Time for your cheat sheet on this week’s top stories.
Canadian Real Estate
Canada Is Killing Work-From-Home & It’s Bad News For Small City Real Estate
Canadians embraced work-from-home almost immediately in 2020, especially in government. It was branded the “new normal,” which workers took as a cue to move into distant suburbs, breathing new life into stagnating regions. That move came at the expense of pricey cities, which saw demand plummet and busy downtown cores hollow out. Policymakers are now trying to reverse that flow with mandatory office minimums, anchoring workers downtown. It might be good news for busy cities, if employees don’t lose the spending to shelter costs, but it’s definitely bad news for small cities positioned to lose their recent windfall.
Canadian Real Estate Fueling Productivity Crisis, Quality of Life To Erode: TD
One of Canada’s largest banks is warning the productivity crisis is a bigger problem than most realize. Economists from TD note the lack of productivity will result in an erosion of quality of life, especially when it comes to government services. They attribute the decline to many reasons, but the biggest were residential real estate and taxation. TD is now a part of a growing group, which includes the Bank of Canada and OECD, that are warning it will take decades for Canada to correct course after a decade of poor decisions.
Canadian Young Adults Face Soaring Unemployment & Unaffordable Housing: BMO
Canadian recession fears have already become a reality for young adults. A new report from BMO explores a surge in youth employment (15 to 24 years old). The gap between youth unemployment and core-age workers is now at a level typically only seen during a deep recession. The bank further warns that young adults face the “gruesome twosome,” a combination of rising unemployment and a lack of affordable shelter. It’s an ominous setup for the economy, which isn’t as optimistic looking as it was just a few years ago.
Canada Post Non-Operational Staff Told To Return To Office Next Month
Canada’s remote work culture suffered another setback this week, as another major employer returns to the office. Canada Post is asking all of its non-operational (office) staff back to the office for a minimum of two days per week starting October 15th. Two days per week may not sound like much, but it’s just enough to anchor workers to expensive big cities. That seems to be a trend, as government employers mandate a return to office following corporate and political pressure. Policymakers are hoping to revive the downtowns that hollowed out when remote work became common, and reverse the declining demand to be in expensive, big cities.
Canada Saw The Share of Households Struggling To Make Ends Meet Jump 50%
Canadian households are increasingly struggling to make ends meet, and it’s not just the cost of housing. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows the share of households struggling to pay their bills climbed to 31% of households in 2022, an increase of more than 50% from a year prior. Housing costs play a large role here, as the highest concentration of those struggling were renters. However, that wasn’t the sole issue—the demographic with the fastest growth of struggling households was those who owned a home with no mortgage. Even the surge in home values wasn’t enough to stave off the rising cost of living nationwide.
Vancouver Real Estate
Vancouver Real Estate Prices Slip As Sales Fall 26% Below 10-Year Average
Greater Vancouver real estate prices slipped as demand fell to historically weak levels. Home prices in the region have been relatively resilient in contrast to markets like Toronto, falling only a few points from peak. However, the correction may not be over for the region, which reported August sales as 26% below the 10-year average for the month. At the same time, inventory is climbing to a rarely seen level in a market that’s notoriously scarce.
Canada has over invested in real estate and has become an economical cancer. If we want a healthy economy in the coming decades, we need to build our other strong points like energy, then innovate in infrastructure and better integrate interprovincial trade.
Unity, not division, unless it’s parasitical real estate investors that have gotten a free pass for far too long.
Who are those “police makers”? Why should it always be the workers that pay for the ambitions of a handful? Enough is enough.
A *lot* of jobs have better productivity from home and these kind of biaised articles just show how much we shouldn’t finance medias.
Correct. The GoC’s own research showed 60% of workers were more productive, 30% were the same, and 10% probably needed to be fired anyway.
I disagree about remote working. The quality of service from gov’t and large business declined significantly since 2021 when the “fad” of remote work was introduced. Support has been terrible whether it be via voice or in person.
That’s less to do with working at home and more do with the gov letting the population explode and not hiring frontline staff. Instead the gov is hiring “consultants” and “climate change policy workers.”
All levels of gov probably already lined up friends to takeover the services.
Can someone tell me why we can just turn empty office space into livable homes and multiple two birds with one stone? Big city real estate repurposed makes it no longer vacant, more homes available could help stabilize prices & it would bring a larger full time presence of people, not just during regular business hours , to not only utilize services in these cities but also provide more convenient employment fodder for those businesses. Everybody wins!
Or… almost everybody? Is it because the ultra-wealthy land owners of those former office towers would stand to lose hefty sums on their investments? To that I say: why are the ultra-wealthy always prioritized ahead of the common folk?
Because the conversion is more expensive than knocking it down and building again. The only place to do it is Calgary, and that’s because taxpayers are basically paying for it.
I get the feeling Toronto is trying it too, since they’re raising rents on office space even with record vacancies. Now here comes taxpayers with a big ole cheque to make it happen. Check out some materials on building lifecycles, it’s enlightening. These buildings being converted would have required a major renovation to maintain them anyway, it just so happens taxpayers will help pay to convert now.
So what if it is more expensive to convert than to rebuild? If I make an investment in something that turns south, nobody comes to bail me out. Taxpayers footing the bill is just a double slap in the face.
If the owners of the office buildings are unwilling or unable to solve this on their own, let’s see some legislation to tax the empty offices in a similar way to empty homes. That would get the ball rolling, and even generate a little revenue to boot. Let the ultra-wealthy lose for once in order that the average person can actually keep their head above the water line. Heaven forbid we look at our community as one that is for the benefit of the many, rather than for the few.
Any sort of commute coupled with traffic negatively impact employee well-being by wasting valuable time and increasing stress, leaving less room for personal activities that improve health and relationships.
Prioritizing flexible or hybrid work models can enhance quality of life, leading to happier, healthier, and more productive employees. A better work-life balance not only benefits individuals but also creates a stronger, more engaged workforce.
This country is a joke, quality of life is number 30 in the world, if the government does not take radical, new decisions, we will collapse like nobody ever saw.
Tradue has to go soon messed up the country economy by Fooding cheap labor from abroad. Get the guy out soon we all screwed up