As you can see from this chart, 5 year mortgage bond yields are up sharply since spring. This has created upwards pressure on five year mortgage rates, thus making buying houses or condos more expensive. As shown here for the last few weeks, due to CMHC capping its insurance to lenders, and rising Government of […]
The new VW 1 and the growth of Urban Real Estate
As cities get denser and denser, people movement in and around cities is becoming increasingly difficult. Three solutions exist: mass public transit, car sharing and smaller, individual vehicles. If one looks at Canada’s major urban areas, you may have noticed that more and more condo towers spring up, and the urban real estate that sells […]
Apartment Building Investing: New CMHC Policy – Landlords Rejoice!
Contrary to Popular Belief CMHC does NOT Insure Home Buyers but Lenders. With this new cap in place mortgage insurance for banks will become somewhat tougher and thus mortgages will be more expensive. Apparently my 600+ co-investors, my partners, and myself, just made a BUNCH of money as this new policy will make mortgage qualification […]
Real Estate Investing, Credit Cards & Car Loans
I received my credit card statement today. Here is what it said, in fine print: If you make only the Minimum Payment each month, we estimate it will take 81 year(s) and 5 month(s) to fully repay the outstanding balance. Our estimate is based on the New Balance shown on this statement and your current […]
Apartment Buildings vs. Land
As you know we have been investing in cash-flowing rental properties for 15+ years, first single unit condos and since 2000 we have transacted over $166,000,000 in apartment buildings, and still own a fair bit. This is a good investing strategy and has served us and our co-investors/limited partners very well over the years. But […]
Creating Value in Apartment Buildings.
Recently I was asked how we create value in apartment buildings, for us and our co-investors/limited partners who co-own these assets. The short answer is: by higher rents, usually due to improvements to the asset, but on occasion with little or any investments. So if the rent goes up by 3% the asset value goes […]
Real estate & city appeal boosted by Edmonton arena that was approved today
Edmonton City Council finally approved the arena project – a huge boost for Edmonton’s attractiveness & real estate values. Edmonton’s downtown east side and north of downtown is quite ugly today, and the new arena will spur huge investments into condos, parks, LRT, offices over the next decade or two. It will make Edmonton more […]
BC voters vote for prosperity, jobs and safe passage of oil – benefitting BC and AB immensely !
The recent Liberal win in BC – despite numerous predictions of an NDP sweep – will substantially improve the overall investment climate in BC and AB ! This is very good news for AB and BC real estate investors or landlords like us ! The “three ladies” Danielle Smith ( possibly the future Premier of […]
26 Things to Consider when buying an Apartment Building, A-Z
Buying an apartment building, like flying a Boeing 747, or juggling, or playing the piano, in principle is easy. However, like flying, juggling or playing the piano, it takes a few years to learn, and many more years to master ! It is a skill and time intensive activity ! Buying a building is not […]
Top 10 Reasons to be a landlord
The following article is from Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine: Despite the long list of potential hazards, the possible rewards of being a landlord often outweigh the downsides. Here are the top 10 reasons why you should become a landlord. 1.) You use tenants’ money to pay your mortgage and build your equity. You can […]