The Parent Estate Agency

Home Resale prices are up in Ottawa

The Parent Estate Agency — Tue, 08 May 2012 00:29:25 +0000

Home resale prices are up almost %4 this past month. Credit can be giving to rising condo prices in Ottawa. This comes as good news to investors and home owners who have been instilled with fear of a pending slump in the Ottawa market. The Bank of Canada has warned home owners to lower debt because interest rates are on the way up. Also the huge increase in supply of condos in Ottawa has many thinking that prices will drop when the market gets flooded. Which ever way you look at it keep a sober view of the markets and pay attention to the stats not the news headlines.

Are you thinking of selling your home in Ottawa? Check our Home Sellers Information

Orleans is the new site for Hotel and Office Complex

The Parent Estate Agency — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:03:19 +0000

After 3 years of uncertainty it looks the Orleans will be the new home to a luxury Holiday Inn. Plans to move forward come as good news Forum Equity Partners Inc. the main funding source for the project. Planners expect the majority of visitors to the hotel to be for business and about a quarter will be tourist. Orleans has become a hotspot for business activity over the years and often times visitors are forced to commute from hotels closer to the city core. The Hotel will employ approximately 35-45 people and could become a big stimulant for Orleans real estate. The development plans also include an office complex nearby that would help fill the hotel with out of town business people. Overall this construction project will have positive effects on the values of real estate in Orleans. It could also have a positive effect on traffic congestion going into downtown Ottawa.

Online Classified Realty Sections are a new hang out for Fraudsters.

The Parent Estate Agency — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:01:18 +0000

There have been reports in various publications about fraudsters hanging out in the realty sections of online classifieds such as Ottawa Classifieds and Kijiji. There was a recent article about an agent who’s website bio and photos where copy and pasted into online classified adds offering deals that where too good to be true. The add was showing a property for rent that had an outrageously low price. People visited the site, contacted the add and eventually got in touch with the agent who’s information was “borrowed”.

One online shopper got in touch with the crooks and said that red flags when up when they started talking about the details. Reports say the owners where away doing “God’s work” and they had the keys with them. Scams such as these often work at building an emotional connection with the potential buyer. Usually a great deal that is “gonna go fast” is an easy way for scamers to stir up emotion. Then they take extra effort to show that the people involved in this deal are “good people”. Often there the story goes along these lines: the husband is away with the military and the wife is back with the kids and can’t afford bills and needs to sell now she is desperate. The fraudster acts as a correspondent for the distressed and unavailable family.

Just a heads up when shopping for real estate on classifieds to be careful of deals too good to be true and always approach with caution.

2011 Commercial Real Estate Sales in Ottawa Fell

The Parent Estate Agency — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:42:07 +0000

Commercial real estate transactions fell in Ottawa this past year with just under $900 million in commercial transaction. A city that is known for stability mainly because of the wide spread government employment as become a place for investors to make long term investments. The result of higher stability is less people want to sell their realty investments and less transactions are happening. People are investing long term in Ottawa.

A strong retail market in the city has also led to stable commercial prices. Investors will likely continue to hold capital long term. Transactions will in turn remain at a fairly steady levels and prices will rise at a constant rate.

Public Sector Job Cuts and the Effects on the Ottawa Real Estate Market

The Parent Estate Agency — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:52:06 +0000

The Canadian Federal Government announced this week that they will cut 19,200 public sector jobs. It’s expected that the job cuts will hit Ottawa the hardest. Approximately 10,000 of these job loses will be in the Ottawa area. This is expected to have major effects on the real estate market. Job cuts of this magnitude along with the aggressive building that construction companies are undergoing are bound to lead to an oversupply of housing. See our article on the oversupply of condos in Ottawa. Lower employment traditionally means less people will be buying homes and many will sell and go for rental options or move back home to save money. What does this mean for Ottawa home buyers and sellers? A saturated market always means lower prices. As it gets easier and easier to find homes for sale in Ottawa it will get harder and harder to sell your home.

If you are a home seller you will likely need an agent with great selling and marketing resources. If you can hold of on selling you may want to wait but if you need to sell your home soon don’t wait too much longer as prices could fall soon.

If you are a home buyer prices will likely be on your side. Oversupply always means a fall in prices. Keep an eye on the regions average sale price.

