Steve Randall
REP

Three weeks after the 15 per cent tax on foreign home buyers was introduced in Vancouver, Fitch Ratings says it leaves the housing market vulnerable to rising unemployment.

The report says that beyond cooling the market, data showing a slowdown in sales in the city suggest that, if unemployment was to rise, there could be a house price decline.

With Fitch calling for a 20 per cent overvaluation in the market, the decline in prices could be sizeable.
The scenario involves slowing sales – CREA has already reported a 21.5 per cent drop in Vancouver sales since February – and rising unemployment. That second factor is not an issue currently as Vancouver has seen strong growth in job creation, although other metros have seen a slower pace.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Gellatly Place balances rural living with all the amenities

MICHAEL BERNARD
The Vancouver Sun

Project: Gellatly Place

Project size: A three-phased project with a total of 111 two- and three-bedroom condominiums in three buildings. In Building 1, the 33 homes range from 877 to 1,275 sq. ft.

Prices: From $316,900

Architecture/Interior Design: BlueGreen Architecture

Sales Centre: 4215 Gellatly Road

Sales hours: 11 a.m. — 4 p.m. daily 

Telephone: 778-821-0919

Website: http://www.gellatlyplace.com

Occupancy: November 2016 (Building 1)

Don Lockhart, who left Metro Vancouver 13 years ago, has experienced the full gamut of housing in the Okanagan Valley — from the quiet of a rural home with a yard in the lakeside community of Peachland to a busy and noisy neighbourhood surrounding a downtown Kelowna apartment.

He thinks he finally has the formula right with Gellatly Place — a new condominium complex rising in West Kelowna,where he has purchased a home with two bedrooms and a den home that has views of Okanagan Lake and a private roof-top garden up a stairway inside the home.

“I looked around at lots of places,” said Lockhart, who works as a marketer for an ESL private school. “I lived in downtown Kelowna for the last three years. And I knew I didn’t want that just because of the noise. And I used to live in Peachland, but that was just too far and too rural and I didn’t want to do that anymore.”

What Lockhart has settled on is a development adjacent to the historic Gellatly Nut Farm Regional Park and a horse farm, both within the Agricultural Land Reserve, giving some assurance that the neighbourhood won’t be changing character anytime soon. Across from his new home is the luxury hotel called the Cove Lakeside Resort.

“I think it is one of the nicest beaches and walkways in all of the Okanagan,” said Lockhart, whose suite is on the top level of the three-storey first building at Gellatly Place. “This area is way less crowded than downtown Kelowna, so if you are looking for some peace and quiet, this is definitely the place.”

A view home like Lockhart’s in Vancouver may well cost at least $1 million dollars, but in West Kelowna, Gellatly buyers pay from the low to high $300,000s. Those prices have been a major draw for the 20 buyers who have purchased homes in Building 1 to date, says Don Warkentin, whose firm Fortune Marketing is selling the homes.

“So far, we are finding a lot of the buyers from the Lower Mainland, and they are purchasing second homes,”  Warkentin said. “We are also seeing downsizers from West Kelowna, local first-time buyers and a few investors who are buying them to rent them out.”

“With the new investor tax on Metro Vancouver real estate purchases, I suspect that Kelowna is going to be on the foreign buyer’s radar,” he said. “For some of these foreigners, this is a very small amount of money to pay.”

Warkentin says West Kelowna offers the best of both worlds: the lifestyle of a home in a rural setting, but one with all the amenities such as grocery stores, movie theatres, wineries, an aquatic centre, an arena and golf courses within a few minutes’ drive. A longer trip over the William R. Bennett Bridge takes you to the urban amenities of Kelowna, now home to more than 123,000 people.

“You can buy a very nice condo here at a very reasonable price, not right on the lake but basically close to the lake,” he said. “You could also have your boat at West Kelowna Yacht Club, which is about half a kilometre away.”

Gellatly Place, developed by a local independent businessman, does not have in-house amenities like a swimming pool or fitness centre, Warkentin said, but that helps to keep strata fees down, averaging about $150 a month per suite. For a fee, Gellatly owners can join the gym at the Cove Resort or rent kayaks, paddle boards and other water toys at the lakeside, he said.

One of the big plusses for those who buy a home on the top third storey is that they can access their own private rooftop garden via an internal stairwell from their home. The garden, which is sectioned off from the neighbour’s, averages about 200 square feet, and offers views of the lake and mountains and is contained by glass railings. They also have two parking spaces for each third floor suite as opposed to one parking space for each suite on the other floors.

