Buyers find better bargains in the suburbs if they’re looking for space

Wyng Chow
Sun

April Homes: Lara Toews doesn’t mind commuting from the Fraser Valley to her job at a downtown Vancouver advertising agency.

She says the travelling time is only about 30 minutes longer than riding the bus from her rented apartment in Kerrisdale.

The $240 a month she’ll have to spend to take the West Coast Express from Mission is a bit more costly than paying for monthly downtown parking if she drove her car.

But the overwhelming upside is, out in Abbotsford, the 22-year-old advertising account executive could afford to purchase a detached house rather than a shoebox of a condo somewhere in Vancouver.

That’s exactly what Toews did in April, paying $179,500 for a five-bedroom house with 2,050 square feet of living space, complete with a legal basement suite for use as a mortgage helper.

“I saw my rent money in Vancouver going down into a bottomless pit,” the first-time home buyer said Friday. “So I decided to invest in my own home.

“I went looking for about 10 months around the city, along West Broadway, South Granville and the West End. I saw some pretty gross places. Nothing really suited me.”

If she had insisted on staying in Vancouver, Toews reckoned she could only afford to purchase an old resale condo, something about 500 square feet.

“Otherwise, I would have had to look for a roommate to help me pay the mortgage,” Toews said.

The latest Multiple Listing Service figures released Friday show that Toews got a major bargain at $179,500, since the average selling price of a detached house in Abbotsford last month was $248,200.

Overall, in the six Fraser Valley communities, April’s average detached price was $286,200, up 4.8 per cent from $273,100 the previous year.

A total of 1,640 detached houses, townhomes and condos changed hands in the Fraser Valley last month, a drop of 10 per cent from 1,818 sales in April 2002.

The average price of a valley condo rose 5.8 per cent year-over-year to $120,200, while the average townhome price fell 4.7 per cent to $179,000.

“Even though the market has softened, compared with the furious activity of last year, it is still active,” said Reg Davies, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

“And, if interest rates remain low, the market will continue [to be] strong through the balance of 2003 and into 2004.”

Maple Ridge realtor Ron Antalek notes that as housing prices continue to escalate in Greater Vancouver, a growing number of young couples are moving out into the suburbs.

“You can own a brand new, three-bedroom detached house in Maple Ridge for the price of a condo in Kitsilano,” said Antalek, of Re/Max Ridge-Meadows Realty, who sold $67-million worth of properties last year.

In Greater Vancouver, MLS data shows a total of 3,095 housing units sold in April, an 18-per-cent decline from 3,785 sales the previous year.

However, average prices continued to climb, with detached houses fetching an average of $438,600, up 10 per cent from $399,000 the year before.

The year-over-year average condo price rose nine per cent in April to $203,700, while the townhome average inched up one per cent to $255,100.

“While residential real estate sales are lower than last year, they are significantly higher than 2001,” said Bill Binnie, head of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

“Last year was a banner year during which consumers were satisfying pent-up demand for housing. Looking back at historical statistics, it’s clear that we’re still experiencing a very healthy market.”

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APRIL DETACHED HOUSING SALES

Units Sold-Change from last month-Average Sale Price-Change from last year-Median Sale Price-Change from last year

BURNABY NORTH 73 15 $434000 $31100 $402000 $14000

BURNABY SOUTH 64 8 $403700 $41900 $379000 $29000

COQUITLAM 115 -35 $366400 $49400 $344000 $37000

DELTA SOUTH 54 6 $402500 $41800 $355000 $21000

MAPLE RIDGE/PITT MEADOWS 131 -43 $299300 $36600 $284900 $28000 NEW WESTMINSTER 33 -9 $309500 $37500 $275000 $12500

NORTH VANCOUVER 125 -6 $502600 $62300 $479500 $60500

PORT COQUITLAM 60 -4 $301900 $42700 $279000 $29000

PORT MOODY 31 2 $435800 $53000 $445000 $98000

RICHMOND 175 4 $392700 $15300 $358000 $13000

SQUAMISH 29 2 $324800 $104100 $299100 $106600

SUNSHINE COAST 76 30 $264300 $67300 $220000 $40000

VANCOUVER EAST 247 -5 $364300 $33300 $351000 $44000

VANCOUVER WEST 168 -7 $756000 $22900 $680000 $52000

WEST VANCOUVER 68 -7 $842400 $65900 $750000 $100000

© Copyright  2003 Vancouver Sun

Malcolm Parry
Sun

ROBERT FUNG, Bob Carbonneau and Gair Williamson are reviving and protecting the crumbling Gastown district, driven by what the latter calls “a common passion for developing the city and for old buildings.”

