Canada’s real estate markets face volatile economic pressures, but the crosswinds appear especially strong in technology-centred communities such as Vancouver, Waterloo Region and Windsor, Ont.
“Young tech workers have an urban focus. We recognized that from a planning perspective and developed an LRT system which opened in 2019 and that led to a dramatic shift in housing types,” says Kevin Eby, former director of community planning for the Region of Waterloo. There’s lots of data to show that there was a shift in Waterloo from single-family homes to mid-rise and ultimately apartment buildings.”The puzzling part is how the ups and downs of the tech sector affect local real estate during different business cycles. In July, Kitchener-Waterloo-based OpenText laid off 1,200 workers. It was preceded by anat Waterloo-based Blackberry Ltd.
Waterloo’s market is skewed though, by other factors, such as the large numbers of students attending Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier Universities and Conestoga College, who increase demand for rental housing, Mr. Eby says. The Vancouver market is different in that there is a physical limit on how much housing can ever be available in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. “We’re constrained by the ocean, rivers, mountains and the U.S. border,” says Wendy Waters, vice-president of research and strategy at GWL Realty Advisors in Vancouver.
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