Inside, kitchen cabinets are offered in the classic shaker or modern flat profile with stainless steel handles. Countertops are quartz and have stainless steel undermount sinks, and stainless steel appliances by Whirlpool come with a hood fan.

Flooring in the living areas is vinyl planking while the bedrooms feature nylon carpets. A walk-in closet in the master bedroom is accessed through an attractive sliding “barn door,” a popular feature among new developments. The same entrance system is used to access the den in homes with that configuration. Soundproofing is bolstered by a two-wall system with second and third-floor suites equipped with silent flooring with concrete topping and acoustic insulation.

Ensuite bathrooms are equipped with quartz countertops and tiled showers with ceramic accents and a recessed lighting vanity mirror. Secondary bedrooms have a combined shower and bathtub.

Outside the buildings will be landscaped courtyards, with pathways leading to parks and the beach. Nearby Gellatly Bay offers a three-kilometre lakeside promenade, a secure off-leash dog park, a playground and grassy green space.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Squamish development Ravenswood offers an idyllic mix of value and lifestyle

SIMON BRIAULT
The Vancouver Sun

Ravenswood

Project location: 39289 Falcon Crescent, Squamish      

Project size: 117 three- and four-bedroom homes, 1,913 — 2,411 square feet

Developer: Benchmark Homes

Architect: SuCasa Design

Interior designer: Gannon Ross Designs

Price: from $800,000

Sales centre: 39289 Falcon Crescent, Squamish

Hours: noon — 5 p.m., weekends

Telephone: 604-670-7862

Website: http://benchmarkhomesltd.com/community/ravenswood/

Occupancy: beginning winter 2016

Take a look at the official District of Squamish website and you’ll see a prominent tag line — “Hardwired for Adventure.” While there are sections on the site about “Arts, Culture & Heritage,” “Education & Learning” and “Business & Development,” it’s the outdoor lifestyle that really puts this small mountain town on the map. Known as the outdoor capital of Canada, Squamish attracts people for the hiking, rock climbing and mountain biking, among many other adventurous pursuits.

The mountains, rivers and trails were certainly a big draw for Edward Archibald, who has bought a house at Ravenswood, Benchmark Homes’ new community, which is taking shape just north of the town centre.

“The big appeal for me is the lifestyle,” Archibald said. “I work in downtown Vancouver and the ability to unplug at the end of the day, get on the Sea to Sky Highway and forget about all the stresses of the work environment is awesome. I can get home and go for a mountain bike ride or a run along the river.”

“My wife, young son and I bought a townhouse in Squamish in October of last year and moved up in January,” Archibald added. “But we soon came to realize it was a little too small for what we want. There’s a very limited supply of single-family homes in Squamish and new ones are almost non-existent. It’s great to be able to get in early on what is going to be an amazing development when it’s all done.”

Archibald bought a three-bedroom plan in the first phase of 27 homes, with 32 more homes scheduled for the second phase, 22 for the third and 36 for the fourth – 117 homes in total. Archibald’s home, which he and his family will move into on Dec. 15, has 2,088 square feet of living space, a double-car garage and two and a half bathrooms. There are three plans to choose from – “wind”, “earth” and “water” – and also a selection of exterior finishes.

The community should be completely finished some time in 2019. It’s in a central location for Squamish, walkable to the Canadian Tire and the big-box stores in the north and also with easy access to the downtown core.

“Squamish is a town that is growing up and redefining itself,” said Jeff Bontkes, CEO of Benchmark Homes. “If you like biking and hiking and outdoor adventure stuff, it’s fantastic. Lifestyle is the primary reason to buy here, but we’re also offering great value. You can get a huge house on a nice lot in a really great community setting. Those things are not available in Vancouver any more for many buyers.”

Ravenswood homes are between 1,913 and 2,411 square feet. Kitchens feature premium cabinets with modern crown moulding, quartzite countertops, oversize islands and spacious pantries. The stainless steel appliance packages are by KitchenAid and there are hand-set tile backsplashes, double-bowl sinks and vented hood fans.

Bathrooms have ceramic tiles in the showers and rainfall shower heads as big as dinner plates. There are ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets in all bathrooms and framed, clear glass in the ensuites.

Other features include high-efficiency, forced-air furnaces, 50-gallon hot water tanks, insulated garage doors and asphalt shingle roofs with 30-year life spans. There are also roughed-in security systems, roughed-in built-in vacuum systems and two exterior electrical outlets. All homes come with two exterior hose bibbs, direct-wired smoke detectors on each floor and concrete flooring in the crawl spaces.

