Builder transforms Whalley location

Province

QUATTRO 3

WHAT: 164 residences

WHERE: Surrey

DEVELOPER: Charan Sethi

SIZE: 425-998 sq. ft.

PRICE: $149,900 -$399,900

OPEN: 114 -10768 Whalley Blvd.

HOURS: noon -5 p.m., Sat –Thur

In 2006, Charan Sethi’s development company purchased 12 acres of land in the Surrey neighbourhood of Whalley.

In retrospect, it looks like a particularly savvy real-estate move on the part of the Tien Sher Group of companies, considering the grand plans Surrey now has to rejuvenate the area.

At first, many in the real estate world thought he was nuts, he says.

“Everybody told me I was a fool, and asking me why was I buying in such a bad area,” says Sethi, adding he always had confidence in the area and in Whalley’s potential. “But it’s been my lifelong dream to develop this area, and every time I think about it, I get goosebumps.

“You don’t get many chances to buy a large piece of land that you could build a community around it.”

Sethi’s Quattro 3, the third installation of a development plan that calls for an eventual fourth building, is two blocks from the Gateway SkyTrain station and four from Surrey’s Simon Fraser University campus. A new Surrey City Hall and public library a planned for a few blocks away.

The development plans, all part of the strategy to create the new Surrey city centre, also include expanding the SFU campus, enlarging Surrey Memorial Hospital, and building a new RCMP headquarters and hotel-convention centre complex.

Quattro 3 has 164 homes: studios, one and two-bedroom suites, and live/ work lofts.

In September 2008, a fire destroyed one of the earlier two Quattro buildings, just two months before move in.

Just 10 months later, however, the Quattro 2 building was rebuilt, along with some damaged areas of Quattro 1, and homeowners moved in.

Sethi says he didn’t change much from the original two Quattro buildings when he designed Quattro 3.

He knew the development would be attractive to young people looking forward to settling within walking distance of SFU, and is hoping the studios will appeal to longtime renters hoping to get a foot in the real estate market.

At just over 400 square feet, Quattro’s smallest homes include stacking washer-dryer units and the same finishings as the larger units: granite counter-tops, wood-grain laminate cabinets and mosaic accent bathroom tiles.

The two-bedroom suites are fitted with one bathroom. The seven two-storey, two-bedroom live/work lofts, at just under 1,000 square feet, the seven two-storey, two-bedroom live/ work lofts also include a half-bath, or powder room on the main floor.

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Lena Sin
Province

Box in the sky — or house in the ‘burbs? For many young couples in Vancouver today, that’s the million-dollar question (or, more accurately, the $600,000 question) that arises as soon as talk of starting a family begins.

Standing at the crossroads with a modest budget and the prospect of buying some of the priciest real estate in the country, couples are inevitably faced with choosing between two paths: moving farther afield for that spacious house and neatly trimmed lawn, or staying in Vancouver, content with a small condo and the city as your playground.

Making a decision is often a balancing act of wants and needs, heart versus head, prioritizing and compromising. But what if the deciding factor came down to cost? What if all one needed to know was where is it cheaper to live? Arriving at a decision might start to become a whole lot easier.

The Province decided to undertake this exercise with the help of Tsur Somerville, a professor with the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business and director of the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate. Based on a hypothetical scenario of a young couple with one child and a budget of $639,000 — the average price of a two-bedroom condo in downtown Vancouver in June, although admittedly out of the price range of many — we compared the cost of owning a downtown condo versus a house of about the same value in Coquitlam.

The result? Compared to the sprawling house in Coquitlam, the city condo was the clear winner, costing between 23 and 33 per cent (or $837 to $1,200) less to own, run and travel to work from every month.

While the comparison was by no means scientific, the exercise can be useful for would-be homeowners trying to gauge the costs associated with different lifestyles.

“When you buy a house, I view it very much as a consumption decision. I’m going to be living in this house, living in this neighbourhood and taking on this lifestyle pattern,” says Somerville.

“What’s probably useful here in this exercise is having an idea about what some of the costs associated with different lifestyle patterns happen to be. On the one hand, it’s a small unit [in the city]; on the other hand, it can be much higher transportation and repair and renovation costs [in the suburbs] that you weren’t necessarily expecting.”

For our comparison, we considered two major costs: (1) Housing costs such as mortgage, property taxes, strata fees, maintenance, home insurance and utilities and (2) Transportation costs such as owning vehicles, parking and public transit.

Our hypothetical family had a budget that would cover a Yaletown condo of 800 square feet with two bedrooms and sweeping city views, listed for $639,000. Or, they could head to the hills of Coquitlam and purchase a three bedroom, 1,940-square-foot detached house in the new development of Burke Mountain, listed for slightly less at $629,000.

