Justin da Rosa
The Vancouver Sun

One agent weighs in on the impact the massive fires in Fort McMurray will have on the town’s real estate market.

It may be a long time before it is known to what extent Fort Mac’s ecoconomy will be impacted by the raging wildfire, but one Alberta-based investor and agent suggests it will lead to a housing shortage and, potentially, a mass exodus of citizens.

“I can’t even imagine the cost of this; insurance companies aren’t the greatest to deal with but hopefully they step up and peoples’ homes are taken care of,” Tim Mangot, a Realtor with CIR Realty, told REP. “People won’t want to come back … there was a huge number of people already trying to sell their homes and prices were already going down.”

Its impact on housing in the area has already been staggering.

Officials reported earlier this week that 70% of homes in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood had been destroyed, as well as 50% in nearby Abasand. Meanwhile, in Waterways, officials have estimated 90% of homes have already been lost.

It remains to be seen what the long-term impact the fires will have on housing prices if, indeed, a large number of citizens decide not to rebuild.

“Will prices plummet? Yes and no,” Mangat said. “It will reduce the number of houses available, which might help the market overall.”

Mangat compared the current wildfire to the 2011 Slave Lake fire that cost $750 million in damages ($794 million in 2016 dollars).

One Bank of Montreal analyst estimates total insurance losses will total $9.4 billion.

“What happened in Slave Lake was on a much smaller scale,” he said. “I can’t imagine the cost of [the damages in Fort McMurray].”

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Nearly 10,000 people apply to work at hotel

Glen Korstrom
Van. Courier

Controversial stands by front-running U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has not dampened interest in working at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver, which is slated to open in August and will be managed by his Trump Organization.

Nearly 10,000 people have submitted applications using an online process that takes about half an hour, hotel general manager Philipp Posch told Business in Vancouver.

A mix of software and a human resources team of between five and 10 people then whittled down the list of potential employees to about 900 people, who have been invited to a career fair set for mid-May, he said.

“We’ve so far sent out about 900 invitations to the job fair and we’re aiming at getting about 1,200 people over three days to interview them and to pick about 250 to 300 people [to hire],” Posch said.

“The process is that everyone gets interviewed by human resources and then it goes to the department head, then to the division head, then by the executive team and then by me. They go through about a four-to-five interview process. I will meet every single one of them — from dishwashers to the director of finance.”

The Trump Organization did not accept any applications by email nor any phone calls. All potential applicants were steered to the Hcareers.com website, where they had to create a free membership.

They then could click to apply for the job and be redirected to an automated system, powered by Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) software named Taleo. 

There, they would enter resume details and answer questions, related to the job that they are applying for, such as “Tell a situation when you have had to deal with an unruly customer.”

Failure to answer a question would yield them a lower score.

“That wouldn’t disqualify someone but it gives a lower score,” Posch explained.

“We were then looking at applications from about 40 per cent to 50 per cent on up because some people may be a bit shy or intimidated and didn’t want to answer a question but they are very qualified.”

Wages are expected to be in line with other high-end hotels in Vancouver and may tilt slightly toward the higher end of the pay scale, Posch said.

“We’re not going into the market and blowing everyone out of the water,” Posch said. “We’re going in with whatever the market is and that’s what we’re going to be offering.”

In addition to operating the 147-room hotel, the Trump Organization will also oversee room service to 214 residential units and both the Trump Champagne Lounge and the Chinese fine-dining restaurant Mott 32.

Developer Holborn Group, led by CEO Joo Kim Tiah, pays the Trump Organization a fee for management and in exchange gets all the profit from the building’s hospitality operations.

Holborn also generated profit from selling the residences.

Since the project was announced, residences at Trump Vancouver have sold at a higher price per square foot than any other property in Canada, according to Holborn, which pinned the average price per square foot at $1,610.

The penthouse sold for $6.74 million.

This came despite a local campaign to have Holborn drop the Trump Organization as its hotel manager. 

Tiah did not directly address that issue when it arose in December but he said in a statement at the time that Holborn is “not in any way involved in U.S. politics.”

He then added that “our efforts remain focused on the construction of what will soon be the finest luxury property in Vancouver and beyond.”

© 2016 Vancouver

Other

The total value of Canadian building permits declined 7 per cent on a monthly basis in March following a 15 per cent increase in February. The drop in permits was the result of lower permit activity in the commercial sector in Alberta, Ontario and BC. 

In BC, total permit activity declined 5 per cent from February to March but remained above $1 billion for the fifth consecutive month. On a year-over-year basis, the dollar value of building permits in the province was 10 per cent lower than March 2015. Non-residential permits accounted for all of the decline, falling 33 per cent on a monthly basis and 37 per cent year-over-year. Residential permits rose 8 per cent on a monthly basis and were up 2.6 per cent year-over-year. 

