Saskatchewan-Manitoba

Investors, both domestic and from Alberta and B.C., are driving up the price of Winnipeg apartment buildings in what has become a bidding war.

Winnipeggers have said their final goodbyes - for the second time - to Canad Inns Stadium. The home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for the last 60 years played host to its final event last month.

Last month's arrival of Winnipeg's first Victoria's Secret location saw 250 people line up a couple of hours before the store's opening.

Burton Cummings, lead singer of the Guess Who and a huge solo star in the 1970s and '80s, has put his 4,683-square-foot mansion in the swanky Tuxedo neighbourhood up for sale. The $1.35 million price tag includes four bedrooms, and one grand piano.

Prices for Saskatchewan farmland are soaring in step with the rise of grain prices, but land inventory is becoming tight as investors compete for prime acreages.

As of the end of October, the City of Saskatoon had issued $983 billion in building permits, ahead of last year and apparently on track to set an unprecedented $1 billion in construction values this year.

Saskatchewan's hot housing market is expected to cool slightly next year, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).

The unemployment rate in Saskatchewan has fallen to 4.7 per cent, the second lowest in Canada, with an increase in both full- and part-time jobs as of the end of October, compared with a year earlier.

The Yellow Quill First Nation has announced plans to build a five-storey, 75,000-square-foot office building on a downtown property in Saskatoon. The site, owned by Yellow Quill, is currently used as a parking lot.

In arguably the most anticipated retail opening in the city’s history, IKEA finally christened a nearly 400,000-square-foot store in south Winnipeg in late November.