craig Alexander said that risks to Canadian finances will remain pronounced even after the outbreak has eased.

“One of the great legacies of the current crisis is that after the pandemic has passed, we’re going to have more indebted households,” Alexander said. “So I think the issue around leverage isn’t going to go away; in fact, I think it will become more acute.”

Copyright © 2020 Key Media

Post-COVID-19 could bring about some changes

Paul Danison
REM

How long has it been since we began hearing these words every day: COVID-19, coronavirus, pandemic? How long before we try to forget them?

Who knows – it could be awhile. But the new words will probably change us – change the way we live, play and work, and will possibly bring a more massive digital transformation closer to home sooner than predicted.

Take housing, renting, and all that’s associated with the search, the transactions and the move. Post-COVID-19 could bring about some changes to enhance the process, making it more efficient, easier and maybe even more enjoyable.

People are searching for rentals again, says Matt Danison, CEO of Rentals.ca. “Rentals.ca has experienced its all-time high in traffic numbers in the first week of May, surging 59 per cent compared to the first week of April,” he says. “Renters who put off moving when the pandemic hit are now starting to resume their apartment search in the hopes that Canada’s lockdown will end in the coming weeks.”

Guy Tsror, data scientist at Local Logic in Montreal, agrees.

“At its worst point since COVID-19, the rental market lost 27 per cent of user search traffic across Canada,” he says. “But since that low point in mid-March, the market has rebounded with the search traffic for the last two weeks of April exceeding the last two weeks of January.

“People still need homes, and we see that the initial shock of COVID-19 has subsided, and consumers are back out there looking for homes online.”

Local Logic looked at how users interact with its proprietary Location Scores to understand what matters to renters now, compared to pre-pandemic days.

Unsurprisingly, people in Canada looking to rent care about proximity to grocery stores much more than before the outbreak – 13.5 per cent increase compared to January averages.

The graphic shows renters care much less about public transit (a 14-per-cent drop), and they are much more interested now in cycling (a 17.3-per-cent increase).

“Since COVID-19, renters’ lifestyle demands have changed and have not rebounded to pre-COVID times; we see renters are looking to live in more cycling- and pedestrian-friendly areas, with better access to groceries and better access to schools,” says Vincent-Charles Hodder, CEO of Local Logic. “Conversely, renters care less about being close to quality retail shopping, public transit, daycare and quiet neighbourhoods.

“Only time will tell if this is a permanent change in lifestyle demand or if this will begin returning to normal as non-essential businesses reopen and consumer confidence returns.”

Rentals.ca put together seven predictions – digital and otherwise – that might stick long after the coronavirus is gone to reshape the housing/rental market.

1) More landlords and renters will embrace online virtual leasing, 3-D and virtual tours.

It’s not like 3-D and virtual tours are something new; they just have not been commonly used. More tenants will begin paying rent digitally than ever before.

2) Some short-term rentals in urban areas will convert to long-term rentals.

The longer short-term rentals in the larger cities remain vacant, the sooner their owners could put them back into long-term rental stock. Or, they might have to put the units on the market if they can’t afford the mortgages. This could give renters more options, help open up supply a little in cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax with tight vacancy rates, and might even help to lower rents. But the biggest short-term problem for short-term rentals are new laws prohibiting them in some jurisdictions.

3) Cleaning will take on a whole new meaning in apartment buildings.

Cleaning will become a bigger industry with stricter rules or guidelines on how to clean, what to use and how to stay safe while cleaning. Janitors and cleaners already wear gloves, but now they will probably don masks, coveralls that are washed every night and use spray bottles of disinfectants known to kill the coronavirus. The rags, brushes and equipment used to clean will need to be cleaned and disinfected or trashed.

Cleaners might be trained better for the coronavirus, and they could get a temperature check before coming to work each day. This will become a more expensive task for landlords and property managers.

4) More claims will flood tenant/landlord boards.

The renting landscape in the shadow of COVID-19 is confusing and chaotic and things could get worse unless cooler heads prevail.

Rent strikes were planned for April and May, evictions are banned, rent hikes are frozen, job losses are mounting, government assistance is on the way – soon they say.

