Greatest Boom Ever

Interest-only lending for Australian home loans has hit an eight-year high of over a fifth of total lending commitments, mostly fuelled by a surge of investors.     Read more: https://tinyurl.com/4w2njkhy     

A small group of cities across the country drove Canada’s progress on diversifying trade in 2025, while others fell behind, says a new report from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.   Read more: https://tinyurl.com/mv8p4xun  

Officials from The Confluence Historic Site and Parkland unveiled an ambitious, 20-year plan Wednesday to transform the birthplace of modern Calgary.   Read more: https://tinyurl.com/3xu4nrpd  

There’s a tendency in conversations about downtown Edmonton to dwell on what’s missing. But the data tells a far more constructive story. Quietly and steadily, billions of dollars have flowed into the core, reshaping not just the skyline, but the trajectory of the city itself.       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/3zu2wd36  

Builders in St. Albert could now face thousands of dollars in fines for not properly storing garbage after the city changed its rules to stop the spread of debris.       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/4tjvxnde  

During Tuesday’s City Council meeting council members voted unanimously to moving ahead with critical upgrades at the Lethbridge Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).        Read more: https://tinyurl.com/467ymjw6  

Australia’s property market is again sending mixed and increasingly uneasy signals as auction clearance rates, bank lending activity and buyer sentiment reveal a nation struggling to reconcile housing affordability with decades of extraordinary price growth.       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/y7zmb5vr     

The number of fires in Edmonton that involved homes under construction and vacant properties where infill could be built went up by 66 per cent over four years, according to the city’s fire department.        Read more: https://tinyurl.com/4hchue9c       

One tree and four bushes will be the bare minimum landscaping for single-family infill development in Edmonton, and developers will have to put the money up front — or risk losing the deposit and having the city do the planting for them, if it’s not completed in a timely manner (12 to 18 months).       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/2z8njznr     

When Jason Nixon was first appointed Alberta’s finance minister in June of 2022, oil prices were surging above US$106 a barrel in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/59y9vchr     

The City of Edmonton approved a permit to build a new Costco.       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/5c7fbkn9     

It appears Canadians are going for walls before weddings.       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/3r8ahhe2     

Rocky View County is seeking public input as it explores how tourism-related development should be managed and supported across the region.       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/2ta58kpk     

As Medicine Hat is less fewer 80 days away from hosting its first ever national multi-sport event, members of the organizing committee provided an update on accommodations, logistics and the competition to city staff and councillors Monday.       Read more: https://tinyurl.com/2ca3p392