First Nations set to be power broker in real estate as they buy their land back

Randy Shore
The Province

First Nations are poised to become the next real estate development power-brokers in Metro Vancouver, with billions of dollars worth of real estate on and off reserves at their disposal.

Westbank Corp., Polygon, Aquilini and Darwin Properties all have partnerships with local First Nations to build thousands of units of housing and commercial space in Vancouver, Burnaby and West Vancouver.

“First Nations have first right of refusal when the provincial or federal government disposes of land and they are actively making those deals,” said Indigenous planner Ginger Gosnell-Myers, formerly with the City of Vancouver.

“The nations are going to buy everything, they are buying their own land back and they will develop it so that they have income security,” she said.

MST Development Corp. — a land development firm jointly owned by the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations — was ranked No. 1 on Vancouver Magazine’s Power 50 list this week. The partnership is “poised to reshape the city, with a mixture of market and social housing, as well as some much-needed community contributions,” according to VanMag.

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MST owns 65 hectares worth more than $2 billion, including 21 hectares at Jericho and eight hectares at 33rd Avenue and Heather Street on the west side of Vancouver.

MST recently bought a parcel in West Vancouver and the Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh have a partnership with Aquilini Development and Construction on 16 hectares near Canada Way and Willingdon Avenue in Burnaby.

“People are still scratching their heads and rubbing their eyes wondering what it means,” said Gosnell-Myers, who is about to start a three-year fellowship with Simon Fraser University focusing on decolonization and urban Indigenous planning.

Bureaucratic inertia is holding municipalities back from properly servicing the areas around what will soon be new, high-density neighbourhoods, she said.

“The District of North Vancouver has left the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Raven Woods development floating like an island in the ocean with nothing around it,” she said. “Municipalities need to step up with community centres, schools, transit and all the things that make cities cities.”

Developers are increasingly looking to First Nations land as a way around a municipal development process that is mired in bureaucracy and largely failing to supply the market for housing, the industry says.

“First Nations partnerships represent a new opportunity for our home, office and industrial builders to create communities that can get built quickly with less red tape, delivering the homes people need to rent or buy now,” said Anne McMullin, CEO of the Urban Development Institute.

Only two municipalities in Metro Vancouver met their regional growth targets between 2011 and 2018, with some missing their housing goals by 80 per cent, according to an analysis by HAVAN, the homebuilders association of Vancouver.

The Squamish First Nation made headlines this week when it revealed a new vision for a five-hectare parcel at Kits Point, which includes 6,000 units of housing in 11 towers to be developed in partnership with Westbank Corp. Because the property is on reserve, the City of Vancouver has no control over how the land is developed.

The Musqueam First Nation is developing a nine-hectare parcel in the University Endowment Lands at UBC on land that was returned to its control by the provincial government, which made the Musqueam fee simple owners.

Lelem —meaning “home” — will include 1,250 rental units, commercial space and public amenities such as parks, a community centre and a daycare, according to Alex Laguardia, chief financial officer of Musqueam Capital Corporation.

The Musqueam are developing the land in cooperation with the UEL, so it, too, is beyond the control of the City of Vancouver, even though it is not technically reserve land.

The first phase includes high-rise towers with one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and townhomes, and a retail plaza, being built by Polygon.

The Tsleil-Waututh First Nation has been butting heads with the District of North Vancouver over an 18-hectare parcel near the northern foot of the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge.

The First Nation has recently applied to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to have that land added to its reserve, which would allow it to control the form and scale of development independent of the district.

A new federal law allows First Nations to add lands to their reserve to advance reconciliation and create economic opportunities.

Projects built off reserve lands will be subject to the local municipality’s requirements for social housing, while on-reserve projects are not.

The Squamish Nation is considering providing some affordable units to its members at Senakw. The Musqueam say it is too soon to determine the rents at Lelem.

© 2019 Postmedia Network Inc.

Vancouver-based cryptocurrency exchange latest to shutter with millions owing to clients

Matt Robinson
The Province

When clients of Einstein Exchange discovered last weekend that the website of the Vancouver-based cryptocurrency trading platform had gone dark, many feared they had fallen victim to the latest QuadrigaCX.

The distressed customers were referring to the case of another B.C.-based exchange that earlier this year left some 115,000 clients out of pocket for $260 million in cryptocurrencies and cash in what some termed an “exit scam” by its late founder and CEO.

