January 2012 Ontario Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Bouncing back from recession, Toronto leads Canada's growth




For the second quarter in a row, the city with the most bustling economy in the country is Toronto.




It tallied Canada`s fastest economic momentum in the third quarter of last year, according to CIBC`s ranking of the country`s 25 largest municipalities. Edmonton is second, followed by the tech hub of Kitchener, Ont.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

As many as 1,900 jobs coming to Hamilton




Hamilton companies have landed the major contracts in a $1.5-billion offshore wind energy project.




It`s expected the majority of 1,900 jobs to build Windstream Energy`s 300-megawatt Wolfe Island Shoals project near Kingston will land in the city as four local firms will fabricate the steel, assemble the components and transport the giant towers across Lake Ontario.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Hamilton metro area listed in top 100 global economic ranking




The Hamilton metropolitan area ranks in the top 100 of the world`s large centres for its economic performance over the past two years.




Hamilton ranks 83rd on a list of 200 metro areashttp://http://www.brookings.edu/info/globalmm/globalmetromonitormap.aspx created by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. Its 2011 Global Metro Monitor ranks the economic performance of 200 global centres by gross domestic product (income) and employment for the years 2010 and 2011.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Toronto's growing economic diversity once again leads Canada in latest CIBC rankings






Edmonton, Kitchener, Halifax and Vancouver also show strong momentum






TORONTO, Jan. 19, 2012 /CNW/ - The growing economic diversity of Toronto has once again seen the city take the top spot among the country's major cities in CIBC World Markets' latest Canadian Metropolitan Economic Activity Index rankings.




"For the second time in a row, the city of Toronto emerged as the one to beat, with the city showing the fastest economic momentum as of the third quarter of 2011," says CIBC Deputy Chief Economist Benjamin Tal in his latest Metro Monitor report. "What's so impressive about the ranking of Toronto in our current reading is not that the city is once again ranked first among the country's largest 25 metropolitan areas, but the fact that it has been in the top five for more than six consecutive years, with the only exception being the 2009 recession when Toronto's ranking slipped to the 7th place."




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[Ally]

700 jobs created in Orillia in 2011





ORILLIA - Orillia`s economic development manager is calling 2011 a `record` year for job growth.

`It`s a good mix,` Dan Landry said. `It`s not all the high-paying jobs we want, but certainly not minimum wage jobs either.`





Most of the 700 jobs that were created or regained last year are credited to a revival of the local TeleTech facility.





The call centre, which laid off two thirds of its staff in 2009, hired or rehired more than 600 employees over the past year, said Landry.





The operation currently employs 739 staff.





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[Ally]

Ontario gives Simcoe a plan





SIMCOE COUNTY ` When Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli came to Simcoe County to guide the region`s growth, he came to Barrie on the GO train.





And today, he gave Simcoe County what he gave Barrie three years ago: a plan Ontario believes will end infighting, create jobs and get construction moving.





`Today, Barrie isn`t the community it was 15 years ago. It has changed. As any fast-growing region in North America, the Greater Golden Horseshoe will experience even more change,` Chiarelli told a 350-person crowd that included politicians, planners, developers and businesspeople.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Chinese delegates visit Orillia





ORILLIA - The city on two lakes is building a bridge to the Pearl of the River and Sea.

Orillia is working to forge a formal relationship with Nantong, China with the long-term view of becoming its sister city.





"It's awesome," Mayor Angelo Orsi remarked after signing a memorandum of understanding in a third-floor boardroom at city hall.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Toronto real estate safe as houses






TORONTO - Eileen Campbell looks around her lovely 900-sq.-ft. downtown Toronto condo and sighs.




For the past seven years, the chef has made her two-bedroom corner unit at 550 Front St. W. really feel like home by gutting the kitchen, installing a quartz counter top and opening up the space.




Campbell, 65, moved west after living in a home in the Beach area, loving that she no longer has to maintain a backyard or shovel snow off a driveway.




And being a foodie, she`s close to hip restaurants along the King West strip. She`s also able to enjoy summers out in her terrace with her little chihuahua ` that is, when there isn`t a dust storm from nearby construction of other condos going up along the waterfront.





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[Ally]

Mining-based Sudbury is the luckiest city in North America




Last year the global population reached seven billion. More than half of us now live in urban centres and experts estimate that figure will climb to 70% by 2050. China is witnessing the largest rural to urban migration in the history of mankind in its stampede to industrialize and modernize. China also has become the world`s second largest economy and currently needs to build the equivalent of two cities the size of Toronto and Sydney Australia every year to accommodate this rapid growth. India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and other developing countries are following in its footsteps but at a less frenzied pace.




According to a recent study by McKinsey & Company, `up to three billion more middle-class consumers will emerge in the next 20 years compared with 1.8 billion today, driving up demand for a range of different resources.` Notwithstanding the current depressed prices of some metals, most analysts feel that the current mining commodity super-cycle will last for decades. It is estimated that over the next 25 years, we will need to dig out of the ground as many minerals as consumed since the beginning of time.





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[Ally]

Royal LePage predicts further home price appreciation in Toronto






TORONTO, January 12, 2012 `The Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released today showed the average price of a home in Canada increased between 3.6 and 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to the previous year. Royal LePage expects average price growth to continue through 2012 and predicts national average prices to increase by 2.8 per cent by the end of the year.






