Foreign landlord fails to pay taxes, CRA goes after tenant

It was a Tax Court of Canada case last year that went mostly under the radar by all except for the legal community who were taken aback by its implications for renters.

A Montreal tenant was audited and ordered to pay the tax he had failed to withhold on the monthly rent to his non-resident landlord, as required by law. As a result, he was ordered to pay six years’ worth of tax as well as the compounded interest and penalties. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) could not collect against his overseas landlord, so the Canadian tenant was on the hook.

Metro Vancouver industrial real estate market starting to normalize

Metro Vancouver’s industrial market is entering a period of equilibrium, as the frenzy that once defined the market dies down.

This is according to a Vancouver Real Estate Forum expert panel, which last week described as “more normalized.”

“There’s not this frothy demand where you’ve got … eight people fighting each other for space. Now you’re getting one or two offers. That’s more of a normal market,” said Tim Evans, senior director of leasing with real estate investment firm BentallGreenOak.

Royal LePage expands footprint with Lower Mainland acquisitions

The importance of technology to residential property sales – and in turn the investors participating in the market – is once again in the spotlight with Royal LePage’s latest brokerage acquisition in Metro Vancouver.

Royal LePage Elite West, based in Port Coquitlam with offices in Maple Ridge and Abbotsford, announced April 2 that it had shed the Keller Williams banner, becoming the largest-ever Keller Williams conversion Royal LePage has seen as brokerages reassess their affiliation in the wake of turmoil in the U.S.

“They’re happy to be joining a Canadian company,” Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePage, explained toWestern Investorlast week as he returned from events in Vancouver marking the transfer, which adds 175 agents for an initial 10-year term under the Royal LePage banner.

B.C. may need 700K more housing units by 2030, says economist

The province will have to build somewhere in the range of 500,000 to 700,000 housing units by 2030 to restore 2003 and 2004 levels of affordability, according to Braden Batch, lead economist for B.C. at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Speaking at a panel discussion Wednesday at the Union of BC Municipalities housing summit in Vancouver, he said that this range already accounts for housing that the province is on track to build. Batch said it is also based on low, medium and high population projections, meaning that numbers may differ based on which projection becomes reality.

851 Broughton – 2 new Towers are proposed

The Christ Church Cathedral precinct on the edge of downtown Victoria could be significantly transformed if Concert Properties gets rezoning approval for a two-tower housing project that would bring 370 new homes to what once was a YMCA-YWCA facility.

The Vancouver developer has made an application to rezone 851 Broughton St. to allow for a mixed-use project that will include 26- and 11-storey towers housing 220 condominiums and 150 rental units, respectively.

NAR Settles Commissions Lawsuits and what it means for Realtors

The real estate industry has officially changed. This is going to separate pros vs amateurs and those prepared vs those that are hobbyists.

Listen up for my thoughts but I will have a whole lot more to come. 

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A strong spring start in the GTA: Can the market survive without rate-cut optimism?

According to the latest press release from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), there’s been a quaint uptick in home sales and listings on both an annual and monthly basis, with selling prices making a shy nod upwards compared to the year prior.

This is ostensibly buoyed by population growth and what’s described as a “resilient” regional economy — phrases that seem to gloss over the ongoing saga of individuals grappling with the reality of higher borrowing costs, a souvenir from the Bank of Canada’s rate hikes. 

Big data drives operating efficiencies as properties automate controls

Arthur Erickson Place is echoing the trees through a low carbon footprint that recently saw it designated a Zero Carbon Building by the Canada Green Building Council, which also administers the long-standing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program.

A three-year decarbonization process that began in 2022 and completes in 2025 will reduce energy use by 40 per cent and cut carbon emissions by 97 per cent, or 600 tonnes annually.

Condo purchasers owned multiple units: lawsuit

Civil suits filed by B.C. Housing allege 13 of the units at Vivid at the Yates on Johnson Street went to people who already owned property, or who rented out their units instead of living in them.

One of the purchasers of a unit in a downtown building subsidized for first-time homebuyers already owned six single-family homes in the Victoria area worth more than $7 million, says a civil suit filed by B.C. Housing.

It’s one of several lawsuits filed by B.C. Housing against 13 people who bought condos in Vivid at the Yates at 845 Johnson St.