This latest case of a crypto exchange leaving millions of its clients’ dollars in question has investors, regulators and experts warning people to be careful when using exchanges, and calling for clearer oversight of the industry.

This week Einstein clients learned interim receiver Grant Thornton Ltd. had “entered and secured” the company’s premises on Friday to preserve and protect the assets of the company, which owes customers more than $16 million, according to the B.C. Securities Commission.

Kyle Dulay counts himself as lucky among Einstein’s customers. The Vancouver man only had “a couple hundred dollars” in bitcoin on the exchange at the time its site went down. Dulay told Postmedia he had the bulk of his cryptocurrencies in cold storage — safely held offline on a piece of hardware — rather than held at the exchange.

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Lisa Lan, a Burnaby resident, said she had intended to transfer about $3,250 in cryptocurrencies from Einstein to cold storage on the very day the company’s website went down. “I just missed it by hours,” she said.

Lan recommended people do their research and due diligence and remove their cryptocurrencies from live exchanges. Dulay said there should be regulations that govern how exchanges store and use their customers’ digital assets.

The Securities Commission opened an investigation into Einstein in May after it received complaints that people were unable to access their funds, according to court documents filed by the commission on Nov. 1.

Among those documents was an affidavit that alleged Einstein had improperly used its customers’ assets. That affidavit, sworn by Sammy Wu, a lead investigator for the Commission’s enforcement division, also stated the commission had received complaints that raised concerns about potential money laundering.

The claims have not been tested in court.

Chris Rowell, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business, said that crypto assets were initially intended to exist and be used outside of the traditional economy. But they eventually came to be viewed as investments that people buy and sell. It is at the intersection of these two worlds, where there is a regulatory grey area, that problems are being seen, he said.

When asked about the regulatory picture in this province, Peter Brady, the executive director of the Securities Commission, said the lack of clarity around cryptocurrencies is a fundamental issue and said more needs to be done.

“B.C. residents need to be really, really careful in this space. It is high risk. Not one of these exchanges has yet been recognized by BCSC or any other securities regulator. Their assets may not be protected. They cannot be assured that their transactions are going to happen,” he said.

On Oct. 31, counsel for Einstein told the commission that the company planned to shut down “due to lack of profit,” but that it had sufficient crypto assets to fill withdrawal requests from its customers, according to Wu’s affidavit. That same day Wu demanded Einstein, through its lawyer, provide information on the location of its cryptocurrencies.

“Two hours later, Einstein counsel notified me that they no longer represent Einstein,” read the affidavit.

Einstein Exchange did not respond to a request for comment and Michael Gokturk, the company’s director, could not be reached. Christine Duhaime, a Vancouver-based financial crime lawyer who has served as the exchange’s lawyer, said she could not discuss the file without the company’s consent. It is unclear whether Duhaime was the counsel referred to in Wu’s affidavit.

In the QuadrigaCX case, company founder and CEO Gerald Cotten had died, taking with him the passwords to the company’s cold wallets.

Cotten’s widow, Jennifer Robertson, recently entered into a voluntary settlement agreement that includes the transfer of about $12 million in assets from Cotten’s estate to the company.

© 2019 Postmedia Network Inc.

A Master Plan Community In Maple Ridge

Kathleen Freimond
The Province

An enormous master-planned community called ERA is poised to transform downtown Maple Ridge, eventually becoming an amenity-rich neighbourhood with some 1,000 homes.

When complete, the project being established by Johnston Meier and SwissReal Developments will also include parks, amenities like an amphitheatre and retail and commercial units.The first phase includes 143 market condos and townhomes and 49 rental units.

Peter Hildebrand, principal at Iredale Architecture, says the city’s designation of the southeast corner of the site on the corner of Dewdney Trunk Road and 224 Street as the new civic centre of Maple Ridge is the impetus behind the seven-phase ERA development.

Hildebrand notes that Maple Ridge’s location between the dense urban environment in Vancouver and communities like Chilliwack and Hope in the Fraser Valley influenced the master plan and the architecture.

“We wanted to have a sensitive approach that touched down gently. The result is a less dense site, and that has allowed us to be more flexible in the outdoor space, introduce more space between the buildings themselves and create meeting areas in the landscaping to foster neighbourliness and create a truly livable community,” he says.

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There are condos in the six-storey north and five-storey south buildings, with 30 townhomes — the developers call them ‘city homes’ — in the centre of the first phase bounded by Plaza Street, Brown Avenue and Dewdney Trunk Road. The south building, on Dewdney Trunk Road and Plaza Street, will include retail units to provide residents with local amenities like shops and services.

