And if you just missed out the first half-dozen times, it?s for sale again

Joanne Lee-Young
The Vancouver Sun

 

There is a single-family home at 5387 Cypress Street, not far from where Shaughnessy hits 41st Avenue, that has been bought and sold six times in the last 13 years. And it’s for sale again.

The Vancouver home was featured this month on the cover of the local edition of Homes and Land magazine, and described as a “Charming Traditional 5 bedroom, 5 bath 3,519 sqft Shaughnessy home on a 78 x 122 ft lot.”

That may be the case, but no other home in Shaughnessy has been bought and sold as many times, according to sales data going back to 2003.

There is one home at 1068 w 29th Ave. that has been sold five times, but it last changed hands in late 2014 and isn’t for sale. About a dozen other homes in the area have sold four times in the time period.

There have been times when the Cypress Street house has been quite sought after and snapped up in as few as 10, 12 and 15 days on the market. Three of its owners held it for around four to five years each. The other three, and now, the current owner, owned it for between one and two years.

Indeed, homeowners have taken advantage of rapidly rising prices in the last few years and hopped in an out of properties when “wow, they had a year where (their property) went up by $1 million,” said RE/MAX Select Properties agent Patrick Weeks, who has the listing for the Cypress Street house. “Over the five or six years, a lot of houses have changed hands a number of times with rising property values.”

The homeowner is asking $5.28 million, down from an original price of $5.5 million when it was listed on September 8. The owner, who bought the house last September 2015 for $4.55 million, declined to comment.

For some owners in the past, the house, which was built in 1926, has been an investment and used as a rental property.

The other factor likely in play for some of the more recent sales is the house’s RS-3A zoning, which is clearly stated in its current MLS listing.

In June 2014, the City of Vancouver adopted “temporary procedures to protect pre-1940 character homes” on the west side.

It was a first attempt to stem the demolition of older houses that are located outside of First Shaughnessy, which gained its own guidelines when it was designated the city’s first ever conservation area.

The measures, which include reviewing the character merit of homes built before 1940 and requiring higher levels of reusing or recycling of materials from demolished homes, applied mostly to homes on the west side that are zoned RS-5, 3 and 3A. 

RS-3A is the most seriously prohibitive for an owner that wants to tear down the house and build a new one, said Roy Yang, an agent with Royal Pacific Realty Corp. In 2013, he listed the property at $3.88 million, asking below its assessed value at the time of $4.026 million. The home sold in May 2013 for $3.83 million, according to land documents.

“If you want to build a new house, (the footprint) can only be 12 or so per cent of the lot size,” said Yang. “You can only have about 2,500-square feet above ground. Some people who have bought the house didn’t understand that this is what it means.”

In total, for building a new house on the property, “you could do a 4,000-square foot home, with 1,500-square feet in the basement,” said Weeks. “But that’s not a big home on a lot that is almost 10,000-square feet.”

“City (requirements are) blanketed and not specific to each property,” said Weeks.

The city does allows for some extra square footage if a homeowner is willing to reform an existing home and its character features. However, said Weeks, many buyers looking at this kind of price tag “want to build from scratch rather than do renovations” in a home that has an “older-style floor plan that is not as in fashion now.”

Most of the homes on the street have a “similar complexion” in terms of size and age, said Weeks.

But, across the street and two houses down, there is a property at 5468 Cypress that was sold in February 2011 for $2.998m. The existing home was torn down and replaced with a completely new one that sold a little over a year later in April 2012 for $8.074 million. In June 2016, the now 6,500 plus square-foot home with “old world Tudor inspired elegance” sold for $12.26 million. “It was built under the old policy,” said Yang, the agent.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Polygon?s designers deliver a sense of dramatic artistry and balance to rooms at Fulton House

? Mary Frances Hill
The Province

Project: Fulton House

Where: 2338 Madison Ave., Burnaby

What: 296 one- and two-bedroom homes plus seven townhouses in a 41-storey concrete building, with more than 28,000 square feet of clubhouse amenities

Residence sizes and prices:  one- and two-bedroom homes range from 540 to 919 square feet on typical floors; one-bedroom homes from $399,900; two-bedroom residences from $549,900

Developer: Polygon Fulton House Ltd.

