Here are great facts about our economy

• We’re optimistic overall
  British Columbians are the most optimistic about their province’s future of any of the western provinces. More than 46 per cent of us believe BC will be better off in five years, a jump from 40.8 per cent in 2001. SourceNULL West Foundation, “Economic Expectations,” April 2004
• We’re optimistic in business
  BC’s small and mid-sized businesses lead Canada in optimism, ahead of the national index for the third quarter in a row – 114.8 points – and at its highest level since Canadian Federation of Business (CFIB) began regular quarterly reporting of business expectations. Source: CFIB, Quarterly Business Barometer, March 2004
• We’re earning more
  BC’s after-tax family income grew 1.7 per cent in 2002 – that’s more than five times the national increase of 0.3 per cent. This follows a 4.7 per cent increase in 2001, which was the largest increase in after-tax income for BC families in 20 years. Source: Stats Canada, BC Stats
• We’re moving here
  BC saw a net inflow of almost 2,100 people from the rest of Canada in 2003 – the first time in six years that more people moved to BC from other provinces than moved out. Source: BC Stats, Stats Canada
• We’re exporting
  Growth in BC exports will be the third highest of the ten provinces with a 10 per cent increase in 2004 – outpacing the national average of 6.7 per cent. Source: Export Development Canada, Provincial Outlook, April 2004
• We’re buying homes
  BC’s home sales topped $3 billion for a second month in a row in April, a 50 per cent increase in dollar volume and a 29.9 per cent rise in unit sales, compared to April 2003. Year-to-date, the value of home sales in BC is up 38.5 per cent from the first four months of 2003, and the number of units sold is up 21.3 per cent. Source: BC Real Estate Association
• We’re gaining investment
  Investment in non-residential building construction was up 3.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2004, over the fourth quarter of 2003 – the largest increase of all provinces. Source: Stats Canada
• We’re building buildings
  The value of BC building permits increase 32.7 per cent in the first three months of 2004, compared with the same period in 2003. This percentage change is five times stronger than the national average of 6.2 per cent, and is the third highest percentage increase of the ten provinces. Source: Stats Canada, May 7, 2004
• We’re opening businesses
  We’ll see a 10 per cent increase in business incorporations in 2004. Last year, business incorporations increased by 9.3 per cent, the strongest increase in a decade. Source: Credit Union Central, Weekly Economic Briefing.
• We’re buying
  Retail sales in BC were up seven per cent in March compared with March 2003, the second strongest gain in Canada and significantly stronger than the national average increase of 4.1 per cent. Source: Stats Canada, May 25, 2004
• We’re getting out of debt
  Two major debt rating agencies — Standard and Poor’s Rating Services and Moody’s Investor Services — have upgraded BC’s debt rating outlook. This lowers our provincial debt. Source: BC Ministry of Finance, March 24, 2004

A strengthening economy in B.C. and across Canada continues to support the province’s super-heated housing market, new data released yesterday show.

The B.C. Real Estate Association report said that 10,048 homes sold on the Multiple Listing Service last month for a total value of $2.91 billion. While just shy of the $3 billion-per-month pace recorded in April and March, the new number represented a 36.5-per-cent increase in dollar volume and a 17.6- per-cent rise in unit sales compared to May, 2003.

“We’ve never seen three consecutive months with more than 10,000 people buying homes in B.C.,” said Gordon Maroney, president of the BCREA.

Current historically-low interest rates are one of the drivers behind the robust sales, but Maroney said in an interview that the economy also plays a major factor.

“On top of low interest rates, the economy here and across the country is showing signs of improvement,” he explained. “People just don’t buy homes based just on interest rates, they also buy based on their view of how secure their employment and income is. So housing sales is a really good indicator that the economy is moving forward.”

On a year-to-date basis the report said that MLS sales, which are primarily resales, reached 43,492 units with a value totalling $12.5 billion.

This represents a 20.5- per-cent increase in units sales and a 38.04-per-cent jump in dollar volume over the first five months of 2003. And only two of B.C.’s 12 real-estate boards showed a decrease in units sales.

