Other water damage may be covered by homeowner policies, including sewer backup and burst pipes, but not for overland flooding.
Other water damage may be covered by homeowner policies, including sewer backup and burst pipes, but not for overland flooding.
This is a neat bike installation in east Vancouver that I discovered while on a buyers tour recently. It really fit the area, I especially like the lights and the old wooden wine box on the back that has been converted to a planter box.... great job homeowner
SOURCE: Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP)
Looking for a reno project? This top floor north facing one bedroom is priced right! Needs a complete renovation. Super location. A short walk to Commercial Drive shops, skytrain and Broadway B Line bus. Rainscreened (2011), updated hallway s.
When it comes to foreign ownership of Vancouver real estate, we operate in a data vacuum. No agency collects information on where home buyers come from. It’s not that this is an impossible task: Australia, Alberta, Switzerland, and many other places routinely keep track of foreign buyers. We don’t.
We know investors and speculators are buying here. We see their influence in desirable neighbourhoods where prices have spiralled up steadily, or in downtown condos with most of their windows dark at night because no one’s home. We see the influence of investment buyers when they suddenly disappear, leaving their former haunts with escalated prices and few buyers.
A couple of recent studies have tried to identify segments of the foreign investor market. And while they’re not wholly successful, at least they give us data—something sorely missing from the uproar about foreign ownership and investment in Greater Vancouver housing.
A new report from Sotheby’s International Realty found that foreign buyers make up 40% of the luxury single-family home market in Greater Vancouver. Most come from China, but “There has also been a recent surge in buyers from Iran and the United States.”
The Top Tier Trends Report surveyed the top agents in Sotheby’s Canadian network to find out who’s buying luxury houses in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. It also asked about those buyers’ preferences.
It defined a luxury home in Vancouver as having at least 3,500 sf and an entry-level price point averaging $2.8 million (compared to $2 million in Toronto and Calgary, and $3.5 million in Montreal). However, the minimum price point for a luxury house in Vancouver varies widely depending on the neighbourhood. The West Side fetches a $4 million minimum price. The bottom of West Vancouver’s high-end is a relative bargain at $2.5 million. And at $2 million, an entry-level luxury house in North Vancouver is cheap like borscht, if you have that kind of money.
Here are more findings from the study.
The Sotheby’s survey didn’t cover condos or non-luxury homes. But Andy Yan, Senior Urban Planner with Bing Thom Architects, took on the task of identifying investor-owned properties of all kinds in 2008 and has been honing his measurements ever since.
He uses a range of methods to try to peg foreign investor-owned properties in the City of Vancouver including:
… And most recently, the 2011 census numbers for unoccupied dwellings and those “occupied solely by foreign residents and/or by temporarily present persons.”
After a great deal of number crunching Yan says, “It isn’t as easy to measure foreign investment in Vancouver real estate as to talk about foreign investment in Vancouver real estate.”
In a later blog post he adds, ” … we strongly believe that many Downtown condos are investor owned/non-owner occupied. However, there is no simple and direct method of determining whether this investment is held by a Canadian or not. The nationalities/citizenship status of these investors is not readily known through these data sets.”
Yan presented his findings during a recent SFU Woodward’s panel discussion called “Foreign Investment in Vancouver Real Estate.” The big takeaways from that discussion were that a) we need to talk about investment as a whole, not just foreign investment, and b) we can’t talk about it intelligently if we don’t have hard numbers, so we need to start tracking properties that are bought for investment purposes, and where those investors come from.
In the slide that got the most attention, Yan restricted himself to simply identifying non-resident occupancy, i.e., people (local or not) who own condos but either rent them out, live in them part time or leave them empty. He created this map showing the concentrations of non-resident occupancy in the City of Vancouver.
While the City of Vancouver as a whole had 7.7 per cent non-resident occupancy, parts of Downtown had up to 23.7 per cent—almost one in four.
Both the Sotheby’s survey and Andy Yan’s research show that location matters. Investors tend to cluster in neighbourhoods that suit their needs. And by flooding into a neighbourhood, they change it. This is a major reason Yan recommends finding reliable methods to measure homes bought for investment.
As he said in his presentation, “Is the issue really more about investment in Vancouver real estate and the kind of behaviours that occur with that investment?”
He’s talking about the mentality where owners see their property as simply an investment vehicle, and they’re not involved in the life of the community.
