While downtown Calgary struggles with an office vacancy rate nearing 30 per cent, a unique "campus" development in the heart of the Beltline is seeing success.

Calgary's industrial market shows signs of turning the corner

While Calgary's downtown office sector and its plunging vacancy rates overshadowed all commercial real estate activity in 2016, the city's industrial market has better weathered the storm and is poised to grow in 2017, say experts.

According to Barclay Street Real Estate, vacancy for the industrial real estate sector finished 2016 at 7.76 per cent. It had peaked at 7.8 per cent in the third quarter of the year. In 2015, it was 6.57 per cent.

"Absorption was a negative 127,373 square feet for Q3. This was the only quarter of negative absorption we have had since the '90s," said Jon Mook, executive vice-president of Barclay Street Real Estate's industrial division.

Housing experts predict Calgary's rental market to see another year of high vacancies, low rents

Calgary's rental housing market this year will not change much from 2016 as historically high vacancy rates will continue to usher in incentives and lower rents, say experts.

"We expect the vacancy rate to remain close to 2016 levels" said Richard Cho, Calgary-based principal market analyst for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).

Knowing your local snow clearing bylaws may not be cool, but it's necessary

Winter is coming, and with it the one chore that many homeowners dread: shoveling their snowy sidewalks and driveways.

And while snow removal is often the last thing homeowners want to do on a chilly winter day, officials say it is important in protecting the public's safety.

"Sidewalks need to be kept clean for public safety, [and] a snow removal bylaw shares that responsibility without adding to municipal costs," said Charlene Ruttle, Cochrane's manager of municipal enforcement.

Commercial landlords thinking outside of the box in wake of high vacancy rates

Landlords in Calgary's suburban office market continue to display increasing creativity in the face of rising vacancy rates that are not expected to stem any time soon, says a new report.

In a third quarter report issued earlier this month, Barclay Street Real Estate noted the overall vacancy rate in suburban Calgary rose by
1.1 per cent from the second quarter to 22.3 per cent. Research director Anthony Scott attributed the slight increase to the introduction of new inventory that came to market with significant unleased space.

Calgary's industrial sector showing signs of strain

Calgary's industrial market continues to hiccup along in a weakened economy as vacancy rates have risen over each of the last four quarters and are likely heading toward the bottom of the cycle, said a second-quarter market report by Cushman & Wakefield.

"One positive is that the amount of space under construction has been cut substantially; helping to prevent future jumps in the vacancy rate," read the report.

Lower-class spaces feeling brunt of energy downturn

Vacancy rates in Calgary's downtown office market have hit historic highs in 2016, and commercial real estate experts are forecasting further declines moving forward.

According to a second-quarter market report by Colliers International in Calgary, the overall vacancy rate in the core has jumped to more than 22 per cent from 20.5 per cent the previous quarter – the equivalent of 618,716 square feet of office space.

Vacancy rates between classes varied, but were steepest in the B-class at 31.8 per cent and C-class at 28.1 per cent. AA- and A-class vacancies were also up from the previous quarter at 17.6 and 18.9 per cent, respectively.

Index drops by 1.2 per cent in May

After a period that saw Calgary's vacancy rates at virtually zero and rents among the highest in Canada, renters in the province's two largest cities are now seeing the outcome of Alberta's economic downturn in the form of lower prices, according to a new report.

The latest data from the Consumer Price Index shows renters in Alberta's two major cities might be getting a break. The May 2016 index in Calgary has dropped by about 1.2 per cent from the peak it hit in September of last year. Rents in Edmonton have dropped by 0.3 per cent.

New Public Interest Law Clinic to challenge landlord-tenant law in Alberta

As a child, Sophie Purnell lived in Burundi before her family fled due to the country's increasing violence.

Now, as a third-year law student at the University of Calgary, she is hoping to make life better for others by working with a group of students to change landlord-tenant law in Alberta, one issue at a time.

The students — all second- and third-year law students — are taking a new course offered through the school's new Public Interest Law Clinic. Supervised by university professors, as well as local public interest lawyers, the students will take on cases from the clinic that fall under the public interest banner as part of their course load.

This term, students will be learning about residential tenancy law, human rights and potential constitutional challenges in the way tenants are treated.

CREB®Now sits down with Amelia Martin, Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta

Apartment-style condos often represent an entry point for homeownership to many Calgarians. As such, many of these first-time buyers will have questions before making one of the most important buying decisions in their life.

CREB®Now recently sat down with Amelia Martin, executive director for the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta, to get answers on everything from how to review a condo board's documents to knowing your rights as an investor.

CREB®Now: ?CPLEA recently unveiled a new resource (condolawalberta.ca) to help Albertans navigate through the buying and selling process. What are some of the common questions and concerns that this resource hopes to address?