“Consumer demand for housing continues to be high and, even though mortgage rates have risen slightly, they are still very affordable. These factors will keep the market strong throughout the summer,” Maroney added.

But he admitted that this torrid pace isn’t sustainable. “I suspect that when interest rates increase — and that will happen over time — it’ll have a moderating impact on unit sales,” he said.

“But, if interest rates rise on a gradual basis, I don’t think they’ll have any significant impact on price levels.” As the BCREA was releasing its figures yesterday, Bank of Canada governor David Dodge was telling an Ottawa audience that interest rates in Canada and elsewhere will be rising to more normal levels over the next year or so.

However, Maroney said the current housing market’s historically-high prices shouldn’t deter young people from buying their first home.

“There’s no question that real-estate values don’t always go up and that prices do move in cycles,” he said. “But, if young people are buying a property to live in it for a number of years, I don’t think they should concern themselves with today’s price levels. They shouldn’t be concerned with the shorter term pricing peaks and valleys and pay more attention to the longer-term upward trend.”

The current hot housing market is also having direct economic spinoff impacts from buyers also spending on furniture, appliances, legal, financial and other services, the BCREA report said.

A study prepared last year for the Canadian Real Estate Association found that the average house transaction triggered an estimated $19,800 in added spending.

This means that B.C.’s total sales last year of 93,000 homes generated an estimated $1.8 billion in added spending.

© The Vancouver Province 2004

Residential property sales across B.C. are poised to shatter records set last year in terms of units sold and dollar volume, according to the latest housing industry figures released Wednesday.

In May, 10,048 homes worth $2.91 billion sold through the Multiple Listing Service, a 36.5-per-cent increase in dollar value and an 18-per-cent rise in units compared to May 2003.

It marked the unprecedented third straight month that housing sales exceeded 10,000 units.

“We have never seen three consecutive months with more than 10,000 people buying homes in B.C.,” said Gordon Maroney, president of the B.C. Real Estate Association, which represents more than 13,000 licensees around the province.

“Home sales have a great impact on our provincial economy, considering almost everyone who buys a home also buys furniture and appliances, does some renovations and uses legal and financial services.”

For each unit sold, consumers spend an average of $19,800 on additional goods and services, said Maroney, a Delta realtor.

In April, 10,320 homes worth $3.01 billion sold on the MLS, a 50-per-cent increase in dollar volume and up 29 per cent in unit sales over the same month the previous year.

In March, a monthly record $3.04 billion worth of homes — representing 10,612 transactions — sold across B.C.

Year-to-date MLS data for the first five months show sales have already reached 43,492 units worth $12.5 billion — a 38-per-cent improvement in dollar volume and a 20.5-per-cent jump in units over the same period in 2003.

Extrapolated over the full year, B.C. housing sales are poised to hit 104,380 units, totalling $30 billion, for 2004, easily shattering the record $24.2 billion worth of homes sold last year, along with the record 93,564 units changing hands in 1992.

“Consumer demand for housing continues to be high, and, even though mortgage rates have risen slightly, they are still very affordable,” Maroney said. “These factors will keep the market strong throughout the summer.”

Dollar-wise, a total of about $1.5 billion worth of residential properties sold in Greater Vancouver in May, up 40 per cent over $1.07 billion the previous year. Other sharp percentage increases were recorded in Powell River, the Kootenays, Fraser Valley, northern B.C., Vancouver Island and Chilliwack.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

VANCOUVER I Vancouver’s $535-million convention centre expansion is to have one of the biggest “green roofs” in North America.

Measuring almost 2.4 hectares (six acres), the state-of-the-art roof will cap the new convention facility to be built on a 4.2-hectare (11.3 acre) site west of Canada Place at the foot of Burrard Street.

Composed of a mixture of grasses and drought tolerant plants, the “living roof” has been specifically designed to provide a sustainable habitat for birds and insects.

