Barbara Carss
Canadian Property Management
Climate action levers key amid competing crises
Strategists are pondering the most effective climate action levers to keep attention focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions as other events and pressures commandeer priority-setting agendas.
Canadian Property Management
Generative AI poised to realign CRE status quo
Emerging generative AI applications could realign the status quo within commercial real estate’s property administration, brokerage and investment management services.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Conversion momentum draws on combo of drivers
Replicating Calgary’s nascent office-to-residential conversion momentum in other markets will likely depend on the same combination of weak office values, strong housing demand and generous incentives.
Canadian Property Management
Social destabilization unsettles city fabric
Data, collaborative networks and a suite of tested best practices can be valuable resources for property managers pressed to respond to the unsettling social destabilization occurring in many Canadian cities.
Canadian Property Management
Net zero spoilers embedded in behaviour traits
Professor Robert Gifford, a behavioural psychologist affiliated with University of Victoria’s School of Environmental Studies, tallies dozens of traits that could be undermining climate progress.
Canadian Property Management
Ontario keeps clinging to 2016 market values
The recent regulation to postpone Ontario's property reassessment for another year stretches the assessment cycle to double its originally intended time span.
Canadian Property Management
Rooftop solar photovoltaics spark safety advice
Rooftop solar PV installations pack a potentially lethal electrical charge, necessitating vigilant monitoring and maintenance of the many system components.
Canadian Property Management
Tech finds highly competitive options in Canada
Eight Canadian cities rank among the top 50 North American markets for fostering tech employment, with Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Waterloo Region and Calgary all placed in the top half of the list.
Canadian Property Management
Human capital elusive for real estate employers
Employers are pressed to fill new kinds of positions and to bolster tech savviness throughout their organizations, while facing labour shortages and a highly competitive market for certain skills.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Office conversion prospects judged challenging
Viable conversion candidates must begin with a basic structural prerequisite, but construction costs, location, surrounding amenities and assumptions about future office values all influence the business case.
Canadian Property Management
Range of CRE stakeholders demand ESG metrics
Canada’s leading commercial real estate players are increasingly turning to ESG metrics to track responsiveness to a range of emerging risks and business imperatives.
Canadian Property Management
Trophy office towers widening gap from the pack
Trophy office towers could be anchored atop the market for the long term as the past decade’s wave of new building subsides and little further development is anticipated.
Canadian Property Management
Office building values still trending downward
Appraisers generally expect office building values to keep slipping over the course of 2023 as a range of factors undermine cash flow, push up cap rates and make investors skittish.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Multifamily asset values hold steady
Multifamily asset values appear to be holding steady, but transaction volume plummeted in the first quarter of 2023.
CondoBusiness
Ontario awaits patchy debut of discount power
Most condominium corporations and rental housing landlords will need to make capital investments in energy storage to realize the benefits of Ontario's ultra-low overnight electricity rate.
Canadian Property Management
Sustainable finance products forge way to 2050
Sustainable finance products, are expected to increasingly come into play as building owners/managers pursue decarbonization and look to bolster the climate resiliency of their properties.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Cooling deemed key amenity for Ontario renters
Conceptually, the proposed rules establish air conditioning as a protected option that tenants cannot be prevented from obtaining rather than an essential that landlords would be compelled to supply.
