Canadian mortgage payments went from virtually nothing to the highest level in well over a decade, inflicting pain on mortgage borrowers. However, the value of homes also surged. In fact, from the rate cuts that sent home prices surging in March 2020 to the end of 2023, the growth rate of home prices outpaced the increase in the average mortgage payment on file at Equifax. This was true in most of Canada’s largest cities, especially in Eastern Canada where the average household’s payment significantly lagged home price growth. 

Canadian Home Values Climbed Faster Than Mortgage Payments

Western Canada’s industrial markets are at an inflection point as demand normalizes and the pause that hit new construction last year begins to make itself felt.

Conservative market sentiment is now creating the conditions for stronger performance in 2024, Avison Young reports, with cities like Lethbridge poised to see a landlord’s market for industrial space.

Lethbridge reported a 4.1 per cent vacancy rate in the first quarter, up from 4 per cent at the end of 2023. But space under construction is down more than half from last year to 50,000 square feet, creating potential supply constraints.

Driven by persistent return-to-in-person challenges, local companies are leveraging office space data to optimize the physical spaces they occupy.

Employee commute times and office space utilization data are informing companies’ strategies for encouraging in-person work and optimizing office layouts to meet long-term goals, according to those who spoke toBIV.

“As companies are revisiting or choosing to revisit their office space, they’re looking at a year to two years of real good data of who’s coming in, how often, what are they doing and what’s the purpose of the office for those people,” said Alain Rivère, vice-president of the high technologies group at CBRE.