It will also capture, purify and recycle rainwater, act as a buffer to reduced the noise of float planes, lower the cost of heating and cooling the building, and provide a more attractive view for residents of the expensive waterfront highrise condos in the new Harbour Green neighbourhood.

The design team for the project — a collaboration of U.S. and Canadian architects — outlined the proposal for the roof system in Vancouver this week, pointing out that green-roof technology is fast becoming internationally recognized as one of the most environmentally friendly and progressive innovations in contemporary building design.

With its origins in the simple cob-houses of antiquity, the green roof is being embraced world-wide as a way to cool down the “heat islands” that cities have become by turning barren rooftops into oxygen-generating, pollution-absorbing green spaces.

Jim Brown, principal at LMN Architects in Seattle, says the main idea with Vancouver‘s convention centre extension project is to make sure the building, which will cover the equivalent of four city blocks, has a natural link to the green spaces that stretch from Stanley Park to Canada Place.

To achieve the desired look and neighbourhood ambience, Brown says, the architectural team developed a concept of “folded landforms” that gave the building its ultimate shape, with rooflines angled to create a sleek, low profile as well as pleasing view corridors.

“Viewed from the water, we wanted the building to glow at night like a lantern. We want it to look like a beacon, a beautiful object, on the waterfront,” Brown says.

The green roof was chosen because not only would it add a natural continuity to the rhythm of the existing green space, it would provide an opportunity to create a viable and sustainable habitat for birds and insects.

Technological expertise on how to plant the roof and create appropriate soil conditions and drainage is being provided by Californian Paul Kephart, one of North America‘s top green-roof experts who has worked on numerous projects over the last 15 years.

Kephart will also be working on the design of systems to capture, purify and recycle rainwater. He is also conducting tests to determine the best plants for the site. At the moment, he thinks sedums, grasses and herbs will work well, especially when they are grown in the same medium in which they will be ultimately planted on the roof.

While the main roof will not be accessible to the public, there are lower areas — technically still part of the roof system — that the public will be able to visit. They could also be used for educational purposes.

Jacques Beaudreault, of Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership, architects in Vancouver, says he was a “bit nervous” when he first heard of the proposal for a green roof but he came round to seeing the advantages after hearing from Kephart.

“I think it will be fantastic. It will provide a natural termination of the green spaces from Stanley Park to Canada Place.”

Beaudreault also points out that one of the benefits of a green roof is that the vegetation protects the roof membrane from destructive ultra-violet rays. “A green roof can actually extend the life of a roof.”

Green-roof technology has been used extensively throughout Germany and Holland for several years. It is estimated there are now more than 10 million square metres of green roofs in Germany, including a meadow-like roof on top of a commercial building in Kassel. In Holland, the roof of the international airport in Amsterdam has been covered with sedums

In North America, there are several significant projects, including the four-hectare roof at Ford Motor Company’s factory in Detroit, the $1-million roof garden above Chicago‘s city hall, and the roof of the Gap’s $60-million corporate headquarters in San Bruno, California.

Scientists at Weston Design Consultants in Chicago reckon that with enough green roofs they could lower the temperature of an entire city. According to Weston’s study, a drop in roof temperature of a few degrees means a 10-per-cent reduction in air-conditioning needs for the building below.

In Vancouver, the Law Courts building on Robson Street has a green-roof, as does the library, which has a meadow of ornamental grasses on its roof. The vast field of grasses has been planted in a curving pattern to symbolize the Fraser River.

A cloister-like courtyard garden at Cathedral Place on West Georgia and lawns on the top of the Portland Hotel residence on Hastings Street are two other intelligent uses of roof spaces to create esthetically pleasing garden environments.

Construction on the convention centre expansion is due to start in October. Work is scheduled to be completed by 2008.

The expansion will more than triple the convention space that currently exists at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre.

The project is expected to generate more than $1.5 billion in economic benefits for industry as well as 6,700 person-years of employment during construction and an additional 7,500 full-time jobs throughout the province once it is completed.

