As the new year approaches, it would also bring in a new set of hurdles that the housing market has to go with. Here is the forecast for the housing market and challenges it might face in 2019

Low Land availability

A new study by Ontario homebuilding industry warns about the lack of available land for new homes to be built. This lack of availability of land might drive the prices up in the future.

According to Globalnews.ca article and a study report by Neptis, there are 50,810 hectares of unbuilt and available in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area, for a total of 125,560 hectares in Greater Golden Horseshoe.

This might be become a huge problem to tackle in the upcoming years because of population intensification and the less availability of land.

Tight Rental Space

In the month of November, the Ontario government announced the rent control legislation would no longer apply to the new housing units that are being added to the rental space.

As the rent control would discourage developers from starting new rental built projects. The biggest problem would be the lack of purpose built and rented condo units during the times when more people are looking for rental spaces. As the country’s policies for immigration are being flexible and with the increase in inflow of immigrants the need for more rental spaces has been on rise and there might not be enough spaces available.

According to Ben Myers of Bullpen research and consulting, the bigger problem facing the province is the lack of rented condos units. He wrote” This change won’t significantly move the needle on new purpose built rental supply. If I had to put a number on it, I’d say we’ll get 500 to 1,00 more rental apartment starts per year because of the elimination of rent contra over the next 5 years”.

Increasing Interest Rates

The home sales in GTA were down by 1.1% month on month in October, which shows the start of slower sales period for the market. The sales prices in Greater Toronto rose by 1% in October whereas the new listings retreated by around 3% in the region.

The reason is higher mortgage rates which are impacting the budgets of new home buyers. Signs show that the hike in the interest rates would seem to continue even in 2019.

First time home buyers should keep these things in mind while looking out for new options and for people who are looking for a place to rent.

 

 

Located within the western part of Greater Toronto Area (GTA), starting from Credit River in Mississauga to the Regional Road 25 in Milton.

Location: Greater Toronto Ares

Project Type: Design-Build-Finance (DBF)

Infrastructure Sector: Transportation

Highway 401 expansion project is from the biggest freeways in Ontario. This project will provide a relief to congestion on the existing highway and will enhance the flow of services, goods, and traffic in the region. In terms of commuter and trade traffic, highway 401 expansion construction project is a critical component of the provincial highway network of Ontario.

Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and Ministry of Transportation (MTO) released a request for qualification (RFQ) to shortlist and pre-qualify the teams that can deliver the highway 401 expansion construction project.

This project will include widening the existing six lane configuration to the below:

·         12 lane core-collector system from the Credit River to Winston Churchill Boulevard

·         10 lanes from Winston Churchill Boulevard to Highway 407 ETR/ Highway 401 interchange

·         12 lane core-collector system from Highway 407 ETR/ Highway 401 interchange to James Snow Parkway

·         10 lanes from the James Snow Parkway to Regional Road 25

·         Median High Occupancy Vehicle lanes

·         Support facilities and features - drainage, lighting, signage, ATMS, carpool lots

Quotes:

“Highway 401 is a critical highway for commuters and commercial traffic traveling throughout Ontario and the United States. Adding both High Occupancy Vehicle and general purpose lanes will be essential in managing congestion and improving daily commutes across the region.” Steven Del Duca, Minister of Transportation

“Our government is committed to building a stronger, more prosperous province through the largest infrastructure investment in Ontario's history. The Highway 401 expansion project will enhance our transportation network, create employment opportunities during construction and help support future development along the highway corridor.” Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure

“The Highway 401 expansion project is an important component in helping with traffic flow on this busy highway. IO looks forward to reviewing the RFQ submissions by the market for this project.” Ehren Cory, President and CEO, Infrastructure Ontario

Economic Benefits:

This project will produce a significant benefit for commuters and will generate vast employment opportunities.

Green and Community Benefits

Highway 401 Expansion Construction Project will improve the life quality by reducing daily travel time for commuters; as well as, a significant decrease in traffic congestion, greenhouse gases and fuel consumption.

ICM Contractors Inc.

Our engineering consultants at ICM Contractors are on the watch for that project engineering consultancy service a get themselves engaged in studying that project risks and safety hazards and will instantly report updates for that part.

 

Guidelines to Convert from Microsoft Project to Primavera P6

Choosing an appropriate Resource Management software is important, but also complicated as there are vast options available, all with different functions. The most commonly used software are Microsoft Project and Primavera P6. Most businesses are shifting to Primavera P6 from Microsoft Project. Thus, it is important to follow several guidelines while converting from Microsoft Project to Primavera P6.

Microsoft Project has a different architecture as a software compared to Primavera P6. For example, the scheduled reports are more organized in Microsoft Project than Primavera P6. Also, Primavera P6 is not compatible with the linking options nor milestone types that are available in Microsoft Project.

Our team at ICM Contractors have come up with a process of conversion from Microsoft Project to Primavera P6 that addresses a lot of that compatibility issues, as there are certain steps that are to be taken to correct the differences when moving from Microsoft Project to Primavera P6.

The following guidelines will help converting from Microsoft Project to Primavera P6:

Linked Summaries to be Avoided:

If tasks are indented, Microsoft Project will retain some links among the tasks and summaries. This would affect the start dates of other tasks. If these summary tasks are on the Microsoft Project schedule, the start dates will be inaccurate if the summary was a predecessor. While the conversion is happening, the summary tasks in Microsoft Project would become WBS elements in P6 which doesn’t support links to WBS elements. These links should be removed before the conversion.

Should not have Blank Rows:

Having blank rows or blank tasks in your schedule might cause errors during conversion. It is better to remove the blank rows before submitting the file for conversion.

Don’t have Blank WBS Fields:

Microsoft sometimes leaves blank fields while generating WBS codes basing task indentation hierarchy. This would result in errors during the conversion. Therefore, it is necessary to verify that all the WBS fields are populated before the schedule submission.

Uncheck “Project Summary Task”:

Using the “Project Summary Task” might create a replica WBS element in the Primavera P6 schedule. Primavera P6 uses the project that is similar to the Project Summary Task button at the top of WBS structure. The Project Summary Task should be unchecked before sending the file.

Align Indent Structures:

You need to make sure that the indentation of task is correct so that it will display the tasks in Primavera P6 in the same way as in Microsoft Project. For big projects the impact would be huge on the overall layout of the schedule. We recommend that you make sure all the tasks are in order, have indentation and are in-line with the WBS structure in the Microsoft Project.

Milestone Differences

The milestones in Microsoft Project are different than Primavera P6. In Primavera P6 there are two milestones; start milestones and finish milestones. The start milestone will schedule at the beginning of the calendar working day and finish milestones will schedule the end of the working day. When the conversion happens from Microsoft Project to Primavera P6, all the projects are loaded as start milestones. This might affect the days in the schedule. The dates in Primavera P6 might be a day later compared to the date in Microsoft Project as Primavera P6 would place them at the start of calendar working day. One should identify all the milestones that should be finish milestones and change them accordingly.

Summary

Microsoft Project and Primavera P6 have their own ways in displaying a WBS. It depends on what you prefer to use and which of the tools would be comfortable to use. Primavera P6 emphasizes WBS’s ownership of the tasks whereas Microsoft Project emphasizes the order of the tasks created and their IDs. It comes down to personal preferences when choosing between the two.