The Home of the Week is a rare waterfront find in Ottawa.Inside Out Media
This week: The Bank of Canada’s interest rate warnings leave mortgage-holders worried, and the housing crisis is also driving an unhappiness crisis. Plus, the Vancouver developer you might not know about (but should) and one property worth a look.
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Interest rate
BoC warns rate hikes could be ahead, raising mortgage concerns
The Bank of Canada held the interest rate steady again this week, but it could be rough times ahead for your mortgage. Rate hikes might be on the horizon if oil prices stay high, Governor Tiff Macklem warned, and that could mean all kinds of trouble for borrowers and prospective buyers, Rachelle Younglai reports.
If the key rate goes up, it will hit variable mortgage-holders most directly. But it would also drive up the cost of funding fixed-rate mortgages, further increasing homeowners’ payments when they renew and making it harder for would-be buyers to afford a mortgage at all. And mortgage-renewers are already facing steeper payments – between $300 and $400 more per month, one mortgage broker told Rachelle – especially those who locked in rock-bottom rates in the early pandemic.
Think back two months to when mortgages were getting cheaper, and it’s hard to believe it now costs more to own a house while home prices decline. But the BoC’s in a holding pattern while it waits out the war in Iran, oil shocks and upcoming trade negotiations. As Erica Alini writes, the uncertainty about future rates leaves homeowners and prospective buyers feeling like they’re flying blind in the mortgage market – or wondering if they should even enter it at all.
Data
For young Canadians, the housing crisis is a happiness crisis
Growing up in a low-income home, Victoria Livingstone dreamed about the stability of a place of her own. But now the 21-year-old feels her dreams are crushed for good. Working four jobs to afford rent with her boyfriend in Sydney, N.S. and financial support for her little sister, she knows she could be homeless if she lost her full-time job. “It’s just like this terrifying instability,” Livingstone told reporter Erin Anderssen.
The housing crisis is a happiness crisis for many Gen Z and younger Millennials living on the edge of the financial cliff. Economic stress drove roughly half of Canada’s unprecedented decline in life satisfaction among 20- to 34-year olds between 2008 and 2025, according to new research, and housing unaffordability was the biggest culprit.
The findings suggest it’s not only the usual scapegoat of social media, it’s (more so) the economy, stupid. “Young people can delete TikTok on their phones. But they are trapped in a housing crisis and an AI revolution that’s erasing entry-level jobs,” Erin told me. From her years of covering the social policy of what makes people happy, she knows the solutions are in community, like one Gen Z-led organization buying its first share-house in Toronto. Young people “have knowledge to impart and a perspective that’s important – and the other adults in the room need to listen," Erin told me. “We’re all on this society together.” Read the full story here.
This week’s lowest fixed and variable mortgage rates in Canada
Rates shown are the lowest available for each term/type and category (insured vs. uninsured) as of market close on Thursday, April 30.
Profile
The B.C. developer you need to know about and his big succession conundrum
Ryan Beedie is good at almost everything – real estate, tech, mining, Wordle and pool, to name a few.Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart/The Globe and Mail
If you live in Vancouver or managed to tear your eyes away from the mountains on a trip here, you’ve seen oodles of signs for Ryan Beedie’s projects. Beedie (the company) has developed 50 million square feet of commercial and residential space mostly in the Lower Mainland and as far away as Ontario and Las Vegas. But despite his rare success in real estate, mining and tech – yep, all three – the B.C. business mogul is little known east of the Coast Mountains.
Sean Silcoff set out to change that after he gleaned in an interview last September that Beedie (the person) is no boring billionaire. In fact, he’s good at almost everything. Pool, golf, cribbage, cornhole, you name it. “I didn’t notice the pool table (two actually) just off the main reception area of his downtown Vancouver office, nor the Guinness World Record plaque for Beedie’s record-setting shot,” Sean told me. That is, until he returned to Vancouver in February for a full day of interviews that included Beedie’s closest advisors and even his banker. “In all my years reporting about business leaders, nobody has ever freely offered up their banker for an interview!” Sean said.
Beedie’s chattiness and openness struck Sean, and no topic was off-limits. But the fact that none of his three adult children want to take over the empire their grandfather founded is clearly a difficult one for the 60-year-old CEO. Far from a Succession-style battle like other family businesses (ahem, Rogers), Sean says he got “a candid look at a successful second-generation business leader struggling with the question of who will take over when he some day passes the reins.” Read the full profile here.
Design corner
How to make your home young-adult friendly
Ryookyung Kim and Phil Chan spent $250,000 turning Kim's parents' basement into a custom legal suite, but experts say there are less costly ways to make a big difference.Rémi Carreiro/Supplied
More young adults can’t afford to move out, and it’s bringing up all types of feelings for kids and parents alike (just ask the Globe readers who shared their two cents). But as more families lean in to inter-generational living, there are ways to design your home to stop your full house from feeling packed like sardines.
From updating childhood bedrooms to levelling up your basement or even building a laneway house, experts shared their solutions for both parents and grown children to feel at home. Whether you’re thrilled your kids are living with you or counting down the days until you’re an empty nester, here are design tips for every family and budget.
Home of the Week
A rare waterfront home in Ottawa built from bits of a historic church
The second storey of the home is built for privacy and views of the water, but the main staircase is something to admire all on its own.Inside Out Media
53 Scrivens St., Ottawa – Full gallery here
Call it divine intervention or a gut feeling, but the owner of this uncommon home facing Ottawa’s Lac Deschênes knew it was meant for him at first sight. And as local legend has it, the three-story waterfront dwelling has sacred elements: the contractor who built it rescued 12 solid oak antique doors, newel posts and cast iron grills from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Parliament Hill during a renovation in the 1980s (or so the story goes).
Using the vintage wood and painted-over grills as railings, the central stairwell is a masterpiece of craftsmanship that connects the three-bedroom, four-bathroom infill. But it’s the second floor that holds the main living area and is particularly designed for views and privacy with nine-foot windows on three walls facing the river. “Everyone who visits loves the house,” said Michael Brownell, the owner. “It just grabs people with its drama and its finishings and its light.”
The best part? A library built into the gables of the top floor with two walls of angled prayer shelves for books. If you don’t want to go to nearby Britannia Beach, it’s the perfect place to watch sunsets over the water, says Brownell. “It feels sort of like a tree house up there.”
Guess the price
d. The asking price is $1,495,000.