OPEN HOUSES

A number of open houses have been arranged to allow public discussion of the convention centre expansion project. The times and dates are as follows:

– June 16, noon to 6:30 p.m, Waterfront Station.

– June 19, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, UBC Robson Square.

– June 22, noon to 5 p.m., Coal Harbour Community Centre.

– June 24, open house from 5 to 7 p.m., public meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Vancouver Public Library.

City staff and project team staff will be at all events along with a model of the project and other information panels.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

VANCOUVER — Canadians with leaking polybutylene plastic plumbing or heating systems can now apply for compensation from a $20-million class action settlement reached with Shell Oil Co. Another defendant, E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., previously settled in the case. “This has been a major problem — especially in areas like British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec,” James Poyner of the legal firm Poyner Baxter said Friday. Directions for claims, including all relevant forms, can be found on the Internet at www.polypipes.ca or by calling the claims administrator toll-free at 1-866-348-0333. Canadian courts approved DuPont’s $30-million settlement in May, with DuPont agreeing to pay 25 per cent of replacement costs. The faulty systems contain grey plastic pipes made of polybutylene and grey acetal plastic insert fittings.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

Everyone likes to talk about the speculative nature of the real estate market, especially when today’s housing prices match or outpace the high point in the last cyclical curve or when prices are at the bottom of the trough.

That’s when the questioning starts. Where are trends headed? Is this a good time to buy or a bad time to sell?

This questioning may be more a form of meaningless chatter among bystanders than actual market intelligence. Consumer habits seem to prove that the housing market is anything but a speculative market.

Most people don’t buy a condo or a house as a speculative investment. They buy because they can afford to own. They buy because their employment is secure and interest rates allow them to take on a monthly mortgage payment. They buy because of a family situation or a lifestyle decision.

Some people may buy a home or a condo as an investment, renting out the home and hoping that the value of the property will appreciate over time. But usually real estate is the least speculative investment product in their portfolio.

The real estate market is largely dictated by supply and demand and the cyclical forces influencing supply and demand have more to do with overall economic conditions than they do with the speculative urges of the consumer.

The local employment market has the biggest influence on real estate prices, followed closely by the cost of money — current mortgage rates.

Questioning the sustainability of the market is still a popular pastime. Homebuilders and other industry insiders are notorious for seeking answers to explain current market conditions. They are often the first to look beyond the simple supply and demand equation, second-guessing why something that is working shouldn’t work.

Vancouver‘s Condo King, Bob Rennie, reassured homebuilders at a recent Urban Development Institute address that consumers do know what they are doing.

In a review of current market performance and some informed crystal-ball-gazing five or six years into the future, Rennie pointed to the benefits of real job growth in the Lower Mainland as the current and future driving force behind a sustained housing market in Greater Vancouver.

He listed off a number of major projects, including the Vancouver convention centre expansion, the Sea to Sky Highway upgrade project, the Delta Port expansion and the many Olympic infrastructure projects as evidence that there is optimism for continued job growth.

Rennie declared the hot downtown condo market basically in-balance over the next five to seven years.

He cited that there are approximately 15,000 condominium homes under construction or on the books between now and 2008 in the downtown area.

Almost 8,800 of those homes have already been sold. Adjusting those numbers for the investor-owned homes that may be sold back into the market in the interim, Rennie predicted that 1,466 condominiums per year will be supplied to the market.

Historically without major job creation projects in the area, the market supports an absorption of between 1,000 and 1,200 homes per year.

Rennie also declared suburban markets like Burnaby, New Westminster and Richmond as healthy markets where supply is barely keeping up with demand.

He dispelled all speculation about the market hitting the ceiling or stalling before the Olympics, pointing out that consumers buy real estate because it makes sense for them.

Rennie ended his address by reminding development industry insiders that “the world loves Vancouver. People will continue to come here.” This is hardly something you can speculate about.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

CREDIT: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun Developer Cameron McNeill (foreground) and his partners are inviting the public to name a new 33-storey residential tower to be built at Seymour and Drake in downtown Vancouver

When Cameron McNeill decided on a moniker for the 109-residence development at Sixteenth and Cambie, Olive was a logical choice.