Fung, who was a manager with Concord Pacific and Narland Properties, joined former Larco Investments acquisitions-finance specialist Carbonneau and two silent partners in 2001 to form the Salient Group. The firm has headquarters in a Maple Tree Square building owner Fung says was the first to rise after the great fire of 1886. Architect Williamson “works in close proximity and occasional collaboration,” said Fung, who met the self-described “heritage freak” over a drink in the Alexander-at-Main Alibi Room, a moviebiz hangout Williamson designed.

Fung is encouraged by the 2002 Vancouver Agreement, a five year collaboration by Ottawa, Victoria and city hall to revitalize the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown “For the first time in 30 years,” he said, “governments are giving some attention to areas that desperately need it.”

“It’s the only chunk of heritage we have in the city, and it’s rotting,” Carbonneau said.

Not so the Taylor Building (310 Water Street), which Salient acquired last year for conversion to 22 rental lofts in the 740- to 1,150-square-foot range, with space for four retail stores and a restaurant at street level.

Carbonneau and Fung are down to the short strokes with owners of adjacent Gastown properties they propose to develop for high-density residential occupancy.

“Our over-all goal is to bring in the businesses and the people to make this a healthier, stronger neighbourhood,” Fung said. “But there’s a limited number who want to live down here.”

That’s hardly the case at 10th Avenue off Discovery, where Salient has a four-storey, 28-unit complex under way, with two similar-sized projects ready to go nearby.

Still, Gastown property prices are “a steal,” developer Ron Loudown said when he paid $650,000 for Cordova-at-Carrall’s old Boulder hotel recently.

“In fact,” Fung said, “they’re really too high for what you get.” Citing the technical and other complexities of legally renovating century-old structures, he added: “It takes a great deal of creativity to make viable projects in this area.”

– – –

MIKE MILLER, who recently ended 10 years as chair of Ryerson University‘s department of architectural science, might have been Gastown’s first redeveloper. That was exactly what he and two other University of B.C. architecture students proposed in their 1965 graduating project.

But Arthur Erickson sent Miller to work on the Montreal Expo 67 project, and Larry Killam picked up the Gastown ball.

Miller worked for several years in Texas, where development drawings get approved in less than the weeks — or months– common here. Delivering his first set one mid-afternoon, Miller was aghast when the bureaucrat said: “You’re a bit too late to get ‘em back today, son. Come by tomorrow morning.”

When the checker said, “We have no right to doubt your professional ability,” Miller asked if folk didn’t sometimes take advantage.

The laconic reply: “Well, y’see, if anybody did that, we’d invite them in here for a discussion of their future in our community.”

– – –

LAWRENCE HENNESSY and William Percy dined at Lorenzo Wednesday with Rogers Radio CEO Gary Miles, Rogers Broadcasting president Rael Merson and executive VP Sandy Sanderson. That would be regarding the former pair — aka CFOX-FM morning men Larry and Willy — ending their 15-year gig with the Corus Radio-owned station to begin entertaining JACK-FM’s older listeners in the same time slot.

The twosome deal is for $6 million over 10 years — long for the fast-changing radio business (JACK was KISS-FM until Dec. 27, 2002). Meanwhile, not-so-fine print in their old contract will keep the pair’s new microphones unjacked until Corus and Rogers brass settle the matter — probably not until fall.

– – –

MICHAEL AUDAIN, the Polygon Group boss, came up with a different sales fillip for the firm’s 185-unit Gallery and 182-unit Miro residential towers on either side of Richards Street at Nelson. It’s contemporary Canadian art, which Audain and wife Yoshiko collect and donate in large quantities.

Opposite and kitty-corner to the Contemporary Art Gallery, the towers feature small units — average 550 square feet — and over-height, huge-windowed lobbies, which will be packed with artworks.

Yvonne Drinovz, who is sales manager for both projects, said the art is a clincher for the younger buyers and local-resident investors who snapped up the Gallery’s $185,000-average units in four months and have put the like-priced Miro at 70 per cent.

“They love the concept,” said Drinovz, standing beneath a large, blue-hued Graham Gillmore painting titled I Love You In Theory in Miro’s sales office. Seems they also go bonkers for the screaming red shirts Miro’s all-female staff wear in sharp contrast with Polygon’s traditional blue suits and white ties.

Let’s bet we’ll see more art and bright attire when a third tower is announced for Nelson at Homer.

© Copyright  2003 Vancouver Sun

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