Construction intentions were mixed in BC’s four census metropolitan areas (CMA). Permits in the Abbotsford-Mission CMA were up 31.5 cent on a monthly basis and 11 per cent higher year-over-year.  In the Kelowna CMA, permits fell 16 per cent from February and were 34 per cent lower year-over-year. In the Vancouver CMA, permits increased 6 per cent on a monthly basis and were down 12 per cent year-over-year.  In the Victoria CMA, permit activity was down 29 per cent on a monthly basis but was up 41 per cent compared to March 2015.

Copyright ©2016 BCREA

 

Value of permits issued in March more than 13 per cent lower than last year, although this is a recovery from a very weak February

Joannah Connolly
The Vancouver Sun

The value of residential building permits issued in Metro Vancouver in March saw another year-over-year drop, in spite of housing supply not keeping close to the pace of demand for homes in the region.

Home construction permits issued in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in March 2016 were valued at a total of just under $530 million, a drop of more than 13.5 per cent compared with March 2015, although this is a dramatic recovery of 52 per cent compared with February’s very weak figures.

This year-over-year fall was led by an annual decline in the value of condo-apartment building permits issued, which dropped 29.4 per cent year over year to total value of $305.7 million in March.

Just shy of $155 million worth of permits for detached homes were issued in March, up 16.8, and attached home permits (such as row homes and townhomes, excluding duplexes) continued their growth, more than doubling in March, up 123.7 per cent over March 2015 to $63.8 million.

However, the popularity of building new duplexes continued to wane, with just $2.1 million of permits issued in Vancouver CMA in March, down 76.9 per cent year over year.

Residential permits across BC in March were down 8.3 per cent year over year to $759 million in value, although this was a rise of 38 per cent compared with February.

Abbotsford-Mission’s much smaller and more variable building permit values increased 54.8 per cent year-over-year to nearly $15 million, a near-doubling of 96.6 per cent from February’s $7.6 million.

Permits in Victoria totalled $54.2 million in value in March, a rise of 10.1 per cent year over year and drop of 5.4 per cent month over month.

Home building values in Kelowna rose 34.4 per cent year over year, and 29.4 per cent since February, to total $27.8 million worth of permits issued.

Across Canada last month, the total value of residential permits issued saw a similar pattern to Vancouver. Its total was nearly $3.6 billion worth of permits, a 6.9 per cent decline compared with the same month last year but a 46.9 per cent increase since February.

View Statistics Canada’s interactive charts here.

© 2016 Real Estate Weekly

One of the nation?s hottest housing markets just broke a record in April

Justin da Rosa
Other

There were a reported 12,085 home sales in Toronto last month, according to the Toronto real estate board, who argues that figure could have been even higher had there been more supply.

“While April’s sales result represented a new record for sales, that number could have been even higher if we had benefitted from more supply,” Toronto Real Estate Board President Mark McLean said. “In the City of Toronto in particular, some households have chosen not to list their home for sale because of the second substantial Land Transfer Tax and associated administration fee. 

“The lack of available inventory, coupled with record sales, continued to translate into robust annual rates of price growth.”

Sales increased 7.4% year-over-year in April, according to TREB, which set a monthly sales record.

“As we move into the busiest time of the year, in terms of sales volume, strong competition between buyers will continue to push home prices higher,” Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis, said. “A greater supply of listings would certainly be welcome, but we would need to see a number of consecutive months in which listings growth outpaced sales growth before market conditions become more balanced.”

The lack of supply is likely one reason prices continue to sky-rocket as well.

The average price in the City of Toronto increased from $690,058 to $766,472 over the past year.

Prices in the GTA also saw an increase, settling in at an average of $739,082 – up from $636,094 a year ago.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

But, unlike the weather, April was not as scorching as the previous record-smashing month, reports Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver

Joannah Connolly
The Vancouver Sun

Meteorologists are saying that April 2016 was likely the hottest April in recorded history – and that was also true for Greater Vancouver real estate.

Residential unit sales in the region saw the busiest-ever April – although they didn’t reach the highs of the previous month, according to the latest statistics from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) issued May 3.

Home sales in Greater Vancouver last month were 14.4 per cent higher than April 2015, 41.7 per cent above the 10-year sales average for the month, but 7.6 per cent lower than March 2016’s all-time record-breaking figures.

The benchmark price of a home (composite property types) in the region raised the bar again in April, at $844,800. This is a 25.3 per cent increase compared with April 2015.