After all, the anchor tenant would be the largest Capers in the Lower Mainland, and what better way to entice buyers than making a not-so-subtle connection with a snappy, lively title.

But if a connection with the natural and organics food store was an overriding factor, why settle for Olive?

Why not Apple, Orange, Banana, Watermelon or, simply, Passion Fruit?

“That entire project was designed around gourmet kitchens and we knew early on that Capers would be the anchor tenant,” says McNeill. “So we searched for something that really played on those differentiation points. We look for the soul of the project and align the name with it. It was a brainstorming session and we threw around names such as exotic spices and unique foods. Anise was the runner-up. We wanted a slightly generic name and Olive was simple and people would understand it. Apple would be far too literal.

“And my daughter’s name is Olivia, so maybe it resonated with me.”

When it comes to naming housing projects, marketers spend a lot of money and time — anywhere from a day to a several weeks — deciding on the perfect handle.

McNeill said the secret to successful marketing is “the cohesiveness of all the elements, from product and positioning, to signage, sales and staff. The name is one of those components and it’s an important component that’s tied into other marketing details. There has to be a playfulness to it.”

Marketing teams feel that while buyers will obviously look deeper than a project name before purchasing, that first impression — a snappy moniker — can help get them through the door.

“It’s quite the process,” says publicist Pamela Groberman who has marketed many projects, including Olive. “And to the marketing team, it’s very important. We spend a lot of energy on that. Other names were considered, but Olive is clean, memorable and simple.”

Groberman said that when it comes time to choose a name, those involved in marketing the project submit about 10 names each. Then the 100 or so names are whittled down to the best 10, before the final name is chosen.

She cites the Opus Hotel in Yaletown. “Opus is a compilation of music. It was nice and clean. And I thought (the hotel) would be a compilation of great things.”

McNeill notes that there are many themes to housing monikers. He has his favourites, but also his aversions. “There are themes named after people’s names, like Oscar. And that’s growing in popularity North America-wide. But almost every London subway station or famous street or township in Britain is named in a project here, and I’m tired of all those British place names that have been used ad nauseum over the last decade. I think names like that are weak. We should be working for more originality.”

Although picking the right appellation is almost essential for modern marketing teams, it wasn’t always so.

There was a time in the not so distant past when new housing developments didn’t utilize fancy titles to draw people into their show homes. The project was built, the address advertised, and people simply showed up.

No more.

With the advent of slick, high-priced marketing teams, the project name is now a vital component in selling real estate.

Howard Steiss at Adera says projects names are created based on a preliminary visioning session involving all members of the developer’s team, including landscapers, architects, public relations teams and interior design and marketing.

“Comments by the development team consultants are made and a common thread is woven into a project’s identity,” said Steiss. “The graphic design and marketing manager will agree on a preliminary project name and visual (logo). The Journey project came from the location of the site at UBC where many people go to advance their own lifelong journey of learning.

“The Solay project in south Surrey is in the banana belt of the Lower Mainland and a name using the term sol was transformed from soleil, the French word for sun, into Solay, a contemporary version of the same sounding word.”

Macdonald Realty project marketer George Wong says his team looks at other projects in the area — especially such things as unit sizes and target markets — which helps their “image” positioning.

“Once we have an idea about what other people are doing, we will look at the target markets of our project and analyse in-depth who our buyer groups are and why they would be interested in buying into the our project, and what elements will make them buy in our project and not another project on the market now.”

From that, Wong said, the team gets it down to three or four core attributes and then starts working on a name.

“The naming exercise is critical to a project’s success as it can evoke and fortify the positioning of our product or, conversely, it can generate the wrong images. In other words, no one name is good or bad, but it has to fit the buyer’s thinking and motivation.”

Wong said Esse, for example, was “pleasing to the ear, easy to pronounce and memorable.” As well, he said, it was “balanced and meaningful to purchasers.”