Sales centre: 2338 Madison Ave., Burnaby

Sales Phone: 604-299-8573

Hours: noon — 5 p.m., Sat — Thurs

At Fulton House, Polygon’s new community in Burnaby, the developer’s in-house designers reveal how a little creativity can transform walls to add drama, depth and artistry.

As a highlight of the show space, the living room wall offers a refreshing take on panelling, thanks to a narrow mirrored panel high on the wall, which gives way to a broad white panel, a centrepiece that provides space for an in-set television.

On the base of the installation, the designers installed a dark brown panel and placed a brown sofa in front, creating an illusion of continuity between the seating and the wall. The effect is dramatic.
“The dark wood panelling on the lower portion of the wall helps to ground the space and provides a sense of richness,” says Evan Coltart, one of the designers who worked with Celia Dawson, Polygon’s vice-president of interior design. “Carrying this strong horizontal throughout the room works to unify the space.”

The panelled wall in the living room is more than just simple décor; it can be seen to influence the potential homeowners’ mindset as well.

“Strong horizontals express stability and a sense of balance, allowing users a calm experience,” he adds.

“The white panelling and mirror above help to further balance the composition, allowing a greater sense of height and lightness, so as to not make the space feel too dark or closed in.”

Coltart and Dawson brought a similar sense of artistry, or composition, into the bedroom with mirrored panels alternating with white panels, illuminated by LED lights, adding a sculptural look to the wall.
“The combination gives the illusion of extending the space and room in a more creative manner than just mounting a mirror on the wall,” Coltart adds.
“We feel elements like these are dynamic without overpowering the space.”

In one bathroom, they maintain their focus on the impact of wall treatments, showing how the application of grey textured wall covering in an otherwise regular white and grey room can transform the space. With the wall covering, the room’s attractiveness is “immediately elevated,” Coltart says. “Textured wall covering adds depth and interest to walls and does so in a subtle and timeless way.”
Though the panelling throughout the suites creates big drama, wallpaper applied even to a small space can make a big difference, and is relatively easy for homeowners to do. Coltart and Dawson say home decorators should consider the long term when they choose wall treatments.

“[One thing] to consider is how the paper will wear over time,” he adds. “A textured wall covering will tend to be slightly more timeless, whereas a printed or a strong design element to a wall covering will tend to be more trend-focused.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

B.C.’s remote ‘best kept secret’ ponders new link

Brian Hutchinson
The Vancouver Sun

GIBSONS, B.C. — It’s a 40-minute ferry trip from Horseshoe Bay, near Vancouver, to this coastal spot. Ten nautical miles is really not much. But with no roads from the south, the distance feels great, what with infrequent sailings, occasional equipment failures, odd mishaps at the dock.

By virtue of geography — and unsteady, expensive B.C. Ferries service — Gibsons and the rest of the Sunshine Coast that stretch another 180 kilometres north are, according to local tourism promotional fluff, the province’s “best kept secret.”

It’s a lovely region, to be sure, and essentially remote, cut off from from the crowded lower mainland. Depending on one’s perspective, this is a blessing, or a curse.

There’s now a plan brewing, an ambitious scheme that would bridge the ocean-filled gap. B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is floating proposals that would allow cars and trucks to bypass or traverse Howe Sound, the body of water that separates Gibsons and points north from the hurly-burly south.

The Sunshine Coast Fixed Link Study is in the embryonic stage, with preliminary planning barely underway and a public consultation process that ended Thursday, in a Gibsons’ hotel meeting room filled with inscrutable maps and busy display boards.

Locals packed the place. Most seemed to support the fixed-link idea, in principle at least, because they are fed up with their isolation and worried about the region’s economic future. They are also tired of being at the mercy of a massively subsidized, unreliable ferry.

This isn’t their first fixed-link rodeo; locals recall a proposal back in 1998 and another in 2001; those went nowhere, alas.

“I’ve been listening to this conversation my whole life,” said Jordan Sturdy, a B.C. Liberal MLA who represents the riding of West Vancouver Sea-to-Sky, on the suburban, southern side of the watery divide. “But it’s always been a speculative conversation.”

