Military Blog

DND “ALL IN” ON OTTAWA WEST

DND has announced plans this week for a new operational headquarters that will be home to some 4500 civilian and military personnel. The plan right now is to have this completed by 2029. The site has not been finalized yet but DND spokesperson said it will be in close proximity to the new headquarters at […]

HHT – ARE 4 OPTIONS BETTER THAN 2?

We had some clients come up from Kingston for a recent house hunting trip. Knowing the market was active they kept a wide price range and a large area of interest.  This presented lots of options for them.  The challenge became that their short list consisted of some very different styles and neighbourhoods. It made […]

LACK OF INVENTORY CHALLENGING ON HHTS

Ottawa is the most challenging place in the country to buy a property right now. According to the Canadian real estate association, Ottawa is the hottest market in Canada and it’s not even close! This presents an interesting set of challenges for military buyers. They have only limited time on their house hunting trips. There […]

PLANNING A HOUSE HUNTING TRIP

I have done countless house hunting trips with military, RCMP, and government relocations.  Ottawa being the Capital is, of course, a natural place for this type of transaction. What many of my clients don’t know is how much work goes into making sure everything goes smoothly on arrival. Here is one meeting a few days […]

NEW AND EXPANDED BENEFITS FOR CAF RELOCATIONS

The Canadian Armed Forces leadership have made several changes associated with HHT relocations which are being implemented immediately with the approval from the Government of Canada.  They address the concerns of the benefits associated with the moves and the issues identified over the past several years. The changes focus on new benefits and expanding on current benefits such as: doubling the Home Equity […]

ICED – HHT in Epic Storm

When you come to Ottawa for your house hunting trip in mid-April you are not expecting an epic ice storm! That is exactly what happened on my client’s arrival date. All of Ontario was basically affected. Interestingly this ice storm played a drastic role in the house and location they ended up choosing. On day […]

Relocation Under Tough Circumstances

I recently had a family get in touch me who were relocating from Vancouver. She took a new position with the government here in Ottawa. She was already living here with the family in a small rental and he was still in Vancouver. What they didn’t realize is how hot the detached house market was […]

Ottawa Military Buyers Exclusives

We are always doing everything we can for our military clients. This year in Ottawa the real estate market is tight. We are putting together a list of off market homes this year for our military clients to look at. Many of these will be focused in the areas of Kanata and Stittsville. This is […]

DND HEADQUARTERS UPDATE

Right now in early 2018, it is estimated that there are approximately 3500 employees working out of the new headquarters. The feedback from my clients that work there is extremely positive. For some, their transfer here will have to wait. In early January it was announced that the final phase of workers will not be […]

NEW MILITARY RULES

I am sitting here at a home inspection with some military clients of mine. It is the first of which that won’t be automatically be taken care of by Brookfield. The client will have to pay for the inspection and get reimbursed at a later time. Each member on a relocation is supposed to get […]