He said Esse is Latin for “to be, existence,” as well as the root word for essential and essence.

Some of the names in recent housing projects reveal handles that may be a tad on the ostentatious side.

There’s the Parisian-sounding The Left Bank (at Main and Prior); the Marquis Grande (a 27-storey tower in Burnaby), Denim in Langley (it “conveys the idea of youthful style and flexibility,” notes Steiss. “Dress it up. Dress it down. It always fits.”), King’s Landing in False Creek (need we say more?), Access (priced from $86,500), Pintura (“picture” in Italian), and, of course, Electric Avenue at Paramount, a 456-condo Vancouver project that includes nine movie theatres and a fleet of hybrid (natural gas/electric) cars for purchasers to use. (‘Electric’ Avenue at ‘Paramount.’ Get it?)

Italian names are a hit, even at the entrance to Chinatown (Firenze). And there’s Uno, a condo project in Mount Pleasant, a derivative of Oni-One, a funky Toronto-based design store that will anchor the Uno project. Oni-One is also a derivative of the names of the store’s design team, Elaine Cecconi and Anna Simone.

Some names are very simple and reveal, perhaps, a minimum of marketing savvy. Or, perhaps, great marketing savvy, depending on how you look at it.

Taylor, for example, is a 26-storey tower at 550 Taylor Street. And UniverCity Highlands is a Simon Fraser University development.

Second names like Mews, Estates and Gardens are popular. Or how about Zoey, i on West 10th or the pretentious The Max (a Concord Pacific project, predictably).

Brava was a play on Bravo, a word that coincided with a medium-sized movie theatre in the tower that will play foreign films.

Qube is the name of the renovated West Coast Transmission Building. “Architecturally, it’s a very cubic-looking building, with 11 and 12-foot ceilings,” notes McNeill. “So we play on selling cubic feet rather than just square feet.”

The Altura townhouse project in Burnaby was named for the Italian phrase “high ground” because of the town homes’ location in Burnaby Heights with commanding views. As well, it’s an historically Italian neighbourhood.

Twenty has 20 homes and is a reflection of the television series 24, which the marketer believed the target audience would watch.

The Silver project was reflective of the colour of building materials, as well as a common colour for Porsches and other spiffy sports cars.

While pretentious-sounding names are not out of place in Vancouver, many U.S. developments have predictably patriotic themes.

According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, some builders appear to be tapping into the post-Sept. 11 mood. There’s Liberty, Independence, Freedom and Heritage.

But before we Canadians start naming our new highrises Consensus or Peacekeeper, it might be best to ascertain whether all of it’s worth the trouble.

According to Dr. Andrew Cheng, his purchase of a suite at Olive had nothing whatsoever to do with the name of the project.

“I don’t think it did at all,” says Cheng. “I knew about the project before and for me it was the location. I didn’t care about the name.”

Ryan Nicholas, who bought a suite at Altura, agreed. “The name means nothing to me. Altura to me sounds like a car. If it was specific, like The Pines, for example, it might evoke an image.”

But Nicholas admits he went out to see Imperial Landing in Steveston partly because the name evoked a nice image for him. “It had a nice sound to it and I looked at it. Imperial is high end, regal, luxurious and I just figured waterfront. They were nice places too, but too far of a drive for us.”

Brad O’Connell, who bought a condo at King Edward Village in Vancouver, likes the name and feels it might have had a subconscious effect on him. “I won’t buy a place because of the name, but subconsciously if it’s got a nice name, it’s one more plus. It took me a few minutes to figure out why it was called King Edward Village when it’s at the corner of Kingsway and Knight, but King Edward runs along the side of the project.”

Meanwhile, McNeill’s Mac Realty is taking the whole exercise one step further with his firm’s invitation to the public to name a new 33-storey Vancouver condo tower at Seymour and Drake that will be marketed for Cressey.

“We’re going to have a huge campaign to name that building,” said McNeill of the project, whose website is namethisbuilding.com.

As well, everybody who participates gets free maintenance for six months when they buy a condo.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004