The latest discussion involves several different plans. One or all could be adopted, eventually. The most viable, say people at Thursday’s open house, is a suspension bridge/road that would see traffic divert from the highway near Horseshoe Bay, cross Howe Sound at its narrowest point, touch land for a bit at tiny Anvil Island, then complete the crossing on a second bridge that would reach the shore north of Gibsons.

Estimated construction cost: $2 billion to $2.5 billion.

Other scenarios include building a long, curving highway from the end of Howe Sound, through a stretch of coastal mountains, ending up near Powell River, a struggling mill town on the Sunshine Coast’s northern tip.

“That one seems impractical, said Gibsons resident Elizabeth Restall, eying a diagram at the open house. “I’m for the bridge. It makes perfect sense.”

Restall, who is retired, thinks the Sunshine Coast is a great place to live, “but there’s not enough work for younger people.” Families struggle here. There are few jobs, which explains why so many residents — about 1,000 a day — endure the long commute by ferry to Vancouver every weekday morning.

A fixed link would spur local development, Restall thinks. There would be a real estate rush, paving the way for more businesses, and job creation. Gibsons would likely change forever. “For the better,” Restall added. Traffic, noise and pollution? She says she could live with that.

Kate-Louise Stamford approached. She’s a local trustee for the Islands Trust, a federation of local governments that serves islands in the Strait of Georgia, including several in Howe Sound. The Islands Trust is notoriously anti-development; its credo is preservation and protection. At any cost, it sometimes seems.

“It is Islands Trust policy that we do not support fixed links on any of the islands,” she said.

In other words, hands off Anvil Island, a sentiment shared by most if not all  its 18 property owners. “They have grave concerns,” Stamford added. “A bridge to their island is not their vision.”

People live on islands for a reason, after all: the refrain was heard more than once during the open house. And islanders up and down the B.C. coast are an exceptionally isolationist lot.

Sturdy knows this better than most. Asked for his opinion on the fixed link proposal, he ducked. “I am supportive of (land) connections, generally,” he said.

From what corner, then, did this latest round of fixed link plotting emerge? What public officer holder will champion the multi-billion dollar cause? No one seemed sure, not in Gibsons on Thursday, at least.

© 2016 National Post

Mike Wilcox
other

It’s been a week since the new rule changes have taken effect and it seems the biggest concern for Canadians revolves around the new qualifying requirements for new insured mortgages (less than 20% down payment). Borrowers will have to qualify based on the Bank of Canada posted 5 year rate which is currently 4.64%. This means that most borrowers will have approximately 20% less buying power and/or simply not qualify for the home they once thought they could.

The Canadian government has kept a watchful eye on the pace at which real estate prices have increased over the last several years and it has also been concerned with the exposure it currently has in the housing market through its wholly owned Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). It is clear now that these new steps are meant to ease the risk that the governments feels exists in both the housing market and mortgages that are insured through CMHC. Finance Department spokesman Jack Aubry states “in the short-term, the change may lead to a temporary reduction in the pace of housing market activity”.

While some of these changes might make some sense, it does create more challenges for specialized mortgage lenders who use bulk insurance to securitize their portfolio of mortgages. This will mean less choice for consumers and that’s never a good thing.

The government has also changed rules that are meant to close loopholes regarding primary residences. They expect the changes to slow down the participation of foreign buyers in the housing market which is contributing to the extensive rise in prices in Vancouver and Toronto.

There is confusion with regards to the rule changes as some lenders cancelled product offerings only to reintroduce them back in the same week. The true certainty is that only a mortgage professional, like myself, is equipped with all the options. I have access to a wide selection of mortgage products, lenders, and strategies that ensure you get the right mortgage for you.

Now more than ever, you need the Right Broker on your side.

Copyright Mike Wilcox Personal Real Estate Corporation

Steve Randall
REP

The number of homes left vacant or occupied by foreign students or temporary residents in Vancouver increased over a decade, according to a study by the acting director of SFU’s City Program.

Andy Yan, an urban planner, says that between 2001 and 2011 the rate of non-residency occupancy grew from 3.5 per cent to 6.2 per cent; in actual numbers the increase was from 27,564 to 58,229 over the 10 years.

He found that 87 per cent of the units deemed as non-resident occupancies were in fact vacant.

The City of Vancouver accounted for most of the rise but suburbs including Surrey also contributed and Yan believes that other municipalities will need to follow Vancouver’s example by taxing foreign ownership and looking at tackling vacant homes.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

 

It?s time for senior levels of government to step up, writes Gregor Robertson

Gregor Robertson
The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver is at a critical point for affordable housing. Over the last five years, our housing market changed dramatically, impacting everyone from young families to seniors, from students to new Canadians. Most have felt affected by our housing crisis.

This is part of an urban affordability crisis extending far beyond Vancouver. Toronto, London, Sydney, Hong Kong, New York and other major cities worldwide are grappling with big flows of global wealth into their housing markets.

Our predicament is compounded by decades of our national government minimizing its investment in housing. Healthy, growing cities need affordable housing and a variety of housing types to remain diverse and vibrant, but we are all losing ground with the rapid commodification of housing as global capital continues to pour into real estate.

Housing needs to be, first and foremost, about homes and not to be treated as just a commodity, which is why — halfway through this city’s 10-year housing and homelessness strategy — it’s time for a dramatic reset. Despite meeting or exceeding many of our 10-year housing targets, like purpose-built rental and laneway homes, we continue to face an affordable housing crisis. Street homelessness persists despite getting thousands of people off the streets into shelters and permanent homes, there are more than 10,000 people on waiting lists for social and supportive housing, and on top of facing an unprecedented home ownership affordability challenge, Vancouver’s near-zero vacancy rate has renters in a state of crisis.

We need a better understanding of our housing market and with that, how we can better measure our success using city tools — as limited as they are — to deliver safe, accessible and inclusive housing for our residents.

As part of our housing reset, this week the City of Vancouver’s Re:Address housing summit and weeklong series of public events bring local and international experts together with the public for inclusive, frank and creative dialogue on developing fresh ideas as we overhaul our housing policy. By the end of the week, the city will have actionable ideas to implement on the ground in the near future that will make an impact on easing affordability on residents and ensuring housing options are meeting our residents’ needs.

Vancouver has aggressively stepped up its housing supply, building over half of all rentals and 20 per cent of overall housing in the region. We have offered 20 sites worth $250 million to senior governments to build affordable housing in Vancouver, and while we anticipate the provincial and federal governments will contribute funding in the near future to deepen affordability, we’ve already started. The city’s Affordable Housing Agency is working to build 3,500 more affordable homes on these 20 sites so when the provincial and federal governments are ready to come to the table with their expected investment, these new homes will be made even more affordable for Vancouverites.

We’ve also introduced innovative actions that help ensure our housing is put to its best use as home prices skyrocket and our dangerously low vacancy rate hovers near zero: Pursuing Canada’s first empty homes tax to return some of the 10,000 year-round empty properties to the rental market; regulating short-term rentals to protect long-term rental supply; and increasing lowrise townhouses, stacked row houses and laneway homes to give residents more housing choices beyond single-family houses and highrise condos.

Yet, even with these aggressive steps to relieve affordability pressures, the city can’t go it alone. We need senior governments at the table to relieve housing pressure on residents of all incomes and neighbourhoods. Right now we have a rare opportunity with the federal government in the process of shaping a new National Housing Strategy — the first in more than a decade — to develop inclusive, effective and impactful housing decisions that will directly benefit residents across Canada.

There’s no one solution to our affordability crisis, but the City of Vancouver will keep doing everything it can to tackle it head on. I encourage all residents to join the #ReAddressHousing conversation this week as we reshape Vancouver’s future.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Greg Vanderhorst
other

The overall trend in Canada this past month appears to be moderate to significant increases in rent prices across the nation. However, there seems to a be a degree of polarization in the rental market, as rents in many of Canada’s most expensive cities continue to rise significantly while those at the lower end of the spectrum have seen rents trend lower.