The architecture in phase one speaks to the area’s agrarian past when buildings like barns would have been plentiful and this influence has softened the lines of the design, says Hildebrand.

Jeremy Towning, vice-president of SwissReal, says development of the entire community on the almost eight-acre site will take about 10 years and will eventually be home to between 1,500 and 1,700 people. Construction of the first phase of condos and townhomes is scheduled to start later this year with the first homeowners expected to move in after completion in two years.

Towning anticipates buyers of homes in the initial phase will be a mix of first-time buyers and downsizers. Amenities in this phase will include a playground and rooftop terraces on the north and south buildings, while the north building also features an indoor social space connected to the terrace with a kitchenette and dining area. The south building will include a gym.

For the interiors, Megan Bennett of Megan Bennett Design aimed for a timeless design and selected materials to endure both, in design intent and durability.

Buyers can choose from a light or dark colour palette. Countertops in both palettes are a marble-look quartz, while Italian-inspired kitchen cabinetry is white in the light scheme and grey in the darker option. Bennett notes that with the plethora of home design and improvement programming on television and social media sites like Pinterest, buyers are becoming more and more discerning.

She points to the Shaker-style kitchen cabinetry with one-and-a-half-inch rails (compared to the more usual two-and-a-half inches) designed to appeal to buyers with traditional and contemporary tastes. Finishes like the black matte faucets and hardware in the kitchen and bathrooms is a step-up from the chrome finishes in many new developments, adds Bennett.

“The interiors are designed to be universally appealing – when people move in they can decide on their own touches and furnishings to make the space their own,” she says.

Depending on the floor plan, kitchens have an island or peninsula with a double sink. In the two-bedroom, two-bathroom show suite (plan D2) at the sales centre at 22351 Dewdney Trunk Road, the white subway tile backsplash – with the tile laid vertically – adds an interesting element in the kitchen.

The slide-in gas range and a stainless steel hood fan creates a focal point in the kitchen, while the microwave is under-counter in the perimeter cabinetry. Open shelving enhances the airy ambience, while Lazy Susans ensure access to the two corner cupboards.

In the dining room in the display suite, a built-in hutch — an optional extra — makes best use of a nook and provides plenty of extra storage.

A vanity with double sinks, a bathtub and a separate shower with glass enclosure make for an elegant and practical ensuite bathroom, Bennett says, while the black border around the mirror complements the black matte plumbing fittings and hardware.

ERA is conveniently located close to city hall, the library and a leisure centre. Residents travelling to Vancouver can take the West Coast Express from Port Haney station, and the B-Line bus service connects commuters with the Coquitlam SkyTrain station.

The parks and landscaping in the first phase will set the precedent for the development’s central ‘green spine.’

 “It’s going to influence future phases and become a real community asset. It will encourage people – not just residents, but people from the entire community – to walk from the first phase through the other phases [to the civic core],” says Daniel Hawreluk, principal at Iredale Architecture.

ERA

Project address: 22255 Dewdney Trunk Rd. (224th and Dewdney), Maple Ridge

Developer: Johnston Meier and SwissReal Developments

Architect: Iredale Architecture

Interior designer: Megan Bennett Design

Project size: Phase 1: 143 condos and city homes with one to three bedrooms (approximately 1,000 homes in the master-planned community)

Unit size: Condos: 615 – 1,335 square feet; city homes: 1,400 – 1,500 square feet

Price: one bedroom from $350,900; one bedroom and den from $370,900; two bedroom from $416,900; two bedroom and den from $506,900; three bedroom from $616,900; three bedroom and den from $651,900; city homes from $626,900

Sales centre: 22351 Dewdney Trunk Rd.

Sales centre hours: noon to 5 p.m., Sat — Thurs

Phone: 604-239-1898

Website: neweramapleridge.com

© 2019 Postmedia Network Inc.

Biggest recovery in sales activity will be seen in the hardest-hit areas of Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley

Joannah Connolly
Western Investor

After what is expected to be a weak 2019 overall, with sales down 1.8 per cent from 2018, residential resale transactions in B.C. are predicted to recover significantly in 2020, according to a November 6 B.C. Real Estate Association forecast.

MLS residential sales across the province are predicted to increase 10.9 per cent to 85,500 units in 2020, which would take the annual total to just below the 10-year annual average for MLS sales of 85,800 units.

