by CanEquity
As Commercial Starts Ascend in the Country, is it your Time to Jump into the Market?
The low rate of building starts seen at the beginning of this year have definitely begun to rebound. Statistics Canada shows that city-issued permits granted in March amounted to close to $7-billion more than a 17 per cent increase from February and the highest starts reported in roughly four years.
Permit values went up for 65 per cent of the major cities in Canada, with Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver accounting for the largest spikes. Reports from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Colliers Canada suggest several impetuses for these increases: oil, gas and electrical plants; the 2015 Pan-Am Games to be hosted by Toronto; and a surge of U.S. retailers entering the Canadian market.
Yet the Montreal Gazette suggests that one area of commercial building is being neglected: senior housing. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation(CMHC) posits that by 2031, 33 per cent of Canadians will be senior citizens.
It used to be that the majority of commercial financing required a down payment of 25 per cent or greater. Starting last year the CMHC began offering insurance on commercial loans for multi-unit (5+) properties enabling financing of up to 85 per cent. Not only does this mean that market has opened to a greater range of potential commercial investors, it also means that the lower commercial rates afforded by insured financing are attainable on these loans.
Right now Canadian commercial mortgage rates start as low as 4.10 per cent on a two-year conventional commercial mortgage loan. If they follow the trend of residential rates, there is every possibility they will only see modest increases over the coming years. While rates are desirable, it may be the ideal time to enter into a market demographic geared to explode with new demands and requirements not yet being satisfactorily addressed by current developers. Contact a commercial mortgage broker to discuss your plan.
This article is provided by CanEquity.com.