Top 5 Most Expensive Rental Markets

1. Vancouver, BCsaw rents take off again this month, as two bedrooms rose by 4.5% to $2,800 and one bedroom units increased by 2.9% to $1,800.
2. Toronto, ONone bedroom units rose significantly this past month, up 4.6% to $1,370, and the two bedroom units saw even greater increases as the median price rose 4.8% to $1,760.
3. Victoria, BCheld its place as the third most expensive rental market in Canada, as rents for one bedroom units were up 4.6% to $1,130 and prices for two bedroom units settled at $1,380, an increase of 4.5% from the prior month.
4. Montreal, QC became the fourth most expensive city for Canadian renters after another month of rising prices. Specifically, one bedroom units grew 3.9% to a median price of $1,070 and two bedrooms grew 4.5% to $1,380.
5. Calgary, ABcontinued to slide down our list of most expensive rental markets, thanks to the -0.9% and -2.4% decrease in the median price of one and two bedroom units, respectively. Despite this, the city still commands $1,050 for a one bedroom and $1,230 for a two bedroom apartment.

 

Notable Changes This October

Upward

–Oshawa, ON rose three spots into a tie for the eighth most expensive rental market, it’s first time in the top ten. Rents for one bedroom apartments in Oshawa were up 4.8% to $980 and two bedroom units saw increased of 2.5%.

–Hamilton, ON also rose three spots, tying with Edmonton and Kitchener for the tenth most expensive rental market in Canada. Rents were up 2.7% for one bedroom apartments to $950, while the prices for two bedroom apartments remained flat at $1,100 .

– Kitchener, ON rose six spots into a tie for the tenth most expensive rental market, another city seeing its first time among the most expensive rental markets. Rents for one bedroom units were up 4.4% to $950 and two bedroom apartments saw an increase of 4.3% in the median price to $1,080.

Downward

– Halifax, NS fell four spots, dropping to the fourteenth most expensive rental market as prices for one bedrooms fell 2.1% to $920, although prices for two bedroom units increased by 1.7% to $1,200.

– Kingston, ON slipped by two spots, falling from the fourteenth to the sixteenth most expensive rental market. Prices for one bedrooms were down 2.2% to $900 and prices for two bedroom units were down by 1.9% to $1,010.

– Windsor, ON was down three spots, as one bedroom prices fell significantly, dropping 4.9% to $770. Rents for two bedrooms were also down, falling 2.2% to $980. Rents across Ontario seem to be mixed as some cities are seeing rises in prices, while prices in cities like Windsor are dropping.

© 2015 PadMapper

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Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

In a recent announcement, the Canada Revenue Agency revealed that it has collected more than $240 million from real estate tax audits in B.C. and Ontario as of last month.
 
Data published on the CRA website showed that between April 2015 and September 2016, the agency has recovered over $210 million in Ontario and $30.3 million in B.C., The Huffington Post Canada reported.
 
The CRA probe—which looked into house flipping, unverified fund sourcing, unreported income, unreported taxes/capital gains, and tax rebates on any homes sold—came amid censure from various quarters over the agency’s alleged neglect to investigate money laundering and tax evasion in Canadian real estate.
 
CRA stated that the recovered money in Ontario mostly originated from audits on rebates. Meanwhile, the B.C. funds predominantly came from GST/HST audits, with around $7.1 million recovered each from income tax and rebate investigations.
 
In addition, approximately $12.5 million in penalties have been levied upon individuals from both provinces on grounds of knowingly making false statements in the filing of tax returns, with the highest individual fine at $2.5 million.
 
While much discussion has revolved around the purported effect of foreign buyers on Canadian home prices, several observers have argued that money laundering in the country’s residential real estate segment merited more attention.
 
In a housing rally in downtown Vancouver last month, Certified Financial Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Christine Duhaime stated that the national government needed to address the issue head-on.
 
“I would like to suggest the federal government convene an inquiry into whether or not there is a financial crime problem in the real estate sector of Vancouver and what can be done to resolve it,” Duhaime said.
 
UBC professor Paul Kershaw agreed, noting that the proliferation of illicit financial activity represented a perfect opportunity for the government to resolve B.C.’s housing problems once and for all.
 
“The anger and frustration is coming together in constructive ways to entice all political parties left, right and centre to say homes first has to be the principle around which they organize their platform heading into the next provincial election,” Kershaw said.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd