November 30, 2009
Real estate outlook
Will Vancouver experience the post-Olympic blahs?
Vancouver and its thriving real estate market will get a boost from the upcoming Winter Olympics. The big question is what will happen after the flame is extinguished, says the author of a new report on North American real estate trends.
"Will (Vancouver) have a case of the post-Olympics blahs that a lot of markets that have had the Olympics suffer from, or will it benefit from all the world focus?" said Jonathan D. Miller, author of ‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010,‘ in a presentation to the Urban Land Institute in Toronto earlier this month.
"I think the expectation of interviewees is that it may not matter,” he said. "Vancouver will hold up one way or another."
Miller went on to discuss Toronto’s prospects for the year ahead.
The city is Canada’s global gateway, he said, but there are concerns about overdevelopment in the office building market and the ever-growing number of new condos slated for construction.
"You have to wonder how long this condo boom can continue," Miller said.
Check back here in the coming days for more video from the Urban Land Institute presentation.
What the latest U.S., Canada GDP numbers mean for the recovery
New gross domestic product figures for the U.S. and Canada were strong, says CanaData chief economist Alex Carrick. But what does this mean for the state of recovery in both countries?
Government should be more flexible with stimulus project deadline, outgoing ORBA president says
Stimulus infrastructure spending would have a greater impact if government were more flexible with its March 2011 deadline for projects to be completed, says the past-president of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association.
McGuinty: We can’t take our foot off ‘public dollar gas pedal’ too quickly
The province must be careful how quickly it “takes (its) foot off the public dollar gas pedal,” Premier Dalton McGuinty told the Ontario Road Builders’ Association during the group’s annual convention in Toronto Feb. 1.
Ontario creates panel to review occupational health and safety
The creation of a provincial panel to look at occupational health and safety prevention will bring a necessary focus on Ontario workplace fatalities, says a provincial building trades official.
Canadian Construction Association summit zeroes in on industry concerns
When the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) decided to host a summit on the future of the non-residential sector, identifying key industry concerns was front and centre on the agenda.
Building energy dashboards show tenants’ resource consumption
Energy dashboards, which allow building operators and tenants to monitor and manage their resource consumption in real time via the web, offer an innovative and effective way to ensure sustainability.
Commercial building industry has undergone 'significant evolution:' BOMA
The Canadian commercial building industry has undergone a significant evolution in its efforts to make buildings perform better, says an executive with the national Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).
Industry must change its approach to operating commercial buildings: Canada Green Building Council
If Canada continues with a "business as usual" approach to managing commercial buildings, it will result in a 39 per cent increase in energy consumption, and an additional 26 megatons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by 2030, warns the chair of the Canada Green Building Council.
'Now is the time to start moving toward BIM'
Building Information Modeling offers design professionals an unprecedented opportunity to work in a collaborative environment, particularly when stakeholders are separated by distance and location, says a building-software company executive.
