July 2015

The rules around the income from rental units considered in home loan applications submitted to the CMHC are changing.

The Bank of Canada announced July 15 that it is lowering its target for the overnight rate by one-quarter of one percentage point to 1/2 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 3/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 1/4 per cent.What Will It Mean for Variable and Fixed Rates?
How will the BoC’s latest rate cut affect variable mortgage rates?When th...

I recently mailed a marketing flyer to homeowners in West Vancouver. It spoke of how I would market their homes to engage with Chinese buyers in order to maximize the sale price for the homeowner. My Chinese buyer agent translated portions into Mandarin. A week later I received my flyer returned in the mail with a yellow sticky note with the word...

China will soon launch a new pilot scheme in six cities allowing individuals to invest directly overseas, the official Securities Times reported on Tuesday, potentially unleashing billions of dollars in Chinese savings on global stock and bond markets.

Think back to the days of the commodity boom. Real early. Like 1999. Investment gurus like Jim Rogers spoke about what will happen to raw materials prices — from iron ore to soybeans — when half the population of China goes from eating a pound of chicken a week, to two pounds. Or when China goes from building one building a week, to the equivalent...