Lansdowne Development Impact on Glebe Real Estate

The Parent Estate Agency — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:49:38 +0000

The city is recommending that Lansdowne be converted into residential and commercial office real estate. Although it looks like public interest into the land is leaning more towards residential development. Minto has submitted the highest bid for the development rights to the land and will likely take over the project.

A municipal report submitted to the city said that there is no longer a requirement for bidders help pay for development costs. The City of Ottawa was previously expecting developers to pay around 7 million for fixing the infrastructure. Mainly for water, electrical and parking. This would have been on top of the estimated value of the rights to the development, approximately $200,000 per year.

The city says there are a couple reasons why developers are leery of Office development. The main one being that the developers can’t pre-sell space so the project would have to be completed before sales would begin. This makes financing difficult because the project would have to be created on speculations. Another issue with office space at Landsdowne is that the location is outside of Ottawa’s central business district meaning landlords would have to charge a lower rate.

The residential component of the project is looking much more promising with the proposal looking towards almost 300 new homes with just under 400,000 square feet of space. Since the Ottawa’s Glebe area is such a high demand area residential space would likely be very welcomed by people looking at the Glebe as a place to live.

This could have a major impact on the Glebe Real estate market. I large about of housing starts in the area could cause the local real estate prices to drop since the higher supply will likely thin out the demand for homes in the area. This could be good for local Glebe businesses since more people living in the area means more customers.

On the other side if a large portion of the development ends up being commercial office space this could have a reverse effect on the the Glebe’s housing prices. If a large amount of office space is built then there will be more people working in the area. Since people generally like to live close to their work then this could push up the demand for the areas real estate and push prices up.

For more information about the area click here: Glebe Real Estate

Condo Market Warning from the Banks

The Parent Estate Agency — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:18:54 +0000

The gap between the number of houses and condos being built is growing at a rapid speed and is at the highest its been in over 15 years. Condo starts have become rampant in Canada’s busy cities, especially in the core where space is limited. Ottawa being one of Canada’s larger cities is no stranger to the Canadian Condo Boom. Many market analysts are foreseeing the Condo Market as over heating. If you are thinking of selling your condo you might not want to wait much longer good chance you won’t be able to get these prices for a while. Buyers you may want to wait it out a bit. The market will likely oversupply in the near future and condo prices will start to fall.

New Homes Built in Ottawa are Down

The Parent Estate Agency — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:11:57 +0000

Even though housing starts are up overall compared to last year, January they fell. Many housing analysts watching the Ottawa markets have been warning that builders would be cutting back on new homes being built. Many think demand for homes is just reaching its peak in Ottawa and will start to slow down. We just had a long stretch of low interest rates and everyone was buying. Analysts now think we have flushed out the demand and now prices may begin to fall.

If you are thinking of buying or building a new home and you aren’t in a rush you might want to wait a few months and see if prices start falling. For home sellers if you can get the price you want now then take it. Because as demand starts dropping so will the price you get for your home.

Warning to Mortgage Debtors from The Bank of Canada

The Parent Estate Agency — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:12:46 +0000

A warning from the Bank of Canada was reinforced last week. Canadians with significant debt could be forced to deal with a shock if housing prices fall. The household debt to income ratio is widening causing fears that Canadians may be going to far in debt. This has been encouraged by low interest rates. There is a breaking point and historically it is when the market cycle is reaching current conditions. The Bank of Canada’s advice to Canadians is to pay off debt and conserve for possible rising interest rates.

Since 2000 Canada’s house prices have steadily increased. This results in most households carrying more debt. This is a signal that the economic cycle may be reaching a peak.

The Evolution of Real Estate Marketing

The Parent Estate Agency — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:45:25 +0000

Ever since the industrial revolution, real estate agents have become an integral part of the home acquisition process. They have always had the craftiest marketing strategies. I have heard of Brokers putting pictures for kids to colour on the back of their flyers. Brokers have colouring contests for kids to attract new clients. This is just one of many interesting marketing tactics real estate agents employ.

But the bottom line for a home seller is the marketing of their property. We have been monitoring the markets for sometime and the trend is going completely online. People are choosing to do as much of the home transaction process online. Mainly people want to have easy access to properties that fit the description they are looking for. Our online marketing strategy is to dominate relavant organic search results for highly relevant keywords that home buyers and sellers in Ottawa would type into search engines.

We believe the future of real estate is in home tours, beautiful and accurate real estate photography, good customer service, offer honest and accurate translation of current market conditions.