“A lot of communities in Squamish are built bit by bit with different builders and developers,” Bontkes added. “We’re building a really stylish looking neighbourhood that has continuity to it along with a park and some great landscaping. We put a lot of thought into how this thing’s going to look in the future.”

There’s a green belt on three sides of the community and although it’s close to all the amenities that Squamish has to offer, Bontkes said that the effect will be of a private little neighbourhood that’s welcoming at the same time.

“Squamish has managed to keeps its small-town feel over the years,” said Archibald. “My wife and I were living in Lower Lonsdale and we’re starting to recognize old neighbours from there that have moved up to Squamish as well. As they complete the community I think it’s going to turn into a really vibrant little neighbourhood. This type of place seems to be really hard to find these days in the Lower Mainland.”

“Squamish is unlike any other area in the Lower Mainland,” added Archibald. “You go out to Maple Ridge or Pitt Meadows or Langley and you still have that feeling you’re tied to the big city. Getting out to Squamish feels to me like a release, where I can spend quality time with my family, relax and enjoy the outdoors.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Does Concord Pacific care about social housing the height of the building blocking views?

TIFFANY CRAWFORD
The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver developer Concord Pacific is suing the City of Vancouver, arguing the city plans to build highrise condos on land reserved for low-rise social housing in downtown’s Beach neighbourhood.

In 1988, Concord bought 200 acres of land that had been used for Expo 86, on the north shore of False Creek. A decade later, the area was subdivided and portions were handed over to the city, after community benefit negotiations, for the exclusive use as social housing, according to a civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court this week.

The legal dispute is over one of those lots, at 601 Beach Crescent on the northeast side of the Granville Street Bridge.

In 1999, half of the lot was transferred to the city, and the city designated it as a low-rise, non-profit housing site within the False Creek North development plan, according to the lawsuit. 

But Concord alleges that the city later developed a plan to allow highrise commercial housing. In May, the city invited developers to bid on the lot “with a view to its development as a highrise commercial housing site,” according to the lawsuit.

The company claims the city intends to violate the Concord conveyance by allowing a 130-metre high condo tower with only 20-per-cent non-profit housing.

Concord alleges that selling the lot for commercial development would violate the charitable purpose trust created by the Concord conveyance. The company says the area has substantial commercial value and, if it was sold to a third party, Concord would suffer irreparable commercial harm.

Concord says that the city agreed to develop the lot “exclusively” for non-profit housing, and that the development of highrise market housing would compete with Concord’s development plans for other land in the area.

Concord says it has told the city it is willing to purchase the lot at a fair market price.

The company wants the court to prohibit sale of the lot or development of the lot for any purpose other than non-profit housing. 

None of the allegations has been tested in court.

City of Vancouver spokesman Tobin Postma declined to comment as the case is before the courts.

Matt Mehan, Concord’s senior vice-president of planning, said in a statement that the lawsuit is a “stand-alone matter” among a large number of projects that Concord has completed with the city, and that it would continue to work with the city on other current projects.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Squeezed middle class has a right to ask where government?s priorities lie

Pete McMartin
The Vancouver Sun

In the circular world of the Downtown Eastside’s social welfare industry, where what goes around comes around again and again and again, last month’s little drama felt familiar:

Protesters — in this case organized by VANDU, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users — demanded a city-owned lot at 58 West Hastings be converted to social housing. Note, they did not ask for a mix of market and non-market units, such as in the Woodward’s building. Nor did they ask a component of market units be built to help subsidize capitalization costs. They demanded that the development be all social housing. 

The math? The city estimates the operating cost of the most modest social housing at about $660 a month, well above the province’s income assistance allocation of $375 per month for rent. To make up the difference, there would need to be — on top of writing off the city’s multi-million dollar property, plus the building costs — a government rent subsidy of at least $285 per month per unit, in perpetuity.

Four or five dozen tent campers had been occupying the lot, and their protest culminated on Aug. 2 when Mayor Gregor Robertson met with them, heard their demands and obligingly signed his name to the following statement scrawled on a leaf of easel board paper:

“We commit to 100% welfare/pension rate community-controlled social housing at 58 West Hastings, working with the community to develop a rezoning application to proceed to council by the end of June 2017.”

