Briefly:

The Canadian housing market has proven resilient over the past few years, resisting the oversized mid-decade price increases seen elsewhere, and also steering clear of more recent collapses.

But what is the driver of this steady long-term growth? The answer may lie in Canada’s immigrant population, which has narrowed the home ownership gap with their Canadian-born counterparts, according to the Real Estate Trends report by Scotia Economics. Between 2001 and 2006, the percentage of immigrants who owned their own homes increased by 4%, compared to the 2% increase for the Canadian-born population.

“Over time, immigrant families eventually make the move to home ownership, at rates similar to the Canadian-born population,” says Adrienne Warren, senior economist, Scotia Economics. “However, between 2001 and 2006, the home ownership rate rose for all immigrant groups, regardless of how long they had resided in Canada. The biggest increase was among those living in Canada for less than 10 years.”

According to the report, the faster transition to home ownership has been supported in part by strong labour markets. The employment rate for core working-age recent immigrants jumped 3.5 percentage points between 2001 and 2006 to 67%. This was faster than the 1.5 percentage point gain among their Canadian-born counterparts (to 82.4%). The employment rate for all immigrants also increased over this period, but by a more modest single percentage point, to 77.5 %.

“Given Canada’s aging population and relatively low fertility rates, longer-term household formation and housing needs will be largely determined by immigration,” Warren concludes.

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Teralys launches new fund

Quebec’s Solidarity Fund QFL today announced the $700 million closing for the Teralys Capital fund. This amount concludes the first financing step for the new investment fund and also marks its official launch.

With this capital, Teralys Capital is now ready to move ahead with its mandate to finance private venture capital funds that invest in technology companies in the life sciences, information technology and clean technology sectors.

“Today, we completed the first step for Teralys Capital, and can now begin implementing a coordinated strategy for investment that will benefit the venture capital industry,” said Teralys Capital’s president, Jacques Bernier. “Thanks to our partners’ financial contributions, we can continue to further entrepreneurship and technological innovation in Quebec, attract other experienced investors and encourage the formation of international partnerships.”

(07/09/09)

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.