CHRIS ATCHISON

Special to Globe and Mail

If the insiders are right, Canada’s commercial property market is about to get an industrial-level facelift.

Their prediction: a slew of shiny new 500,000-square-foot-plus facilities will be constructed in the next five to 10 years featuring ceiling heights of at least nine metres, in large part to accommodate high-tech automated materials handling systems.

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TORONTO, ONTARIO, Feb 22, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Traditionally, spring marks the busiest period of time for housing market activity in Canada. With the thaw only weeks away, BMO Bank of Montreal offers first-time homebuyers strategies for finding their ideal home while keeping financial priorities in check.

Buying a home can be the largest and most important financial decision one can make, so it is important to be aware of all the factors that go into making a responsible purchasing decision.

"The first step is figuring out how much you can afford to spend on homeownership, which means an honest assessment of the household balance sheet," said Laura Parsons, Mortgage Expert, BMO Bank of Montreal. "Once you have a clear idea of where you stand financially, you can then make a responsible decision of what you can afford, including your down payment, monthly mortgage costs and other expenses like utility costs and property taxes."

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By The National Bank of Canada

Summary

• For several months now, various analysts have expressed fears regarding the residential real estate sector in Canada based on ratios of house prices to income or rent. In our opinion, these analyses do not paint a correct picture of the situation in that interest rate levels were not taken into account.

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NICOLAS JOHNSON

From Monday's Globe and Mail

No Contest: Toronto rises above all

The risk of strain in Canada’s real estate market and concern of a housing bubble in Toronto and Vancouver receives much attention. But the extent to which Toronto leads its North American peers in terms of buildings under construction is staggering.

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JEREMY TOROBIN

OTTAWA— From Saturday's Globe and Mail

It is days before Don Drummond is to deliver his much-anticipated prescription for beating Ontario’s finances into shape, and the former Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist strolls into a restaurant looking every bit a monument to the austere financial discipline he preaches.

Mr. Drummond is unshaven, wearing sneakers, corduroys, a black T-shirt and an old TD jacket peppered with dog hair.

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By Jennifer BrownYourHome Columnist

Toronto’s condo construction boom might lead many to believe there is little happening in the way of new rental building in the GTA, but there are several new construction projects underway in the downtown core that suggest some developers see a solid future in creating new rental accommodation.

Last month, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities said that while one third of Canadians are renters, less than 10 per cent of new developments built in the last 15 years were rental units.

Industry observers say several factors, including an uncertain regulatory environment in Ontario, lack of tax incentives and rising land prices mean fewer developers are building rental accommodation. There are some, whoever, see reasons to forge ahead with plans to create a solid portfolio of rental stock.

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By David Kaufman at Financial Times

It’s been nothing but good news for Toronto’s frothy real estate market. After a decade of steadily rising property prices, 2011 was a near-record year for city residential transactions. Propelled by Canada’s booming, commodities-based economy, home sales jumped by more than 4 per cent while average house prices, now at C$465,412, increased by 8 per cent compared with 2010, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board.

Those numbers contrast sharply with the market in the US, where the Commerce Department reported new home sales fell by an additional 2.2 per cent in December, making 2011 the worst year in recorded American history.

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Sarah Boesveld from National Post

Nearly all of Canada’s population growth over the past five years occurred in the suburbs, according to a new analysis of the 2011 Census data by an urbanist who says government policies are driving people out of the city — and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

While the downtowns of Canada’s six largest metropolitan areas made modest gains, urban cores have been “dwarfed by the scale of suburban population increases,” which made up 93% of the nation’s growth, Wendell Cox, principal of Demographia, a St. Louis, Mo., demographics and urban policy firm, wrote in an analysis this week posted on the website NewGeography.com.

This continued growth comes despite what Mr. Cox calls “anti-suburban policies” that outlaw development on large swaths of land, creating scarcity and increasing housing prices. He believes governments should build more highways instead of trying to get the public riding mass transit. More highways, he argues, will cut down on traffic congestion, which leads to air pollution and less productive cities as workers spend more time on the road.

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CAROLYN IRELAND

Toronto— From Friday's Globe and Mail

Among Toronto neighbourhoods, Dovercourt Park is something of an unsung hero.

Neither seedy enough to attract rising chefs with cult followings, nor gentrified enough to send real estate values out of sight, it’s long been a stalwart area where immigrants find a community, twentysomethings are able to rent a decent apartment, and first-time buyers can purchase a semi and fix it up.

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Paul MoloneyUrban Affairs Reporter from Toronto Star

Toronto city councillors are intrigued by Habitat for Humanity’s proposal to help developers provide condominium units at reduced cost to needy families.

Under Section 37 of the Planning Act, developers can apply to the city to build more units than allowed in return for paying for community benefits such as upgrades to the local community centre or streetscaping.

Instead of making payments which can run in the $1 million to $2 million range, Habitat suggests, the developer could sell units to Habitat at lower cost, with the difference between the sale price and market value counting as the developer’s Section 37 contribution.

With 20,000 condo units going up in the city each year, the city could gain potentially hundreds of low-cost units, said Habitat chief executive Neil Hetherington.

“I think we need to support this,” Councillor Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport) said after Hetherington’s presentation to council’s planning and growth management committee Thursday.

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