It didn’t look so much like the culmination of city policy as a capitulation. The mayor, as he has been known to do when it comes to the homeless, went all in. It was Robertson who in 2008 pledged — prematurely, rashly, stupidly, pick your adverb — to rid the city of street homelessness. Instead, the numbers have grown. So was the mayor’s signing off the result of months of carefully considered staff recommendations, or did he do so to burnish his public image on an issue that has made him look like a chump? 

Some context: At the moment, there are 25,629 units of government-subsidized non-market housing in the city of Vancouver proper. That’s nine per cent of the city’s entire housing stock, a not insubstantial percentage.

To break that down, 15,250 0f those units are for people who live independently but have incomes too low to pay market rents. Another 4,599 are supportive housing units for people who need support for a range of conditions like cognitive impairment, addiction or physical disability. The remaining 5,780 units are co-op units with below-market rent.

The province, money-wise, does the heavy lifting. Of those 25,629 units, the city operates only 851 of them, some of which are owned outright by the city, some of which are owned by the province but for which the city acts as agent. The city’s annual budget isn’t onerous: According to Kathleen Llewellyn-Thomas, the city’s new general manager for community services, the operating cost is $1.46 million a year (though that figure is nowhere near representative of land costs and overall cost to all taxpayers). The city’s policies toward the homeless are also, I’d argue, the most compassionate, especially compared to that of most of Metro Vancouver’s suburbs.

Whether it’s the wisest and most sustainable is another question. Projections are the number of social housing units will continue to grow. More than a quarter of them, especially that of the supportive kind, have been centralized in the Downtown Eastside to disastrous effect — ghettoizing the hard-to-house, corroding the livability of adjacent neighbourhoods like Chinatown, anchoring vastly expensive and redundant social welfare groups that serve the resident population. Some 260 organizations in the DTES receive $360 million in tax dollars a year.

But in a city where middle-income earners cannot only not buy a home but can’t even find affordable rentals, how long before the taxpaying public’s patience runs dry and they begin to wonder, not out of greed but need, where their help is, where their government’s priorities lie?     

And if the numbers of homeless continue to grow, as they will, does Vancouver have a limit on the amount of social housing it will host within its borders? Will it continue to bear the burden of social housing in Metro Vancouver while its own middle-class citizens can’t find housing, period? 

“Well, that’s a question that we’re asking ourselves as we take a look at our housing and homelessness strategy,” Llewellyn-Thomas said. “We’re launching a reset of it all (this fall). These are really important questions, and we’re going to be engaging the public. I know it sounds like I’m not answering your questions, and in a way I’m not. We don’t know the answers to them.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Average price of home in Vancouver dropped 21.4 per cent in past month

JOANNE LEE-YOUNG
The Vancouver Sun

Earlier this month, as surging Vancouver luxury home prices were making international headlines and local real estate boards reported continued price spikes, another set of gauges was telling a different story.

These numbers revealed that average home prices in Metro Vancouver have been falling — not just in recent weeks, but also going back several months.

The various snapshots make for a muddle that might wash out over a longer period, but it’s a cacophony of confusion for buyers and sellers trying to figure out what to do right now, not to mention homeowners obsessed with the rise and fall in the worth of their assets.

Zolo, a national real estate brokerage, has been attracting attention for its tracking of MLS home sales in real time. It says the “average price” of homes sold in the last 28 days in the City of Vancouver has fallen 21.4 per cent, is down 25.1 per cent over the last three months, and down 7.4 per cent from last year.

In Richmond, the average selling price of homes is currently $779,000, down by 18.1 per cent in the last 28 days, down by 21.1 per cent in the last three months and down by 13.1 per cent from last year. In Burnaby, the numbers fell by 11.8 per cent and 21.9 per cent, respectively, according to Zolo, which posted similar drops in other areas, too.

“These numbers are based on the average value of houses for all transactions in a given period,” said Zolo CEO Barry Allen. “It’s not that the sky is falling, but if you are buying or selling, you need to have these real-time numbers.”

Allen says his company has 300-plus agents and he’s not “out to disprove anything,” but if prices are changing, it can happen very quickly and you need information on a rolling basis” instead of only during set reporting times.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver releases monthly stats, but it, along with others, frowns on using averages.

The latest REBGV numbers in July recorded an 18.9 per cent drop in total number of home sales compared to a year ago. The board, which represents real estate agents, described this as a return to more normal demand in the market after several months of record-breaking activity. It didn’t report a decrease in prices.

Instead, the board uses the MLS Home Price Index (HPI), which it describes as a “composite benchmark price for all residential properties” in Greater Vancouver. It posted a 32.6 per cent increase in July over a year ago.