Despite calls in some quarters for Canadian house prices to soften in 2011, the market proved resilient as demand created by low interest rates and a relatively stable national economy created upward pricing pressure for all housing types surveyed. Further, recent high profile reports forecasting significant house price declines in 2012 are not supportable. Nationally, consumer confidence in the housing market was high in the fourth quarter as real estate brokers witnessed an unusually high quantity of multiple offer situations, including over the holiday season, compared to same period in previous years.






In the fourth quarter, standard two-storey homes rose 4.2 per cent year-over-year to $375,427, while detached bungalows increased 6.1 per cent to $344,392. Average prices for standard condominiums increased 3.6 per cent to $234,680.





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[Ally]

Rent-increase estimate formula ruffles feathers





Housing activists and landlords agree Quebec's formula for calculating rental increases is deeply flawed, but for opposite reasons.




While housing activists say there is a crisis of affordability, landlords say they'd like to see higher rent increases than currently permitted by the government.




On Friday, Quebec's rental board released estimates for rent increases in 2012. For dwellings heated by electricity, the increase is 0.7 per cent, while those heated by oil will see a 3.6-per-cent hike. Gas-heated dwellings will see no increase, while unheated dwellings will see their rents rise 0.6 per cent. Apartments with July 1 lease renewals will get notices of increases by March 31.






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[Ally]

A new kind of landlord



Looking to rent an apartment in Ottawa? Maybe you should move into a condo - a rental one, that is. The continuing dearth of apartment building construction here, combined with the rabbit-like proliferation of condos, means a new kind of landlord has emerged: the individual investor who buys one, two or more condo units and rents them out.





The idea is not so much to get rich on the rent - it sometimes barely covers the mortgage, tax and other expenses - but to use the rental income to cover those costs while acquiring a potentially valuable asset in the process.




Some say investor landlords could spell trouble for tenants, while others caution that becoming a landlord isn't as easy as it appears. We'll get to those issues in a minute.




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Toronto real estate news: Is your neighbourhood hot or not?




When senior market analyst Jason Mercer hears chatter that the Canadian real estate market is overvalued, he shakes his head.




Pinning one statistic to the entire country doesn`t provide an accurate picture of what`s going on, because it`s a different story in every area, he says.




Real estate volatility in Vancouver, for example, where there`s a lot of discussion about whether investors drive the market, is considerably different than in Calgary, where the economy is centred on oil and gas, or Toronto, which runs on a diverse number of industries.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

TTC head favours surface LRT on suburban stretch of Eglinton



For more than two decades, Eglinton Avenue has suffered from ever-worsening traffic congestion while political bickering killed plan after plan to build better transit on the busy corridor.




The current plan, negotiated by Mayor Rob Ford`s administration to avoid running rapid transit in the middle of the road, would see a light rail line built in an 18-kilometre tunnel. Critics have objected that it lacks the advantages of a full subway, which can carry more people, while having the drawback of being far more expensive than a surface LRT.





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[Ally]

New towers leave empty space in iconic buildings




The soaring towers of Toronto`s financial district have long been symbols of big business in the city. But while the area`s newest buildings are in hot demand and commanding high rents, some of the most iconic buildings are falling short.


While Toronto`s overall downtown office vacancy is just around 5 per cent, availability in older Class AAA towers such as Commerce Court West, First Canadian Place and Toronto Dominion Centre is averaging close to 21 per cent, according to commercial real estate company Avison Young.





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[Ally]

Toronto bed bug service requests by ward





See the map here.

 

[Ally]

"I'm Building Subways": Rob Ford




With clear indications that a new transit proposal is working its way through city council offices and gathering support, Mayor Rob Ford set the stage for a face-off over putting tracks down the middle of suburban Eglinton Avenue.




`It`s the taxpayers in Scarborough. They were quite clear during my election that they want subways, and I represent what the taxpayers want and that`s what we`re going to continue to do,` Mayor Ford told the National Post after he launched the Mayor`s Ball for the Toronto Arts Foundation.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Ritz-Carlton five-star condos proving a tough sell




The million-dollar view from this 28th floor corner condo at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences is beyond one of a kind.




The CN Tower is so close you can almost touch it from the kitchen table and the setting sun lights up the living room`s wall of west-facing windows.




But for a very long time, no one was buying.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

How Ontario residential and business leases differ




Two recent rental stories have created quite a stir. Owners of the popular Real Jerk Caribbean restaurant, a fixture on Queen St. East for the past 28 years, were told by their new landlord that they were going to have to close at the end of the month.




In another story, it was announced that Porter Airlines was raising the rents of its tenants on the Toronto Island by 300 per cent, with as little as 45-60 days` notice.




Many readers have asked me how a business landlord can act so quickly to kick someone out or raise their rent while a residential landlord has no such ability. Even if a residential tenant is not paying rent, it can sometimes take months before a landlord can evict them.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

In Toronto, GTA, upmarket spells highrise as single family homes become scarce





The GTA has become the epicentre of the incredible shrinking housing market.




While the sale of highrise condos hit record levels in 2011, the supply of new, single-family homes declined to near-record lows. And condos continued their downward slide in size, with new units weighing in at 52 square feet smaller than a year ago.




The average new condo being built in the GTA is now just 820 square feet ` about 100 square feet less than units built two years ago, according to a wide-ranging assessment of the new housing market released Friday by research firm RealNet Canada and the Building Industry and Land Development Assoc. (BILD).





Read the full article here.