Once the coronavirus war ends, the landlord/tenant war could escalate and play out in tenant/landlord board hearings and maybe even in more litigation. Tenant/landlord tribunals are already overloaded and backlogged; this could get worse post-COVID-19.

5) People will not move as much in the short term but expect a spike in the recovery.

When the worst is over, moving vans will start rolling again as optimism gets us moving again. Most moves will only be delayed during this bleak time. While more renters will be on the move, count on fewer homeowners making a move.

6) Rents could fall in the short term, and affordable housing will be even harder to find.

Imagine if you can, Toronto and Vancouver with a healthy three per cent vacancy rate, and rents falling by the end of the year rather than rising. A few months ago that would have been laughable. But because of COVID-19, Canada will have less immigration, fewer international students and with the border closed, not nearly as many seasonal and part-time workers. All typically are renters.

And, because of No. 2 above, some-short rentals will be converted to add to the rental supply.

So, with fewer renters and more supply, rents could slide down overall this year, but the higher end of the rental market advertised as luxury rentals could be more affected.

“With the record number of layoffs, there will be more demand than ever for affordable housing,” says Danison. Also, in some areas, building affordable housing has slowed or even been halted for a while.

7) Coworking spaces in apartment complexes could become the hottest new amenity.

Working remotely is not new. Many in the gig economy know nothing of office politics. And, coworking spaces were becoming popular in new apartment complexes before COVID-19 hit.

A few other trends to consider post-COVID-19:

• A new way of living for seniors. Senior housing, buildings and units could be redesigned with new protocols on how to better protect them. More seniors die from this virus than any other age group, so a lot of thought will be given to how to protect them. This will be an evolving, creative process of how we protect the older among us.
• The dream of buying becomes more of a dream. The nightmare of COVID-19 could extend the trend of renters staying renters longer.
• With vastly increased food delivery, will apartments have a designated area for the exchange of food and goods between delivery services and tenants? Not a bad idea.
• Will international students be caught in a pickle of looming deadlines to leave their residences and the dwindling number of international flights? What will they do, caught in between school and going home?

One last point: Character, creativity and community are often developed out of adversity. Think back to the 2008 “Great” recession or even to 1929 Great Depression.

Entrepreneurs and creative companies will come together with innovative solutions to the housing crisis stemming from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Count on it.

© 1989-2020 REM Real Estate Magazine

According to Canada’s latest census, 67.8% of Canadians own their own homes

AJ Hazzi
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

According to Canada’s latest census, 67.8% of Canadians own their own homes. If you’ve worked hard enough to count yourself amongst Canada’s homeowners, congratulations – you now own one of the most desirable assets in the world. 

As we approach the end of this decade, interest rates are all all-time lows, and the US Federal Reserve and the People’s Bank of China are racing to out-print one other to avoid a cataclysmic debt default. This means the era of ‘easy money’ is not quite over. In an easy-money economy, hard assets like commodities, precious metals and property become increasingly valuable.

With major equities trading at all-time highs, corporate earnings in decline and Trump’s trade shenanigans ongoing, it’s never been riskier to enter traditional financial markets. While I’m sure your financial advisor would love it if you bought more commission-generating stocks, I’d like to present a strategy that can better capitalize on the low-interest era and generate passive investment returns through your golden years.

The equity optimization manoeuvre If your home is valued around $1 million and you’ve paid off at least half of that, you’re now sitting on a $500,000 home equity nest egg.  Now is a good time to put your biggest asset to work. To illustrate, here’s a real-life case study about a couple from BC’s Lower Mainland, Gordon and Cathy, who realized their dream of retiring comfortably in the Okanagan using just $500,000 in home equity.

Gordon and Cathy own a Coquitlam property valued at $1.2 million with $300,000 left on their mortgage. Since their kids moved out, Gordon and Cathy no longer need a 3,000-square-foot house on a quarter-acre property – and they’ve always had their minds set on retiring in the Okanagan.

They found a beautiful new 1,800-square-foot townhouse in vibrant South Pandosy Village with an asking price of $750,000. Using the $1.2 million sale proceeds from their Coquitlam home, they paid off their remaining $300,000 mortgage balance and moved to Kelowna, flush with $900,000 in cash. By negotiating a cash discount on their new townhome, they took possession with $200,000 in cash left in the bank.

