Real Estate

BC's new home ownership measures helpful, but not for everyone

Kim Little

Apr 6th, 2012

BC's new home ownership measures will be helpful, but not for everyone. Recognizing the difficulty for young families hoping to enjoy home ownership, the BC government announced housing relief measures effective April 1.

What does this mean for prospective homeowners? Here's the breakdown:

- Newly built homes bought as a primary residence are eligible for a provincial rebate of 71.43 per cent of the provincial portion of HST, up to a maximum amount.
- New homes with HST payable after April 1, 2012, will have a maximum rebate of $42,500 (before, that maximum was $26,250).

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Recreational real estate: creating your own "affordable" waterfront home

Kim Little

Feb 21st, 2012

Vacation home ownership at the Black Rock Oceanfront Resort (pictured in photograph), recreational real estate made easy.

Recently, the government introduced HST easing measures aimed at transitioning the HST to the GST/PST. One of those initiatives is a rebate of up to $42,000 if you buy a secondary piece of real estate or “recreational” property outside the Greater Vancouver Regional District under $850,000.

Some people wondered why a stimulus was needed for recreational real estate, but it was.

It wasn't that long ago that many of us dreamed of a house on the water. A cabin, shack or a plot of waterfront land to camp on. I recall a senior from Mayne Island telling me to “get a piece of some now, they aren't making anymore.” That was back in early 2002, and recreational real estate was becoming more valuable.

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Home Front: Canada's housing markets keep a steady pace

Anja Konjicanin

Feb 13th, 2012

Photo sourced from obxmarketreport.com

Canada's housing markets are forecast to remain steady for another two years, according to a new report released on Monday.

The national housing agency, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), is predicting continued low interest rates and "moderate" increases in the average multiple listing service (MLS) price for 2012.

“With the Canadian economy set to expand at a moderate pace and mortgage rates expected to remain low, activity levels in 2012 in both new home construction and sales of existing homes will stay close to levels seen in 2011,” said Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist for CMHC in a press release.

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How to own an affordable house in Vancouver

Kim Little

Jan 25th, 2012

Photo from SMALLWORKS Studios/Laneway Housing Inc. featuring split home with double enterance

The City of Vancouver lead the way in premiering the laneway housing bylaw. It's taken a while for this to really catch on, but the possibilities the bylaw presents are no- brainers. The laneway home can house your parents, it can house your adult kids, it can provide positive cash flow as a rental, or you can move in the newly renovated space and rent the old house. So many incredible options.

At under $300,000 all in, for many one and two bedroom models, it provides way more flexibility than an investment condo. But how does this help someone that doesn't have a property to put it on? How can this help you get noticed in the housing market?

Three words for you.

Tenants in common.

More commonly referred to as “shared equity.”

Investing in shared equity is a great option

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Vancouver condo market still going strong, despite slump forecast

Kim Little

Jan 11th, 2012

The Prescott by Wesgroup in North Vancouver is just one example of a strong local market despite warnings.

With yesterday's announcement that the heads of some of Canada's biggest banks are warning that Toronto and Vancouver's condo markets might be heading for a slump it's a good time to take a look at Vancouver's still-hot market from a ground-level perspective.

We certainly know there is a slowdown in some condo markets -- Olympic Village is desperately trying to sell its first round of 200 units. But on the street, what I see is that each neighbourhood is its own market. In fact, each building can be its own market. It's becoming harder to lump all of Vancouver into one category and make a comment on "average".

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Speculating on Vancouver's flippin' real estate market

Kim Little

Jan 9th, 2012

Speculation in real estate is a big topic in Vancouver. For those not familiar with the term, it's the notion that you buy property for the purpose of reselling later at a profit. The problem lately in the Vancouver real estate market is that we are seeing this happen at an unreasonable pace.

Unintentional speculators

We bought our first house for sale by owner in the late 80's for $97,000 and a Chinatown parking pass for five years. Now that’s a story in itself, but it was the start of my interest in real estate and my awakening to what is now the last tax exempt bonus we have -- The Principal Residence.

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Lower Mainland home owners willing to compromise for livability, but not much

Jenny Uechi

Jan 5th, 2012

Give me this, or something close, say future home owners.

A new survey sponsored by REW.ca and conducted by Mustel Research Group has revealed what future home buyers and sellers in the Lower Mainland find most important -- and what they are willing to compromise on -- when making buying decisions.

As expected, the survey found liveability factors and location are still the most important in selecting a property in the Lower Mainland, with most willing to budge on size and style of home if pressed to make a choice.

Close to everything

"Close" is the key word that sums up what respondents want in a location, according to a REW.ca press release. Forty-one per cent of home buyers and sellers selecting “close to amenities” and 33 per cent saying "close to family/friends." "Close to work/lessened commute time" came third, with acceptable commute times averaging 30 minutes.

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New-housing starts drop dramatically

Christina Montgomery

Dec 8th, 2011

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

There were a whole lot of messages in the latest report out of CMHC on housing starts.

Among them? The seasonally adjusted rate of housing starts was way down in November over October, especially in Toronto.

Most of that decrease came in condo starts.

Still, prices remain high. So what it all likely means is that the market is simmering down, people are nervous and some are opting to continue renting rather than jump into home ownership in a troubled economy. And maybe that places like Toronto are just slightly overbuilt for now.

The Canadian Press has the details:

TORONTO -- New home building across Canada dropped by a sharp 13 per cent in November, but there was still no sign the red-hot Canadian housing market is poised for a tumble, analysts said.

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Low interest isn't helping home sales much

Christina Montgomery

Dec 6th, 2011

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Interesting news from the local housing front: Never mind the low interest rates, home sales in and around Vancouver have fallen signficantly during the past year.

Or maybe they'd just be much worse without the low rates.

According to a new Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver figures, residential property sales were up 1.9 per cent in November over October.

But those , 2,360 sales were still down 5.9 per cent over sales from the same month in 2010.

New listings were also down last month over those a year ago, but were about two per cent higher than the 10-year average.

And there were nine per cent fewer homes listed in November than in October, but still 13 per cent more that at this time last year.

Sales of detached properties on the MLS listings in November hit 916, a drop of 12.8 per cent from November 2010. But the benchmark price for detached properties increased 11.4 per cent from November 2010, to $890,204.

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Doing the math on laneway housing

Christina Montgomery

Dec 5th, 2011

It's one of the things you never hear anyone ask when they're talking about laneway housing in Vancouver.

They're green and they're groovy. They let you house your kids and your aging parents and they provide a rental income. Or, in the case of one of my friends, they allow two young couples to split the price of land in a great neighbourhood and each have their own house.

They don't even seem that small to the people who live in them.

But do laneway homes really make economic sense, once all the math is done?

It's a great question, and BC Business has provided an interesting answer in its December edition.

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Real Estate

Unintentional speculators

Close to everything

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