The number of homes newly listed on the Greater Vancouver market increased 3.9 per cent compared with the April 2015, but it was 2.4 per cent lower than March 2016. This annual increase in new listings proved inadequate compared with demand. Total active listings at the end of April were down more than 39.3 per cent year over year, as hungry buyers absorbed all the new property listings and many of those previously on the market.

Sales and Listings

April home sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 4,781, a 14.4 per cent rise compared with the 4,179 sales recorded in April 2015 but a drop of 7.6 cent compared with March 2016, when 5,173 homes were sold.

A total of 1,979 single-family homes were sold in April, which is a rise of nine per cent from the 1,815 transactions recorded in April 2015, but a 7.3 per cent drop compared with March’s 2,135 detached home sales.

Sales of townhouses and other attached homes were the only property type to drop year over year. The 695 total was fall of 11.6 per cent over the 785 transactions in April 2015, which is likely to be a result of the extremely limited inventory of this housing type. Sales were also down 11.6 per cent compared with March’s 786 townhome transactions.

It was a different story for condo-apartment units, 2,107 of which exchanged hands in April 2016, an increase of 33.4 per cent compared with the 1,579 sales in April 2015. Condos once more saw the fastest annual sales growth of the three home types, and were again the property type with the highest total sales. However, April’s figures were a 6.4 per cent decline from March’s 2,252 condo-apartment sales.

Property inventory only slightly improved in April, with new listings for all home types in Metro Vancouver up 3.9 per cent to 6,127, compared with the 5,897 units listed in April 2015.However, this was a drop of 2.4 per cent compared with the 6,278 new listings in March 2016.

With so many buyers looking for homes, this meagre offering of new listings was not nearly enough. The total number of properties currently available for sale on Metro Vancouver’s MLS® as of the end of April is 7,550. This is a 39.3 per cent drop from the 12,436 active listings at the end of April 2015, although a 2.6 per cent increase compared with 7,358 total listed properties as of the end of March.

Greater Vancouver’s sales-to-active listings ratio for April 2016 is now 63.3 per cent, now in its 14th consecutive month of the sales-to-active-listings ratio being above 30 per cent in Metro Vancouver, as the sellers’ market keeps its firm grip.

“Home buyer competition remains intense across the region,” said Dan Morrison, REBGV president. “Whether you’re a home buyer or seller, it’s important to work with your local REALTOR® to get the information you need and to develop a strategy that will help you navigate today’s market.”

Benchmark Prices

Metro Vancouver’s combined residential property type benchmark price predictably set another new record in April, at $844,800 – a year-over-year rise of 25.3 per cent compared with April 2015.

The area’s typical detached home is now priced at $1,403,200, a rise of 30.1 per cent compared with the same month last year, and once more the steepest price rise of all the property types. This was a rise of 4.5 per cent over March’s $1,342,500.

The benchmark price of a townhome or other attached unit in Greater Vancouver increased 22.1 per cent over April 2015 to $608,600, up 3.3 per cent compared with March.

Condo-apartment benchmark prices rose 20.6 per cent from April 2015 to $475,000. This property type increased in price by 2.6 per cent compared with March.

Home prices vary widely throughout the REBGV region. To get a good idea of home prices in a specific location, check the detailed MLS® Home Price Index in the REBGV full statistics package. 

Check out our essential infographic, which reveals wide variations in home price by area, here.

© 2016 Real Estate Weekly

Ephraim Vecina
The Vancouver Sun

The skyscraper construction sector might be entering a new phase of heightened competition, as a Chinese prefab building company has thrown the gauntlet with its latest project.

Erected at a dizzying pace of 3 floors per day, the 57-storey Mini Sky City in Changsha, Hunan province was completed in just 19 days. The earthquake-proof structure houses approximately 800 apartments and office space for 4,000 tenants.

Construction firm Broad Sustainable Building claimed that this success has made them the world’s fastest builder. A popular time-lapse video now circulating in Chinese streaming sites demonstrated the modular method the company used for the glass-and-steel building’s construction.

“With the traditional method they have to build a skyscraper brick by brick, but with our method we just need to assemble the blocks,” company engineer Chen Xiangqian told the Associated Press. “This is definitely the fastest speed in our industry.”

Before starting the construction, the firm fabricated the skyscraper’s 2,736 modules over a period of four and a half months.

Experts noted that industry players should seriously consider and invest in developing modular construction as a safe and reliable building option, although it has its limitations.

“[It] is not perfect, and it does not meet all kinds of personalised demands. People nowadays want more personalised architecture,” Arup Beijing associate director Liu Peng said.

Broad Sustainable Building said that it is aiming to complete its next project—Sky City, projected to be the world’s tallest skyscraper at 220 storeys—in just 90 days, once authorities give their approval.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd