A tale of two borrowers: who is the bigger risk?

Airbnb has likely removed almost 4,000 units from Vancouver’s home rental stock: study

Airbnb touts itself as a service that allows homeowners to earn extra cash by putting their spare bedrooms up for rent to short-term visitors, but according to a new McGill study, the service is having a significant negative impact on the rental market in Canada’s three largest cities. In Vancouver alone, the Short-term cities: Airbnb’s impact on Canadian housing marketsRead More

Vancouver housing starts increase as projects ramp up in the suburbs in July: CMHC

The number of housing starts jumped year-over-year in July with the construction of more townhomes and apartment buildings across the region, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data released August 9. A total of 1,906 starts were recorded in July – an increase of 18% compared with 1,618 units in July 2016. The growth related to an increase inRead More

Vancouver Real Estate Is Soaring… In Terms of Inventory

August 10, 2017 Vancouver real estate is seeing inventory hit a high for the year. Numbers from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) show that a decline in sales is causing listings to build at a rapid rate. Despite soaring inventory, prices still climbed more than the Vancouver median family income year-over-year. Prices Increased 2.1% The benchmark priceRead More

Obsession with fees ‘unhealthy’

Among the under-discussed aspects of the Canadian housing industry’s part in the national economy are the the fees associated with home purchase and sale transactions, which by any measure outstrip the combined contributions of the agriculture, fishing, forestry and hunting segments. According to Statistics Canada, industry fees such as inspection costs, legal expenses, land transfer taxes, and real estate commissionsRead More

Exploring Commercial Financing

As an investor, there’s little doubt which type of property has been offering the lowest mortgage rates and greatest interest – residential. Meanwhile, commercial properties have been hit harder by the global financial crisis, and the rates have remained higher, often by a couple of percentage points or more. Even those who work as commercial mortgage brokers have conceded thatRead More

Construction mortgages

A construction mortgage is exactly what it sounds like: a mortgage that covers the cost of the construction of your home. As you might imagine, they differ from other types of mortgages in a number of ways. Completion mortgage There are two types of mortgages that you can get when you are buying a home. The first is known asRead More