Home of the Week, 64 Hubbard Blvd., TorontoMEDIARAMA STUDIOS/Mediarama Studios
Here are The Globe and Mail’s top housing and real estate stories this week, with the lowest mortgage rates available in Canada today and one home worth a look.
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Property sharing investment firm Willow latest to get hit by rising interest rates
Commercial property-sharing startup Willow LP is facing trouble amid higher borrowing costs, writes Rachelle Younglai. The company was part of a new wave of property investing called “fractional investing or prop sharing,” in which individual investors buy pieces of a commercial property – sometimes selling units as small as $36. But now with higher interest rates, hundreds of small investors have seen the value of their investment decline between 50 and 60 per cent. Willow’s investing model was particularly susceptible to higher mortgage costs, as the risk was not spread out across a large number of properties.
Receiver appointed to five more Toronto-area housing projects
The legal and financial troubles for Toronto-area condominium developer Vandyk Properties continue in 2024 as delayed orders to appoint a receiver on five more of its building projects have come into effect, writes Shane Dingman. The initial applications for insolvency were brought by two companies who claim they are owed $186.4-million lent to those five Vandyk projects. Together, the sites represent 1,757 unbuilt homes with at least 830 conditionally sold to preconstruction buyers. More claims followed suit, as the condo developer looked for a way out of its debt problems and managed executive resignations.
In the past three decades, the average price per acre of Canadian farmland has skyrocketed more than 800 per cent. According to Farm Credit Canada, farmland values rose by approximately 8 per cent in 2023.jimfeng/Getty Images
Growing farmland values seed transition to non-farmer investment
Canadian farmland values increased again in 2023 and are forecast to rise in 2024, as the number of non-farmer investors funding farmland transactions continues to rise, writes Nancy Lanthier. According to an expert at Farm Credit Canada, a Crown corporation that monitors land sales, farmland values across Canada rose by approximately 8 per cent in 2023, compared with 12.8 per cent in 2022. Increasing global demand for agricultural products coupled with growing land constraints have attracted investors to the industry.
Home of the Week: Home in the Beaches as close to the water as it gets
Home of the Week, 64 Hubbard Blvd., TorontoRoyal LePage Estate Realty
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The house at 64 Hubbard is essentially in the centre of the stretch of sand that makes up Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood. Across the street is a strip of parkland, the beach boardwalk and Lake Ontario. Once you enter the front door of the three-bedroom home, the tall bank of windows facing the lake provides an unobstructed view of the water, and the fourth level is a rooftop deck with 360-degree views of the beach to the south and the city in every other direction.
Guess the price
d. The asking price is $2,499,000.