So far, so good: They made it to the Okanagan debt-free. There was just one problem: Their monthly cash flow was inadequate to live the lifestyle of their dreams. Owning their own home felt nice, but they were left wondering if there was a better way forward. Cathy and Gordon happened to read an article of mine and contacted me for some advice. We sat down together to map out their options.  

The plan The first step was to unlock the huge chunk of equity tied up inside their largest asset, their home.  Owning your own home is great, but it produces zero cash flow. In fact, homeownership costs you money in property taxes, home insurance and upkeep. 

Gordon and Cathy were a little old-school; they didn’t like the idea of using leverage, but eventually decided that investing a piece of their home equity in high-yield instruments made good financial sense.  This way, they would still own their home and benefit from an appreciating housing market while being free to make cash-producing investments.

Given the Okanagan’s growing population, low mortgage rates and the strength of the local housing market, they decided to buy an investment property in Kelowna.

The problem Gordon and Cathy were no longer working, which means they couldn’t qualify for a new mortgage or a bank line of credit. Was this a dead end?

Hardly. I introduced them to a lending product through the chartered HomeEquity Bank that was created specifically for Canadians looking to improve their lives in retirement. The CHIP program lets Canadians access up to 55% of their home equity without paying any monthly payments – you read that correctly – until the property is either sold or passed on through the estate. 

They qualified instantly for a $250,000 loan at a deferred 5% interest rate, which they used to purchase an income-generating property in Kelowna. These were the three options I mapped out for them:

1. A vacation property. The couple set their sights on a short-term rental property for $375,000 at Playa Del Sol, just down the road from their Pandosy townhome. They bought the property with 65% down using the $250,000 loan. Net of expenses and management fees, their vacation property generated more than $30,000 in cash per year.

A side benefit of owning this vacation property is that they can list it for rent on HomeExchange.com in the shoulder seasons of early June and late September, which lets them earn credits toward stays at member properties anywhere in the world.

2. A small apartment building. The advantage of multi-unit investment properties is that they’re financed using the bank’s commercial lending department. The decision to lend has much less to do with the borrower’s income and more to do with the income potential of the asset.

Typically, these properties are leveraged at 25/75, meaning Gordon and Cathy’s $250,000 loan would provide $1 million in investment capital. In this range, a turn-key building like a six-plex can easily rake in $80,000 to $90,000 per year in rent for an 8% to 9% cash-on-cash return.

3. A hands-off investment. A private equity fund called Cash Offer Canada buys distressed properties, fixes them up to force appreciation and then markets them as rent-to-own opportunities for purchasers who need a leg up toward homeownership. The fund targets 18% to 20% annual returns with a consistent hurdle rate of 12%. 

Gordon and Cathy appreciated the idea of a steady $30,000 annual cash flow and watching their capital grow in the diversified fund. But what they liked most about this plan was not having to take out a new mortgage or do any property management.

Armed with knowledge and a willingness to do the uncommon, Gordon and Cathy were able to generate enough cash flow to enjoy life in their dream retirement spot. You might remember that they still have that $200,000 left over in the bank, too. It’s a good thing, because their kids just called – they need a loan so they can make a down payment on their first home.

Copyright © 2020 Key Media Pty Ltd

First-Time Homebuyer Incentive inadequate

Clayton Jarvis
Mortgage Broker News

On May 12, two Conservative MPs addressed their concerns over the federal First-Time Homebuyer Incentive in an open letter addressed to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation CEO Evan Siddal and Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Ahmed Hussen.

The letter’s authors, Tom Kmiec and Stephanie Kusie, both from Calgary, criticize the program’s cost and its failure to capture the interest of consumers. Kmiec was highly sceptical of Liberal projections, released in May 2019, that saw 100,000 Canadians eventually leveraging the shared-equity program. The CMHC’s annual report for 2019, published earlier this week, found that only 2,950 Canadians were approved for a shared-equity mortgage through the FTHI.

“[T]hese 2,950 approvals are a far cry from the target of 20,000 that CMHC had set for the program’s first six months of operation,” the letter reads. “Indeed, it seems that the program has been a complete failure and any notion that it will come close to assisting 100,000 aspiring homeowners is now scuttled.”

