These are stories Report on Business is following Tuesday, April 7, 2015.
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Honey, I'm home
There's a condo for sale in Brooklyn that's so big people could lose each other in it.
And that appears to be just what happened.
As Stuart Leaf tells it, he'd been at home in the 11,000-sq.-ft. condo for three hours at one point several months ago, when his wife phoned to see where he was.
She, too, was at home, somewhere in the apartment that takes in the 10, 11 and 12 floor of One Brooklyn Bridge.
That, Mr. Leaf told the Wall Street Journal, is when the couple realized that there was probably too much room for them in their home.
Particularly, according to the news organization, that they're soon to be empty-nesters.
Mr. Leaf, who founded Cadogan Management, which merged with Cantor Fitzgerald a few months ago, told the newspaper that he and his wife plan to downsize, to, say, something in the area of 5,000 to 6,500 sq. ft.
At $32-million (U.S.), the list price is a record for the area, one observer said.
And it's being listed privately, added Sotheby's International Realty's Karen Heyman, who's selling the condo with her brother, Alan.
The Leafs bought from a developer what used to be nine units on the three floors. He then merged them, so to speak, into a condo with six bedrooms, six baths and two half-baths, according to the report.
There's also a wine room that can hold 3,500 bottles, the Wall Street Journal said, a gymnasium with its own rock-climbing portion and views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty.
"It's pretty spread out and long, and you could definitely get lost there," said someone who has seen the unit.
- Follow our Real Estate Beat
- Tamsin McMahon: One-quarter of first-time home buyers had family help, survey finds
CPPIB strikes deal
The Canada Pension Plan's investment arm is teaming up with a private equity firm in a $5.3-billion (U.S.) deal for Informatica Corp.
Informatica unveiled the $48.75-a-share cash deal with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and The Permira Funds this morning.
"Informatica's differentiated suite of software solutions, stable base of recurring revenues and strong potential for future growth make this a highly attractive investment for CPPIB," said Mark Jenkins, who heads up private investments for the Canadian pension fund manager's investment unit.
Oliver hints on TFSAs
Finance Minister Joe Oliver is hinting his April 21 budget will double the contribution limit for tax-free savings accounts and is firing back at critics who say the tax break would largely benefit high-income Canadians.
The Conservative government is already on the defensive over its income splitting policy, which the Parliamentary Budget Officer has said would only benefit 15 per cent of Canadians who tend to earn higher incomes, The Globe and Mail's Bill Curry writes.
The government had until now been largely quiet on the status of its 2011 campaign pledge to double the annual limit Canadians can contribute to their TFSAs. The limit at the time was $5,000 but that has since been raised to $5,500.
In a letter to Conservative MPs dated April 7, Mr. Oliver provides several statistics to dispute the criticism that increasing the limit would primarily benefit wealthy Canadians.
GM shares dip
Shares of General Motors Co. dipped a bit today.
As Mr. Curry also reports, the Canadian government announced late yesterday it has sold the 73.4 million shares it still held in the auto maker since the crisis-era bailout.
The sale of the shares to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will help Ottawa as it prepares for the April 21 release of a budget hit by the slump in oil prices.
"The realized gain on the shares, expected to exceed the $1.5-billion in asset sale revenue that Ottawa had already assumed for [fiscal year 2016], adds some insurance to a bottom line eroded by low oil prices and the federal tax relief already announced," said economists at Bank of Nova Scotia.
"It helps to bridge to FY17, when the outlook for somewhat stronger oil prices and federal revenues suggests black ink without temporary one-off items."
- Bill Curry: Tories help balance budget by selling final 73.4 million GM shares from bailout
- How Joe Oliver may tackle his budget challenges (without ‘shiny baubles’)
Bell to change policy
Bell Canada says it will change its policy on tracking the Internet
browsing habits of its cellphone customers in response to a report from Canada's
privacy watchdog that chastised the company's "opt-out" approach, The Globe and Mail's Christine Dobby reports.
Bell charges third parties a fee to deliver ads targeted at customers' specific interests using the information it collects as part of its "relevant ads program."
A report from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) said today that Bell, whose parent owns 15 per cent of The Globe and Mail, fails to obtain adequate consent to the program by requiring customers to opt out from being tracked, rather than giving them the option to opt in in the first place.
"Bell will abide by the privacy commission's decision including the opt-in approach," said spokesman Mark Langton. "We're dedicated to protecting customer privacy and thank the commission for clarifying the rules."
Hot, hot, hot
As Sal Guatieri puts it today, Toronto and Vancouver are "the only two red-hot housing markets left in the country."
The senior economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns was commenting on the latest sales and price figures from the two cities, the latest, today, from the Toronto Real Estate Board.
Sales in the Toronto area rose 11 per cent in March from a year earlier, The Globe and Mail's Tamsin McMahon reports, while the average price climbed 10 per cent to $613,933.
The MLS index price, deemed a better measure, rose 7.9 per cent.
But it's the price of a detached home in the actual city that really tells the story, with a surge in the average price of almost 16 per cent.
All the numbers, said Jason Mercer, the board's director of market analysis, "points to the fact that the mix of detached homes sold this year compared to last has shifted towards more expensive properties."
As The Globe and Mail's Brent Jang reported last week, Vancouver area sales surged in March by almost 54 per cent, while the average price touched a record above $1.4-million.
"Meantime, Calgary and Edmonton continue to post double-digit declines in sales, though at a decelerating rate," said BMO's Mr. Guatieri.
- Tamsin McMahon: Toronto home prices surge 10% as sales activity heats up
- Brent Jang: Fresh warning bells sounded over Vancouver's hot housing market
- Brent Jang: Greater Vancouver's housing market is on the rise
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