Here are The Globe and Mail’s top housing and real estate stories this week, with the lowest mortgage rates available in Canada today, commentary from our mortgage expert, and one home worth a look.
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Office tenants are looking for concessions from landlords, beyond deals on rent: survey
Office tenants are already getting great deals on rent as vacancy rates remain high, but a new survey finds many want much more from their landlords, reports Jameson Berkow. More smart building features, flexible lease terms and decarbonization strategies are among tenants’ key demands. Landlords, the survey found, are making little progress toward meeting them.
Canada’s real estate market eases back into balance after summer slowdown
Despite the Bank of Canada’s interest rate hikes putting a damper on the housing market rebound this summer, new listings have surged 24 per cent since April, RBC economists Robert Hogue and Rachel Battaglia say. These changing conditions have brought supply and demand back into balance after tightening surprisingly quickly in the spring, Carolyn Ireland reports.
This week’s lowest available mortgage rates
If mortgage terms were a popularity contest, the three-year would get first prize. People are flocking to these middle-of-the-road terms for three main reasons, writes Robert McLister in his weekly column. If you decide to hop on a three-year, you’ll currently pay over 6 per cent (uninsured) or just under 6 per cent (insured). That’s quite a departure from 24 months ago when you could snag one for 1.99 per cent or less.
Toronto-area home building shifts into low gear as developers pause or cancel projects
Homebuilders in Toronto say a perfect storm of factors has caused real estate developers to pause or cancel new projects, even as the province touts new plans to achieve its ambitious goal of building 1.5 million new homes by 2031. Experts close to the industry say rising costs and weaker demand have knocked the starch out of the industry, Shane Dingman reports. While the cost problem is Canada-wide, it’s disproportionate in Toronto.
Home of the week: A Stratford, Ont., inn where a young Thomas Edison laid his head
Edison’s Cafe and Inn, 46/48 Ontario St., Stratford, Ont.
This historic two-storey building in downtown Stratford, Ont., once had a very famous resident. Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the first commercially viable electric light bulb, the phonograph and the motion picture camera, lived there as a young man in 1863. He was 16 years old and working as a telegrapher for the Grand Trunk Railway – a career that didn’t pan out.
The young Edison had devised a system meant to alert him when a train was on the track, allowing him to nap or focus on his inventions while on the job, but when it failed one night, two trains nearly collided. He headed for Michigan rather than be fired, but it’s rumoured that he created a mousetrap while living at the 46/48 Ontario St. building. Unfortunately he didn’t patent his mousetrap, but he is credited for 1,093 other U.S. patented inventions.
Thomas Edison is celebrated in each of the three unique and distinctly themed hotel rooms, with original artwork featuring his timeline, inventions and quotes.
Guess the price
b. The asking price is $1.5-million.