The FTHI has been a constant target for Kmiec, who debated the program in the House of Commons with Siddal in May 2019. He has gone after it in multiple Facebook posts dating back to April 2019.

“I knew that the Liberals’ shared equity mortgage scheme was doomed to fail because the vast majority of Canadians don’t want to co-own their home with the federal government,” Kmiec told MBN by email. “More importantly, gambling on the real estate market with taxpayer dollars through the purchase of equity shares in Canadians’ homes is not an appropriate role for government.”

Kmiec is also concerned that the program, along with the CMHC’s commitment to purchase $150 billion in mortgage-backed securities from Canadian lenders, exposes taxpayers to the risks associated with insuring that level of mortgage credit. He says the measures taken over the past decade to reduce CMHC’s liabilities have been undone.

“These measures will have a significant impact on our county’s finances for decades to come,” Kmiec writes. “Now is the time for the government to be eliminating wasteful programs, such as this First Time Homebuyer Incentive, to help limit the devastation the pandemic will have on our economic health.”

 In his comments to MBN, Kmiec explains that the FTHI “does nothing to help” first-time buyers qualify for a mortgage that wouldn’t otherwise be approved. Because one of the conditions for the program is that a borrower must qualify under the existing down payment and underwriting criteria, he says the almost 3,000 people who signed up for the program “would have all been able to qualify for a mortgage and purchase a home without the FTHI. The only appeal of the program to these 3,000 individuals would be the slight reduction in the monthly mortgage payments, which will end up costing them a significant share of the equity in their home when it is time to sell.”

The equity component of the program may indeed be the sticking point for many Canadians, says Streetwise Mortgages’ Dalia Barsoum, who compares the program, rather unfavourably, to mortgage deferrals.

“There are downsides,” she says, particularly for homeowners having to pay back amounts far beyond what they originally borrowed to get into the housing market. Owners in rapidly appreciating markets like Toronto or Montreal could, in twenty years’ time, possess properties that have doubled in value. Based on CMHC’s own figures, it’s clear that few Canadians are excited by the prospect of cutting the government a cheque for five percent of those gains.

But Barsoum thinks cancelling the FTHI is short-sighted.

“They shouldn’t eliminate it,” she says. “It’s not for everybody, but there are people who will benefit them who have no other options.”

Kmiec’s attacks on the First-Time Homebuyers Incentive all have one thing in common: they come with no proposed alternatives. MBN asked the MP to provide his own ideas for helping first-timers, specifically urging him to go further than pointing out the obvious fact that supply needs to increase. The response received may underwhelm most readers.

“We can expect that the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent government-enforced shutdown of the economy will lower real estate prices across the country. We can also expect to see continuing record-low interest rates as the economy enters into recovery. Now is not the time for anymore sweetener from the taxpayer. The federal government should work with provincial governments to reduce barriers and red tape to residential construction that are impeding new housing construction stock across the country.”

Changes to the program do not appear imminent.

“Now is not the time to cut support for Canadians,” Jessica Eritou, spokesperson for the Office of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, said in a statement to MBN. “It is especially important to invest in programs that put home ownership within reach of more middle-class families.  We will continue building on our historic commitments to giving more Canadians a safe and affordable place to call home.”

Copyright © 2020 Key Media

A shift to work from home helps to improve productivity

Conor Sen
Bloomberg

The coronavirus is going to change the way we work whether we like it or not — at least for the short term and maybe longer.

To take just one example: Twitter said it would let employees work from home even after the Covid-19 crisis has passed. Although it’s too early to say how much of a lasting change in work culture we’ll get, even a temporary shift such as this should be great news for residential real estate in at least two types of communities: the exurbs of high-cost coastal cities and second-tier cities with similar amenities but more limited job markets than their larger coastal peers.

A shift to work from home helps to lift the constraint of physical proximity for workers with certain kinds of jobs, allowing them to consider a wider range of places to live than when they had to be in the office five days a week. This has benefits both at the individual and the collective level. In a region such as the San Francisco Bay Area, with lots of tech jobs but expensive and limited housing, the average commute time is 32 minutes. If a person there worked from home one day a week, that’s an hour a week not spent commuting. If these practices are adopted by most white-collar employers, that would take a lot of vehicles off the road during peak commuting times, reducing congestion and shortening drive times for everyone else.

