According to a recent report by Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) and the Urban Land Institute, foreign investors will likely be interested in real estate ventures in Saskatoon and Montreal next year. Saskatoon has become particularly popular to companies investing in timber and agricultural industries.
The continued dip in oil prices has hurt growth in western Canada and transferred it to the east where manufacturing is typically the dominant industry. This trend doesn’t appear to hold true for Vancouver, however, as it has become the country’s must-watch real estate market.
With the drop in oil prices, cities like Calgary and Edmonton were, until recently, some of the most encouraging real estate markets in the country. But the dramatic turn in the oil industry impacted real estate in these cities – both residential and commercial.
This has a ripple effect on many industries. Fewer housing starts means there are fewer people moving into the area and contributing to the economy. Homebuilders aren’t working with printers, for example, for support services like booklet printing and brochure printing to showcase their homes and the various features buyers can choose.
While cities in the west are experiencing a stall in terms of growth, their counterparts in Ontario and Quebec should benefit from the lower return on the Loonie because their economies are based much more heavily in manufacturing and exporting.
