paintismotion

Canadian Real Estate Slows Inexorably- Part III

I own both residential, agricultural and commercial real estate in the Ottawa area. This area will likely be the safest real estate market in Canada over the next three to four years. Why? the Canadian Federal Government has publicly expressed an interest for 3.8 MILLION more square feet of office space in the region, there is a shortage of commercial land to build on, the local housing market is buoyed up by government employees with steady jobs and the the cost of agricultural land - the good stuff - has been and still is increasing in price (if you can get it). Also. people here, like the writer above states, were not offered Sub-prime deals. Truth is, no one if particularly leveraged here. All that aside there are some signs of strain. For example, second mortgage money for commercial deals is hard to find and demands a huge premium, up from 9 to 12% in some cases to 16% depending on the "opportunity". Clearly private investor money is shy and only investing in the best opportunities.