Reduced commuting and less traffic in a region makes living in the exurbs more appealing than it otherwise might. Workers can get more house for their money without having to make the sacrifice of long daily commutes. In a corporate culture where working from home is standard, it might also mean housing preferences change. A home office, or a “Zoom room,” might become as standard in the exurbs as a two-car garage.

Some companies might take this even further and embrace large-scale remote work, allowing employees to live anywhere that has a fast internet connection. The biggest beneficiaries here will probably be metro areas with similar cultures and amenities as the higher-cost coastal regions people are leaving, but have lower housing costs. John Burns Real Estate Consulting has been highlighting shifts in the strength of various housing markets since the onset of the crisis and it has identified the five best housing markets at the moment as Salt Lake City; Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Tampa, Florida. That list could grow depending upon how powerful the dispersion trend becomes as the economy recovers, extending to additional midsize metro areas in the South and West.

If there’s a loser here, it’s the real estate and businesses whose value stems from proximity to the job centers in pricey metro areas. Dry cleaners, lunch spots and bars close to offices will suffer if there are fewer workers in the area. Prices for housing, particularly older, lower-quality housing, that’s close to offices may decline as well. Commercial office valuations may also fall if companies reduce the amount of space they lease. Recessions and downturns are always a chance for companies and individuals to cut costs where they can. If remote work is as productive as in-office work, it gives companies the chance to save money on office space and possibly on labor (provided they will be able to pay workers less to live somewhere cheaper).

A large scale adoption of this trend could both reduce geographic inequality and fuel economic growth. So many of the fruits of economic growth during the past generation have gone to knowledge workers in cities such as New York and San Francisco. But because the housing stock in both cities is relatively limited, much of the increase in wealth in those areas has gone to the owners of real estate. This has led to soaring rents for residents, negating the broad-based spillover effects that should have benefited the rest of the community from all that wealth creation.

But if higher-paid knowledge workers are able to move to places with lower housing costs, there will be money left over that isn’t going to paying the rent or mortgage. It means more money can be spent on dining, travel, leisure and other labor-intensive local services. And it means that economic growth won’t be as concentrated in coastal metros, spreading the wealth to the rest of the country. The growing concentration of wealth in coastal metros has seemed unsustainable for a while. Perhaps a shift in corporate culture that embraces work from home is just the catalyst we needed to break the pattern and bring about a more sustainable and equitable model of economic growth. 

Copyright Bloomberg News

Violated patents basis of law suit

Ryan Smith
other

Online real estate brokerage is being sued by one of its own co-founders, who says the company has violated his patents for years.

Redfin co-founder David Eraker is suing the company, claiming that its alleged violations of his patents has cost him millions of dollars, according to an Inman report.

After leaving Redfin, Eraker formed Surefield, an online brokerage that pioneered 3D home-tour technology, Inman reported. Eraker claims that Redfin and partner Matterport copied Surefield’s technology, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.

Another lawsuit, filed in Washington state court, claims that Redfin, along with investor Madrona Venture Group, misappropriated map-based search technology invented by Eraker while he was still at Redfin, Inman reported.

Both suits ask for monetary damage, and the federal suit asks that Redfin be prohibited from using technology based on Eraker’s patents, Inman reported.

According to the lawsuits, Eraker founded Redfin in 2002 and was later joined by Michael Dougherty and David Selinger. The lawsuits state that within two years of its founding, Redfin was “the first and only company” to combine data types including satellite imagery, data from county assessors’ offices, and data from multiple listing services.

Redfin was able to combine this data thanks to technology Eraker developed, according to the lawsuits. Several patents from the period are under Eraker’s name, Inman reported.

But as Redfin was preparing for a Series A funding round in 2005, Madrona managing director allegedly discovered technology that Eraker had developed while at Redfin, Inman reported. The Washington state lawsuit claims that Goodrich filed a provisional patent for the technology, concealing that patent from Eriaker. Goodrich assigned the patent from Redfin “only after Mr. Eraker had been ousted from the company,” the state lawsuit said.

The suit called the move “fraudulent behavior” that “resulted in Mr. Eraker losing millions of dollars in equity.”

The federal lawsuit concerns technology developed after Eraker founded Surefield in 2012, Inman reported. The suit claims that Surefield was the first company to offer “commercial image-based rendering” to create 3D home tours “that combined photorealism and spatial navigation amongst other features.” Surefield launched the technology – which is now common in the real estate industry – in 2014, according to the Inman report. Surefield holds several patents related to the technology, naming Eraker as its inventor.

Eraker’s lawsuit claims that shortly after Surefield launched its 3d tour tech, Redfin and Matterport launched their own version – which Eraker claims was stolen from him.

“The visual presentation and underlying technology were copied from Surefield’s first-to-market service,” the lawsuit said.

Nearly three years ago, right before Redfin’s initial public stock offering, Eraker sent a letter to the company threatening legal action over patent violations, according to Inman. Redfin said at the time that the claim was meritless.

Copyright © 2020 Key Media Pty Ltd

The province has purchased the hotel to house homeless people who have been staying at two tent cities in Victoria

Frank O’Brien with Lindsay Kines
Western Investor

The B.C. government has bought the Comfort Inn and Suites in Victoria for $18.5 million to provide temporary shelter for 65 people living in homeless camps at Topaz Park and Pandora Avenue in the capital city.

The purchase price is about $4.4 million above the 2020 BC Assessed value for the 151-room hotel, which is located at 3020 Blanshard Street. The property was assessed at $14.17 million as of July of last year.

The high purchase price is considered an anomaly in the current market, which has seen about 60 per cent of hotels close down across the province during the pandemic.

“The traditional market [for hotel investments] has dried up,” said Carrie Russell, senior managing partner of hotel consultancy HVS International, of North Vancouver. “There are virtually no transactions in B.C.”

She noted that the assessed real estate value of a hotel property can be misleading because it does not include furnishings, appliances and other amenities.

The long-term plan is to use the site for affordable housing after consulting with the community.

“Everyone deserves to have safe, stable housing they can afford, and this site offers great potential to deliver a mix of permanent housing to meet the needs of people in Victoria,” Selina Robinson, minister of municipal affairs and housing, said in a news release.

B.C. Housing will partner with Our Place to run the building. It will begin receiving residents in the coming days.

Homeless applicants will receive meals, health-care services, addictions treatment and harm reduction, and storage for personal belongings.

Copyright © Western Investor

Altus homes in White Rock highlight views of the ocean and mountains

Michael Bernard
The Province

Sometimes you have to have patient money to end up with the best of all worlds, even in a highly desirable place like the popular seaside community of White Rock. Kanwar Dhamrait spent six years assembling a parcel of seven former single-family home lots adjacent to Peace Arch Hospital and he’s glad he did.

The payoff for those who buy homes in Altus, a 13-storey concrete highrise that Dhamrait is building on Finlay Street, is that they will have some of the most coveted views of Semiahmoo Bay while residing just steps away from shops and other amenities in the town centre.

“We designed the building very carefully so that we could capture both the ocean and mountain views,” said Dhamrait, who trained as a structural engineer before becoming CEO of Oviedo Properties Ltd.

Project architect Chris Dikeakos said the building site is particularly desirable because it is on a high point in the community and the firm capitalized on that.

“We did a couple of things. We staggered the building both in plan and elevation views so that as many units as possible would get water views. We also made sure the buildings related to the heights of the other surrounding buildings, including the hospital.”

The result is an attractive, modern West Coast style with a mix of natural stone and high-performance glass. The layout includes terracing on the front side for the views that also provides more room for rooftop patios and green spaces on the top of the building.

Another unusual feature, especially for a building by Dikeakos, whose firm is best known for its high-rise designs, is the inclusion of retail and professional space on the building’s first two levels. There is more than 45,000 square feet devoted largely to medical professionals who will be situated just across the street from the 146-bed acute care hospital operated by Fraser Health. “I think it is a good fit for the neighbourhood.” As well, about 3,500 square feet is being dedicated to a children’s daycare centre.

Dhamrait says he expects Altus will appeal to both downsizers wanting to shed the burden of a single-family home, and to upsizers looking for more space in condo living in a building where square footage is generous by most Metro Vancouver standards. A majority of the homes in Altus are two bedroom and two bedroom and den and range from about 900 to 1,300 square feet. There are also three-bedroom-and-den homes ranging from 1,350 square feet and penthouses of up to almost 2,800 square feet.