He concludes, “… I think we live in a remarkable urban, global age. And while I’m not sure about foreign investment in Vancouver real estate, I really do believe that like many other cities around the world, money floats. And money in the world is coming to Vancouver just as much as it’s coming to San Francisco or Singapore…. and where it ultimately parks in a city, fundamentally presents challenges if we are to aspire to a sustainable, liveable and just city.
“And where it’s parking in a city perhaps means that we are posed a challenge towards rethinking some of those parking rules.”
The two studies are a good start on opening up the discussion.
See also:
Vancouver Sun: “Vancouver Planner Andy Yan Fights to Prevent a ‘Zombie’ City”
South China Morning Post: “Vancouver Eyes ‘Mictro-Suites’ as Mainlanders Buy Up Mansions”
The Globe and Mail: “At Vancouver’s ‘Cold Harbour’ a Neighbourhood Hollows Out”
The Vancouver downtown skyline is changing—and fast. With highrises like the 29-storey residential tower on Beach Avenue and the 63-storey hotel and residential building at 1151 West Georgia Street already approved, development is surging upwards with no sign of slowing down. Immigration is on the rise, American retailers are moving to Canada and for a city like Vancouver, hemmed in by mountains on one side and ocean on the other, building up (rather than out) is the only way forward. Seventeen multi-storey highrises sit on the current projects and activities list for the city’s planning department earmarked for the downtown core. This is what it could look like if they all come to fruition.
60 W. Cordova St. (approved) 10-storey mixed-used building Henriquez Partners Architects | 1151 W. Georgia St. (approved) 63-storey hotel and residential building Holborn Developments Ltd. |
520 W. Georgia St. (approved) 22-storey mixed-use building Henriquez Partners Architects | 1050 Expo Blvd. (approved) 6-storey multiple dwelling of supportive housing Dys Architecture |
455 Beach Ave. (approved) 29-storey residential tower The Hulbert Group B.C. Ltd. | 1009 Harwood St. (approved) 17-storey residential tower Amacon Development Corp. |
1372 Seymour St. (approved) 33-storey residential building Onni Contracting Ltd. | 1155 Hornby St. (proposed) 18-storey multiple dwelling Henriquez Partners Architects |
734 Rolston Cr. (approved) 34-storey residential tower and 7-storey low-rise residential building IBI Group Inc. | 68 Smithe St. (proposed) 18-storey mixed-use building IBI Group Inc. |
31 W. Pender St. (approved) 7-storey mixed-use building Joe Y. Wai Architect Inc. | 1304 Hornby St. (proposed) 31-storey mixed-use building Concert Properties Ltd. |
745 Thurlow St. (approved) 25-storey office tower with retail and restaurant space Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership | 942 Granville St. (proposed) 2-storey commercial building Studio One Architecture Inc. |
177 Robson St. (approved) 20-storey hotel and residential building Relative Form Architecture Studio | 720 Robson St. (proposed) 5-storey mixed-use building Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership |
775 Richards St. (approved) 46-storey mixed-use building Henriquez Partners Architects |
SOURCE: BC Business Magazine, Sarah Fullbrook | May 6, 2013
This is a beautiful family home, which is in move-in condition with a professionally renovated kitchen and bathrooms. This amazing 5 bedroom/3.5 bathroom home has been tastefully cared for, and recently updated with meticulous style and design.This home is featuring an open gourmet kitchen with stainless appliances, ample counters & cupboards for your cooking needs.This home has great curb appeal, borders green space, and is conveniently located near shopping, great schools and so much more. The basement suite is turnkey ready to for your needs. The seller has conducted a pre-listing inspection for the benefit of buyers, available upon request with other warranties and receipts to prospective buyers.
Our experience with having Roland Kym from REMAX as our realtor was a great feeling of ‘trust’. When one has been in the same home for over 25 years, it is a huge decision to move especially when we have been out of the real estate market for so many years. With Roland as our realtor the transition went very smooth. We were at peace of mind knowing Roland was there for our best interest. His method of introducing our home to the real estate market was fabulous on paper and the internet. Even with a few hiccups we had on the way everything was handled very professionally. Not only did Roland sell our home, he is also responsible for finding our present home we now live in. Roland goes above the rest by giving us these wonderful black binders with loads of information that we found very helpful. We do recommend Roland to others who are selling their home or looking to buy.
Thank you Roland for all your help in selling our home.
Mae and Bill Haight