“After a slow start to 2019, MLS home sales in B.C. have embarked on a sustained upward trend since the spring,” said Brendon Ogmundson, BCREA Chief Economist.

“The dampening effects of federal mortgage rules mean that rather than a return to the heights of recent years, home sales are simply returning to trend after sustaining a significant shock.”

The BCREA said in its quarterly forecast report that it expected sales and listings to find balance in 2020 “as demand normalizes.”

However, the predicted sales increase is for all of B.C., and flattens out the widely varying predictions across different regions.

Most of the recovery in activity is forecast to be driven by rising sales in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, where the markets were hit hardest by the recent slowdown.

Greater Vancouver residential transactions are predicted to increase by 18.2 per cent in 2020, compared with 2019, and Fraser Valley sales are forecast to go up 12.4 per cent next year. In comparison, Victoria’s resale transactions are expected to rise a more modest four per cent in 2020.

Lower Mainland developers agreed that activity was returning to the local market and that sales were starting to recover from the recent hiatus.

Ian Renton, general manager of Auguston Town Development, said, “We are experiencing strong population growth in our Metro Vancouver cities and demand is prevalent. More specifically, our Fraser Valley area is experiencing strong employment growth and potential buyers are well informed on their market decisions. However, even with a significant amount of home construction, accessibility to the market and diverse housing types is still a live issue in areas such as Abbotsford.”

Jason Wong, director of marketing and sales at Aragon Properties, added, “We are seeing more buyer confidence compared with last year. Buyers are very well informed and they take time making informed, value-based decisions… Nonetheless, we are witnessing a significant increase in activity in all of our newest projects across the Lower Mainland.”

However, the higher sales forecast in the Lower Mainland was not mirrored in BCREA’s price predictions. Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley are both expected to see an average MLS sale price rise of just one per cent in 2020, compared with an average sale price uplift of 3.6 per cent across the whole province.

The highest forecast for an average sale price increase is in the B.C. Northern region, which includes Prince George and Kitimat, where prices are expected to jump 8.1 per cent in 2020.

To read the full BCREA report and regional breakdown, click here. 

Copyright © Western Investor

Squamish Senakw project to expand Downtown Vancouver?s footprint

Randy Shore
The Province

The $3-billion Senakw project will consist of 6,000 mostly rental units in 11 towers on a five-hectare parcel at the western foot of the Burrard Bridge. The tallest tower is expected to be 56 storeys, a shade shorter than Shangri-La and the Trump Tower, just across the bridge from the downtown peninsula.

The project was announced last April as a two-tower, 3,000-unit development; the new concept adds nine towers.

As the downtown Vancouver residential community has expanded from the West End, through Yaletown and into False Creek, the density has changed dramatically as part of the evolution of the area, according to Squamish Coun. Khelsilem.

Senakw’s design has changed several times over the years and this latest iteration reflects the extreme shortage of rental housing in Vancouver, he said.

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“We see a huge need for rental with the vacancy crisis at one per cent or even lower in some places,” he said.

The City of Vancouver has struggled to get rental housing built, because developers would rather build condos. But because the Squamish have a preference for a long-term revenue stream rather than a quick profit, they can do things differently, he explained.

Senakw will not employ the typical podium and tower design used in many large projects. Because of the tower-only design, 80 per cent of the land at grade will be activated for public use such as park space, Khelsilem said.

By targeting renters, they can also dispense with most of the parking typically required by the city.

“We are looking at removing mandatory minimum parking requirements and it makes more sense when you are building rental,” he said.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart agreed the project “will really help us hit our own targets” for rental housing, a need that is at crisis levels.

Stewart isn’t concerned that other developers will try to push for increased density, citing the Senakw project.

 “The Squamish development is a very special case because it’s on reserve land,” he said. “This is a very special case and we’re treating it as such.”

The Squamish planning group has briefed Vancouver city staff on the vision for Senakw and hopes to tap into their expertise as the project moves forward, especially concerning public consultation. But that consultation on Senakw will have a historical context attached.

“This is a government doing a project that has a particular history of injustice in the removal of our ancestors in 1913, who were evicted by the provincial government at the request of the Vancouver parks board and the City of Vancouver,” said Khelsilem.

Because the project is on First Nations land, the city has little power to influence the scale and form of the development, nor is the project subject to municipal zoning.

“We’ve seen some tentative support from city staff, in part because we are able to propose some big solutions for the city, quickly and at scale,” said Khelsilem.

The Squamish Nation isn’t required to apply to the city to redevelop this area, the city confirmed.

In 2014, city council designated Vancouver as a City of Reconciliation and set as its goal the creation of “sustained relationships of mutual respect and understanding with local First Nations and the urban Indigenous community.”

The Squamish Nation plans to collect taxes on the development themselves and use the revenue to buy services, such as policing, fire protection, water, sewage and waste removal from municipalities.

The development is a near-perfect experiment in urban development, to see what a landholder would do if it were free of the constraints placed on it by municipal government, said Tom Davidoff, a professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C.

The Squamish are making bold choices about what the market wants by choosing to build rental units and the decision to limit parking, he noted.

© 2019 Postmedia Network Inc.

Purpose-built rental buildings on the rise

Kimberly Greene
Mortgage Broker News

Decades of under-investment made dedicated rental buildings an afterthought for many, but the industry has been quietly gathering momentum and attracting deep-pocketed investors.

Some 72,000 rental units were under construction across the country in the last quarter according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). That’s up by more than 12,500 from a year ago, double the level of five years ago, and almost five times the number that were being built a decade ago.

The recent growth—propelled by a combination of a rising population, increasingly out of reach home ownership and a lack of rental supply—has come about gradually enough that many haven’t noticed, according to Matthew Boukall, Altus Group vice president.

“It’s come along slowly, where I don’t think it has shown up on a lot of people’s radar,” Boukall told the Canadian Press.

The market, however, is now booming, with record investment of $8.3 billion last year according to real estate firm CBRE, while PwC said in its latest real estate outlook that the sector’s landscape is “stronger than it has been at any other time in history.”

The resurgence in dedicated rental buildings is important to note because they provide more stability for renters than individual condo rentals, which owners can take off the market with little notice. Many cities across Canada are also desperate for new rental stock to address extremely low vacancy rates.

The low vacancy rates, which are under one percent in Toronto and Vancouver, have pushed rents up in major cities, helping to attract more institutional and private equity investors who like the improving returns on rentals as well as the long-term cash flows they provide.

Rental builds also provide diversification for big developers, like RioCan and Oxford Properties, which have been looking to make better use of the sprawling footprint of their mall parking lots and retail spaces.

Oxford started to push into the rental space a decade ago, and says it now sees the increased demand for rentals as a permanent shift.

“With demographic changes, and lifestyle changes, we just think that that’s structural, that more people, or an increasing part of the population, is going to choose to rent over owning a home,” Tyler Seaman, head of multi-residential for North America at Oxford told the Canadian Press.

Oxford, the real estate investment arm of the Ontario municipal pension fund, started into rentals by buying existing stock, but steadily rising prices for buildings and general lack of supply have pushed it and others into building more of their own.

“Development is going to be an increasingly important part of our program,” said Seaman, adding that by building new properties, developers can add the amenities and build quality renters have come to expect after renting in condo developments.

To make the economics work, many developers are relying on rental rates at the higher end of the spectrum, but Seaman said Oxford also plans to build mid-market rentals as it expands rentals from about six percent of its portfolio to somewhere between 10-20%.

Developers are also seeing the value of holding on to increasingly scarce land in big cities.

At a real estate panel in early October, Dream Unlimited chief financial officer Pauline Alimchandani said the company was shifting from condo to rental developments to preserve their land base in Toronto.

“Pretty much almost all of it, we’re planning on building and owning for the long term. That is a big shift from where we were when we went public just a few years ago.”

Condo builds, however, still dominate in Toronto and Vancouver, in part because high land costs make the quick payout of condo buildings more attractive, and because condo developers already control so much of the land base, Boukall said.

In Toronto there were about 7,800 rental units under construction in September, compared with 56,000 condo units. In Vancouver, where a softer condo market has pushed some developers to shift to rentals, there were 9,300 rentals to 31,400 condos. Montreal had 14,700 rentals under development compared with 10,500 condos.

The boom in rentals could go a long way to addressing low vacancy rates in many cities, but is still far off what’s needed to offset a rising population for Toronto. A recent RBC report determined that Toronto would have to build an average of 26,800 units per year to bring vacancy rates up to a healthy three per cent over, while build rates in other cities look like they could address gaps in a couple years.

Copyright © 2019 Key Media

But there’s a catch, you have to go through a realtor who’s registered with fisherly.com

John Mackie
The Province

First-time home owner’s incentive program information video.

Not so long ago if you wanted to find out what properties were selling for you had to ask a realtor.

“The realtors were the gatekeepers of data,” says Les Twarog, a realtor who owns the popular website BCCondos.net.

No more. In March a new website, fisherly.com, started posting real estate sales in the Lower Mainland from the last two years.

At Trump Tower at 1151 West Georgia St., for example, 16 condos have been sold between April 2017 and today — four in 2019, nine in 2018 and three in 2017. The last sale was Unit 3303, a one-bedroom with 649 square feet of space that went for $1,258,000 on Oct. 6. A two-bedroom, 1,192 sq. ft. condo sold for $2,950,000 on July 12, while another two-bedroom, 1,180 sq. ft. unit brought $1.65 million June 6.

Evidently height matters. The two-bedroom that sold for almost $3 million was on the 67th floor, while the $1.65-million condo was on the 25th. The fisherly.com listing even works out the price per square foot — $2,475 for Unit 6702, $1,398 for Unit 2507.

The site lists houses as well. A three-bedroom rancher at 265 West Kings Rd. in North Vancouver sold for $1.362 million on Sept. 30. A couple of blocks away, a six-bedroom, 4,488 sq. ft. house sold for $2.5 million on Sept. 18.

But there’s a catch to signing onto the site. Because it uses MLS data from the Vancouver Real Estate Board, the board insists that you have to enter fisherly.com through a realtor.

“We cannot deal with clients because we don’t have real estate licences,” explains fisherly.com’s Varinder Kainth. “We cannot be showing them sold prices because we don’t have licences. Only a realtor can do all of this.”

Twarog is one of 114 realtors that have signed up to release the sales data through their VOW or Virtual Office Website.

“The consumer has to sign in with a name and phone number in order to get access to the sold data,” said Twarog. “My sold history website is fisherly.com/6717000.”

The data is now available to the public because last August the federal Competition Bureau won a court battle with the Toronto Real Estate Board to release sales data.

“The next city the Competition Bureau was coming after was Vancouver,” said Kainth. “(The Vancouver Real Estate Board) released the data, but they are still making it very hard for agents to use the data … the realtors have to be approved by the board before they can invite their clients to be able to see the sold data.”

When you’re able to access the site you can find sales data from Vancouver to Hope, as well as up to Whistler and on the Sunshine Coast. You can even find some sales data from some Gulf Islands — a 434 sq. ft. cottage at 617 Edith Point Rd. on Mayne Island sold for $510,000 on Sept. 22.

The site also includes an “active” component for properties currently for sale. Both the active and sold side have features that allow you to zoom in by various categories, such as house/townhouse/apartment, price, square footage, price per square foot, bedrooms, baths, kitchens and lot size.

It’s very up-to-date — you can search what sold in the last 24 hours, up to what’s sold in the last two years. There’s also a Market Insight section that gives “real-time statistics” from MLS sales.

One-hundred-and-nine units have sold in Vancouver in the last 15 days, for example, with an average selling price of $1,451,585. One-thousand-eight-hundred-and-seven units have sold in the last 90 days, at an average price of $1,186,304.

But that was at 4 p.m. on Oct. 29. The data is updated every half-hour, and changes constantly.

“People can get live statistics of what’s happening,” said Kainth. “You can keep on scrolling to sub areas as deep as you want. There’s a really good graph that tells you units sold by price range. It’s amazing, it tells you exactly what the market is looking for.”

Kainth has been putting together “tools for realtors” since 2003 through his company Pixilink. He started off being a “media provider” with photos and floor plans, but fisherly.com is far more detailed.

Twarog said he put up his first website about 20 years ago and says he has invested $6 million in websites over the years. He currently has six websites, including BCCondos.net, which he said has 10,000 unique visitors per day.

“At any given moment, I have 60 to 80 people online,” he said. “I use Google Analytics to show me which pages people are going on, how long they’re staying, all that stuff.”

Twarog is looking to take BCCondos.net public to raise $3 million so he can update the site to include every property in B.C. He’s already done the research: there are 2,079,952 properties in the province by PID (for parcel identifier, which is how they identify individual properties). This includes 953,512 houses, 220,128 attached properties (i.e., townhouses or duplexes), 347,464 condos and 556,839 listed as “other,” which could include anything from rental apartment blocks to commercial buildings and farms.

© 2019 Postmedia Network Inc.