BAM Interiors provided two colour schemes: “Seashell” with a range of light colours in natural finishes and “Marqina” a dark palette with rich colour finishes. All homes have engineered hardwood flooring through the dining, living, den and bedroom areas.

The kitchens feature wood-grain upper cabinets complemented by high-gloss lower cabinetry with easy pull edges for a sleek no-hardware look. In the island, a bookshelf and wine rack in most units and custom millwork for panelled fridge and dishwasher, and durable engineered quartz countertops. Homes come with Bosch appliance packages, including a 36-inch custom panel bottom freezer fridge, 30-inch stainless steel gas cooktop, a 30-inch combination speed oven and a Marvel wide fridge in most units.

Bathrooms have a custom vanity with high gloss and wood-grain finish, LED lighted cosmetic mirror on the medicine cabinet in the ensuite and a frameless glass shower and tub enclosure. Second bathrooms have a convenient open shelf. There is a modern rainfall shower in the main bathroom with a hand-held shower in the ensuite.

All homes come with Energy Star washer and dryer by Whirlpool, contained in a laundry room in most units.  There is a closet organizer in the master bedroom as well as in the entry closet. Windows come equipped with roller shades.

The building has a large amenity area that is two storeys high. It includes a state-of-the-art gym, a lounge with pool table and an expansive kitchen and dining area with a large white porcelain fireplace. Attached is a resort style terrace with outdoor seating and an open lawn area. Also available is a one-bedroom guest suite for guests.

For the six penthouse owners, there is a dedicated entertainment area with a kitchen and dining area and a double-sided fireplace. Outside are tables with built-in fireplaces and commercial quality BBQs.

In the underground parking there are two parking spaces for each suite, a dog wash area, and secure bike storage lockers. At ground level, there will be a concierge to receive mail and packages and a temperature-controlled food storage area.

Altus, White Rock

Project address: 1526 Finlay St., White Rock

Project scale: A total of 126 homes in a 13-storey concrete building with one bedroom and den through three-bedroom and den units, ranging in size from 872 sq. ft. to 2,776 sq. ft., with retail and medical/professional offices and a daycare on the first two floors. More than 3,000 sq. ft. in a two-storey multi-purpose amenity space for residents. Easy walking distance to shops and services, restaurants and White Rock pier.

Prices: Homes from $760,900 to $2,620,900

Developer: Oviedo Properties Ltd.

Architect: Chris Dikeakos Architects

Interior Design:  BAM Interiors

Construction: Robert Bosa – Quorum Group

Sales centre: 1589 Maple St., White Rock

Centre hours:  By appointment only

Sales phone: (778) 294-7794

Website: http://www.AltusWhiteRock.com

Completion date:  Spring 2022

© 2020 Postmedia Network Inc.

CMHC multi-family starts surged in April

Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

As a whole, national multi-family starts surged upward last month, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

This came with one notable caveat, however. The study covering April “was conducted in each province with the exception of Quebec, following the introduction of pandemic measures in the province in late March,” CMHC said.

The Quebec government allowed residential construction in the province to resume on April 20.

Not taking into account Quebec, the national housing starts trend was 155,995 units in April, up from 153,463 units in March. Canada’s overall housing starts trend was 199,589 units in April, down from the 204,899 reading in March.

“Outside of Quebec, the national trend in housing starts increased in April, despite the impact of COVID-19 containment measures,” CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said. “This reflects strong growth in multi-family starts in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.”

The upward trend will also offset any possible “declines in the near term” in these provinces, Dugan said. Such prolonged stability might feed into momentum that can help the housing market’s recovery after the crisis has passed, although Robert Hogue of RBC Economics predicted that the sector’s revival might be a bit delayed as buyers will need to “regroup and rebuild confidence amid high unemployment.”

“We see the outlook improving markedly next year in most markets,” Hogue said in a recent analysis. “Exceptionally low interest rates, strengthening job markets, and bounce-back in in-migration will generate substantial tailwind. We project home resales to surge more than 40% to 491,000 units in 2021.”

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