The HPI is modelled after the consumer price index, which measures the rate of price change for a bundle of commonly-used goods and services such as food, clothing and transportation. The board introduced the index in 1996 because averages can be skewed by higher or lower-end property sales and fluctuate dramatically because of this.

Instead, the HPI tracks so-called “typical” homes in a myriad of categories. They are picked roughly annually for being “in the middle of the pack” over a long period (currently between January 2005 to September 2015) when it comes to “quantitative” attributes (such as their above-ground square footage or number of rooms) and having or not having qualitative features (such as a fireplace or access to a garage) that the majority of homes in their category have, according to Gregory Klump, who joined the Canadian Real Estate Association as chief economist in 1992 to “develop a program for the analysis of the real estate market.”

If average prices can paint too volatile a picture and composite indices might be too conservative in a dynamic market, the other measure is median price, which is the middle price in a list of sales numbers from high to low.

“This is the most realistic look at the ups and downs,” said Steve Saretsky, a Vancouver real estate agent who has been blogging about the market.

Zolo’s Allen agrees that median prices can be a more accurate reflection of a market if average prices get skewed. It says that currently the average price of a home in Vancouver is $1.1 million while the median price is just $710,000. The difference between the two is 56 per cent of the median price. To compare, in West Vancouver, which can also be a market with extreme prices at the high end, the current difference between the two is only 12 per cent of the median, with the average price at $2.8 million and the median at $2.5 million.

But there is quibbling even with how to determine median prices.

With access to the version of the MLS that only agents can see, Saretsky calculated that the median price for a detached home in Richmond dropped in July to $1.585 million.

The REBGV has it at $1.7 million. From April to June, their calculations were closer, with both pegging it between $1.70 million and $1.75 million. The board says it uses sales based on the day it processes the paperwork, while Saretsky uses sales based on when they are transacted.

It’s a reasonable explanation to Saretsky, but he says the actual sale date shows median prices based “on both parties thoughts/mindsets and current conditions … Markets change on a weekly basis.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

The Mill Design Group helps bring the funk to The Crossing by Gramercy Development

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

The Crossing

Where: 288 171 Street, South Surrey

What: 67 townhomes, two, three and four bedrooms

Residence sizes and prices: 1,301 — 1,948 square feet; from $489,900

Developer and builder: Gramercy Developments Ltd.

Sales centre: 288 171 Street, South Surrey

Hours: noon — 5 p.m., closed Tuesdays

There’s a special charm to be found in a home that looks loved and lived in — one full of treasured pieces collected over time, and where nearly every detail tells a story.

The creative minds at The Mill Design Group have made a display suite that evokes such a warmth and vitality at The Crossing, Gramercy Development’s new townhome community in South Surrey.
“The suite was designed to reflect a fun family environment with an artistic, but livable approach,” says senior designer Amanda Zibin, speaking on behalf of the Mill Design team. Zibin and her colleagues’ tastes lean toward unique items they find online and off retail’s beaten path, such as Etsy.com, specialty vintage shops, art stores and from local craftspeople.

One bedroom stands out in the suite for its bright and funky green patterned wallpaper; the exact same pattern is found in an art frame on the wall. Zibin gives a nod to local company Anewall, which crafts wallpaper, wall vinyls and artwork, including this “watercolour cactus mural” find.

“We love supporting B.C. companies and are fortunate to have amazing product like this available locally,” she enthuses. “This is such a fun and bold graphic wallpaper, we felt it was necessary to keep the furnishing very monotone and simple so that it wasn’t overwhelming.”

The Mill placed mid-century look chairs in the living and dining rooms and the study “to evoke a feeling of passed-down furniture or collected vintage charm,” she says. “They are timeless in design and add interest and warmth with the curved wood detail”— traits that fit into the overall design theme.

In the study, the designers chose pieces for their specific singular qualities—a trestle desk, shadow boxes, a ceiling fixture with a sculptural design. Zibin says the designers took one item — namely, the vintage Moroccan wool rug, an Etsy score — to inspire her decisions for the décor that surrounds it.

“The idea is that this is a multi-functional space to be creative in,” she says.
“Many of the furniture pieces used in this display are from budget-friendly stores like Ikea and CB2.  We try to make sure our designs are attainable to every buyer.”
In the simple, clean kitchen, visitors will find plenty of work space and storage lining the wall and in the large island in the room’s centre.
“This is the ideal kitchen layout,” Zibin says. “A sink under a window is any homeowner’s dream, and the large island and abundant storage is a bonus in this size of home.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.