Destination malls like Chinook Centre provide more than just shopping

CF Chinook Centre in Calgary has made it on a list of the most productive shopping malls in Canada.

According to the recent Retail Council of Canada's Canadian Shopping Centre Study, Chinook Centre was ranked seventh overall with sales per square foot of $1,057 for the 12 months ending Aug. 31, 2016.

Paige O'Neill, general manager of Chinook Centre, says the local shopping centre has some key elements that contribute to its success.

Calgary's industrial market shows signs of turning the corner

While Calgary's downtown office sector and its plunging vacancy rates overshadowed all commercial real estate activity in 2016, the city's industrial market has better weathered the storm and is poised to grow in 2017, say experts.

According to Barclay Street Real Estate, vacancy for the industrial real estate sector finished 2016 at 7.76 per cent. It had peaked at 7.8 per cent in the third quarter of the year. In 2015, it was 6.57 per cent.

"Absorption was a negative 127,373 square feet for Q3. This was the only quarter of negative absorption we have had since the '90s," said Jon Mook, executive vice-president of Barclay Street Real Estate's industrial division.

Real estate officials expect conditions to support turnaround in downtrodden commercial market

Calgary's commercial real estate market is showing signs it is finally moving on from tough economic conditions that sent vacancy rates soaring and rents plummeting over the past two years, say officials.

''There is a sense in the market that the worst is behind us and that conditions will gradually improve," said Joe Binfet, managing director/broker of Colliers International in Calgary.

Housing experts predict Calgary's rental market to see another year of high vacancies, low rents

Calgary's rental housing market this year will not change much from 2016 as historically high vacancy rates will continue to usher in incentives and lower rents, say experts.

"We expect the vacancy rate to remain close to 2016 levels" said Richard Cho, Calgary-based principal market analyst for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).

Economic conditions create ideal situation for renters, challenges for landlords

In the most volatile economy in the country, it is no big surprise Calgary landlords endured 2016 with the highest rental housing vacancy rate in a quarter of a century.

"It is a free market economy, with all the ups and downs, and in the middle of (this downturn), you just hope many will survive it," said Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Residential Rental Association (CRRA) of Calgary's current seven per cent vacancy rate.

Knowing your local snow clearing bylaws may not be cool, but it's necessary

Winter is coming, and with it the one chore that many homeowners dread: shoveling their snowy sidewalks and driveways.

And while snow removal is often the last thing homeowners want to do on a chilly winter day, officials say it is important in protecting the public's safety.

"Sidewalks need to be kept clean for public safety, [and] a snow removal bylaw shares that responsibility without adding to municipal costs," said Charlene Ruttle, Cochrane's manager of municipal enforcement.

Commercial landlords thinking outside of the box in wake of high vacancy rates

Landlords in Calgary's suburban office market continue to display increasing creativity in the face of rising vacancy rates that are not expected to stem any time soon, says a new report.

In a third quarter report issued earlier this month, Barclay Street Real Estate noted the overall vacancy rate in suburban Calgary rose by
1.1 per cent from the second quarter to 22.3 per cent. Research director Anthony Scott attributed the slight increase to the introduction of new inventory that came to market with significant unleased space.

Housing officials say foreign investment shift too early to tell; still unwavering on city's potential

Calgary could be the new Vancouver. At least that's what has some real estate observers maintaining more than two months after the B.C. government imposed a 15 per cent land transfer tax on real estate purchases by foreign buyers in the province's most populated city.

Aimed at dampening foreign investment—mostly from mainland China, which has been suspected of pushing up demand and prices in markets such as Vancouver where the benchmark price for a home is close to $1 million – the tax appears to be working.

Index drops by 1.2 per cent in May

After a period that saw Calgary's vacancy rates at virtually zero and rents among the highest in Canada, renters in the province's two largest cities are now seeing the outcome of Alberta's economic downturn in the form of lower prices, according to a new report.

The latest data from the Consumer Price Index shows renters in Alberta's two major cities might be getting a break. The May 2016 index in Calgary has dropped by about 1.2 per cent from the peak it hit in September of last year. Rents in Edmonton have dropped by 0.3 per cent.

New Public Interest Law Clinic to challenge landlord-tenant law in Alberta

As a child, Sophie Purnell lived in Burundi before her family fled due to the country's increasing violence.

Now, as a third-year law student at the University of Calgary, she is hoping to make life better for others by working with a group of students to change landlord-tenant law in Alberta, one issue at a time.

The students — all second- and third-year law students — are taking a new course offered through the school's new Public Interest Law Clinic. Supervised by university professors, as well as local public interest lawyers, the students will take on cases from the clinic that fall under the public interest banner as part of their course load.

This term, students will be learning about residential tenancy law, human rights and potential constitutional challenges in the way tenants are treated.