We assumed our couple were young professionals working in downtown Vancouver who would keep one car should they stay in the city, but two cars should they choose Coquitlam.

The result was our family would pay $4,814 per month for the suburban lifestyle, compared to $3,603 for the city lifestyle, a difference of 33 per cent.

Even when we considered an alternate scenario in Coquitlam, in which one parent takes a job closer to home to cut down on gasoline and parking costs down-

town, the gap is narrowed only somewhat with suburban monthly costs going down to $4,440, still 23 per cent higher than the city.

“If all they cared about were the dollars, they wanted to have $600,000 worth of real estate and then minimize their out-of-pocket costs, all else being considered, then being in the city is better,” says Somerville.

Transit made the biggest difference, with costs in the city down to $488 per month compared to between $815 to $1,189 in Coquitlam, depending on whether one or both parents commuted to downtown.

Other items that contributed significantly to the gap were utilities ($58 vs. $150), homeowner’s insurance ($33 vs. $125) and home maintenance ($357 including strata fees for the condo vs. $675 for the house).

The one major factor that would substantially change the equation is repair and renovation work, which of course, varies greatly depending on whether you buy a crumbling old house or a sparkling new one.

If we excluded the estimated cost for repairs and renovation, the gap would be narrowed considerably to a difference of between nine to 19 per cent, depending on whether both parents or just one commuted to downtown.

Costs aside, a Statistics Canada survey found the suburbs remain a draw for people in the prime child-rearing ages of 24 to 44.

The study, released in June, found people in that age bracket were most likely to move out of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver and into the surrounding suburbs between 2001 and 2006, with one in seven (14 per cent) making the move.

Family status was a big influence on the migration, as first-time parents were among the most likely to leave the city core. In Vancouver, 27 per cent of new parents left the city for the suburbs, while just eight per cent of people living alone made the same move.

But attititudes about how and where to raise a family are changing. A 2008 TD Canada Trust survey found almost half of Vancouverites (48 per cent) polled said they would consider raising a family in a condo, up from 34 per cent in 2007.

Jonathan Hultquist and wife Kate Shapiro are among those who believe a small city dwelling is not only acceptable, but also preferable to a large house in the ‘burbs.

While Shapiro, 31, grew up in a “rather large home” in Kerrisdale and Hultquist, 38, grew up in similarly spacious houses in the U.S., the couple knew the single detached home was out of the question if they wanted to stay in Vancouver. Instead, they and their 1½-year-old daughter, Aidan, settled into a sunny, 750-square-foot apartment in a desirable Cambie neighbourhood last month. It was priced at their “upper limit,” but the location was everything they dreamt of: close to friends and family, parks, shopping and transit.

“To me, it’s about quality of life, which is not living in my car. And being able to access the kinds of activities we like on a regular basis, which to me is getting out and walking, visiting friends, going shopping for groceries and just having that all around us — and just the vibrancy of city life,” says Shapiro.

While Hultquist, an educator at the Vancouver Aquarium, bikes daily to work, Shapiro, a biologist with Environment Canada, carpools four days a week to Delta. Shapiro says she never entertained moving closer to work, though Hultquist admits he is still lured by the prospect of a spacious house in the ‘burbs. Cost certainly had some influence on their final decision.

“There’s a few things about buying a big house. It’s not just about the upfront cost. You have the cost of heating your house, you have the cost of property taxes and the cost of putting furniture in your rooms. Once you get a big house, you’ve got to put something in it and you have to clean it. It’s not just the dollars up front,” says Shapiro.

“We have two rooms and a main room and a kitchen, we have enough room for us for now — we don’t have extra space, but that works well for me. From an environmental perspective as well, there’s something nice about knowing that I’m not taking up a massive footprint on the planet.”

Meanwhile, 26 kilometres away in the leafy mountains of Coquitlam are Rebecca Permack and husband Cory, who traded in a two-bedroom Burnaby condo for a large house in the new development of Burke Mountain last year. “There was no way, with both of us working from home being self-employed, that we were going to even consider planning a family. So we came out here. I drove my husband out one day and said ‘What do you think? We bought the house within a week,” says Rebecca.

Their new home, priced at the time of purchase at about $655,000, is enviably sized at 3,800 square feet, features brand-new finishings and is set on a picture-perfect cul-de-sac.

“Seventy per cent of the people here are young families and there are little kids running all over . . . It’s the lifestyle that we’d never have if we stayed downtown — that real sense of community,” says Rebecca, 34. “Personally, I grew up in Maple Ridge, so I was never married to Vancouver,” she says. “I was never married to the idea I had to be in Vancouver.

“My husband was born and raised in Kerrisdale and it was a much tougher decision for him. But when he saw the house and what he could get, his esthetic took over his need to be downtown,” she says.

Now happily settled with a new puppy and plans for a family down the road, the Permacks say the only hiccup is convincing family to visit.

“I know his parents were like, ‘Oh my god, Coquitlam is so far away,'” Rebecca says. “They still feel that way and joke they’re going to have spend a weekend if they’re going to visit, and so we built the guest room in the basement so they could do that. But that’s the trade-off — you get the big house. Yeah, it’s a trek for people to come out, but there’s room for people to stay if they do.”

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Builders and their brokers put a lot of thought into the namesof their buildings

Felicity Stone
Sun

Few Canadian homes have names. Official, or government, residences like Rideau Hall in Ottawa, are one exception. Multi-residence buildings are another. Some of their names are straightforward: Water’s Edge, Parkview Towers. Others, not so.

On a recent locally produced CBC radio show, a reporter challenged the host to guess which of the following is not the name of a new-home project in the Fraser Valley: Oliva, Green Meadows, Ethical Gardens, Tamarind, Suede and Sahara Living. Green Meadows was the right answer.

People’s names are one source of new-home-project names. The Erickson is named after the late Arthur Erickson, the world-renowned Vancouver architect who designed it. The Beasley honours a retired city planner, Larry Beasley; Alda, Alda Pereira, who designed its interiors; The Rolston, B.C. politician Tilly Rolston and the street, Rolston Crescent, above which the Yaletown development will rise.

But James? Why not William or Jane for the Cressey development in Southeast False Creek? Why James?

James, it turns out, was inspired by James S. Doherty, who owned a company on the property and supplied deck equipment to the Canadian navy and merchant marine. Cameron McNeill of Mac Marketing Solutions explains that all involved in the development wanted to honour the property’s industrial heritage without going too deeply into the history.

Using Doherty’s first name is more personal, in keeping with the project’s boutique nature, he says. Plus: “We wanted something more grand and sophisticated, but not overly marketing-ish.”

Diana McMeekin’s Artemis Marketing Group has helped name scores of Vancouver real estate projects.

Although developments are named to assist marketing and sales campaigns, says McMeekin, it is important that the name have a level of authenticity that can be substantiated.

It could reflect the architecture or general design (Mondrian, Lumiere, Jacobsen, Alda); the location (Arbutus Walk, Bedford Landing, District Crossing, Highland Park); or something distinctive about the building or neighbourhood (Uno, Camera, Pintura, Vista Place, Ansonia, Metroliving).

Ultimately, though, the name must appeal to the target market. “We often get tied up looking for something unique and special,” says McMeekin. “After all, you can come up with a great name, but if it does not resonate with the target market, it is a complete dud.”

Ideally, it should continue to resonate after the project is sold and the sales agents have moved on. It’s a sign of success when resale realtors use the project’s name rather than simply the address, says McMeekin.

Looking back, McMeekin likes names people think of as always having been there, though from a marketing perspective her favourite is Uno. At the time, the project was a bit of a pioneer and not for everyone. The show home was themed around a then-new line of furniture called Oni One designed by Ceconni Simone, and advertising reinforced the concept with slogans like “It’s the one you’ve been waiting for.” On the sales centre’s opening day, McMeekin opened the show home fridge and was delighted to find it filled with bottles of branded water labelled “Uno, the refreshing one.”

Cameron McNeill agrees that names are key to marketing. Naming developments makes them more memorable to the public and provides a sense of what the community is all about, he says.

Olive, for example, reflects the Capers grocery store on the ground floor and the extra-large kitchens in the flats. Flatiron echoes the shape of the famous New York Flatiron building. Park 360 is on the edge of a park and has 360-degree views.

One of McNeill’s pet peeves is names that misrepresent a development or miss the mark. A name and brand should capture the essence of a project, he says. Over time, through marketing, the name takes on a persona. If done well, the name lives on, especially when it is included in the signage of the finished community. The name of a high-profile building like Woodward’s will also tend to endure, partly because of the large W on the roof, but also because of its historical profile in the city.

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At this desert address, thirst is never a worry

Christina Symons
Sun

Spirit Ridge Residence Club

Project location: Osoyoos

Project size: 40 units

Residence size: 1 — 3 bed, 1,045 sq. ft– 1,670 sq. ft.

Prices: fractional ownerships from approximately $80,000 (1/8 share) — $489,000 (whole share) and up

Sales centre: At Spirit Ridge Resort and Spa, 1200 Rancher Road

Hours: 10 a.m. — 4 p.m. daily

Telephone: 250-495-5445 or 1-877-313-9463 (toll-free)

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: ownspiritridge.ca

Developer/design: Bellstar Hotels & Resorts

Occupancy: Projected spring 2012

Waking up in the desert next to an Okanagan winery has obvious allure, especially if you own the lodgings you’re sleeping in. After all, what could be sexier than securing an address in B.C.’s hip desert wine country?

The 4.5-star Spirit Ridge Residence Club in Osoyoos is adjacent to Nk’Mip Cellars, one of Canada’s most successful and progressive wineries. And that proximity to the vineyard is a signature selling proposition.

Imagine shaking off an afternoon nap and strolling to Nk’Mip for a tasting, then retiring to the adjoining terrace to enjoy a glass before catching dinner at Spirit Ridge Resort & Spa’s superb Passa Tempo restaurant later in the eve.

You could then simply hit the hot tub, or meander through the vineyard to the beach for a nightcap at the Thirsty Turtle bar. And all this without technically leaving your address!

As an owner at Spirit Ridge Residence Club, there’s further proof that lifestyle, like real estate, is fundamentally a matter of location. In this case, your southwest-styled abode is tucked neatly on a rolling hill in Canada’s only pocket desert, pleasantly tempered by the breeze and the lush surroundings.

With average temperatures nearing 34 C the week I visit, Curt Jansen, director of real estate, Spirit Ridge Residence Club is unflinching in his pitch.

“I would make the claim that this is the hottest property in Canada,” Jansen asserts with a smile. He means it — both literally and figuratively.

By 10 a.m., things are indeed heating up. The pool is already hopping as cheerful guests and residents pass by to pick up their mid-morning cappuccinos at the on-site market cafe.

Others get in a workout at the fitness studio, book a massage at the Sonora Desert Spa or consider a late afternoon tee-off on the adjoining golf course. That jovial resort atmosphere, exotic locale and temperature first attracted Vancouverites Terri Moore and Ricardo Urtusastegui to buy a half-share unit in Phase II at Spirit Ridge. Phase III will offer opportunities as accessible as one-eighth share and up, with a limited number of full-ownership villa-style units, too.

“Funnily enough, we’re not serious wine drinkers,” says Moore, who says that instead, they were smitten by the resort for its phenomenal amenities, food, vantage and the feeling that they were in another world, only four hours from Vancouver.

Both are professionals, and Urtusastegui says the presale transaction, surprisingly, exceeded his expectations. “I was a bit nervous about buying our unit before it was built, but in the end, absolutely nothing was misrepresented,” he says, noting that the quality of the resort, care of management, weather, setting and community keep him delighted. “Everything turned out to be amazing.”

In terms of investment, the couple likes having the ability to participate in the optional rental pool when they are not using their vacation home. With the potential for return based on guest usage combined with potential appreciation of the property, they feel fractional ownership is an attractive option. Phase III owners will have an undivided fractional interest in both their unit(s), and the club and the resort as a whole.

Set on the hill overlooking the public Sonora Dunes Golf course, resort and vineyards, the new Spirit Ridge Residence Club will have exclusive amenities, as well as perks from Phase I and Phase II, offering full access to the existing resort, grounds and facilities including the lakefront beach and marina. Ownership in the club also provides access to the elite Preferred Residences of the World, a consortium of luxury holiday properties via a property exchange program.

“Our buyers include a spectrum of people who want a concierge-quality vacation, from families, to couples and baby boomers,” says Jansen, noting that most purchasers come from Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton. Because of the rising awareness of the Okanagan’s wine industry, international interest is also increasing, he adds.

At the club, one-, two-and three-bedroom open-plan bungalows run from 1,045, 1,380 and 1,670 square feet, and offer wide-open lake views flanking the golf course, mountain and desert.

“Our views encompass everything in the valley, from one end of Osoyoos Lake to the other,” says Jansen.

Large, entertainment-styled kitchens feature granite surfaces and hardwood cabinetry, plus stainless steel appliances.

Unique folding glass walls to the outdoor living space provide a seamless integration between indoors and out, where there’s a convenient grilling station and relaxing fireplace.

All units come fully kitted out, including posh patio furnishings, large flat-screen TV and theatre system. Bedrooms are generous, each with romantic outdoor decks or patios accessed via french doors, with comfy beds replete with linens and pillows. Masters have a jetted tub, stand-alone shower and separate Europeanstyle toilet.

They’re designed to be luxurious and exotic, without being fussy or overstated, says Jansen, a vibe that is also reflected in the burgeoning local community.

The town of Osoyoos, once a harbinger of 50’sstyle motel vacations, is stepping things up: there are plans to enhance its lakeside character by adding more quaint shops and bistros alongside the new world-class resorts and convention facilities.

Jansen, who came to Osoyoos from Edmonton with his family six years ago, says life in wine country couldn’t get any better in terms of the climate, lifestyle and cuisine.

Iris Hart, the new club’s sales associate, who also happens to be an owner at Spirit Ridge, describes the benefits of desert living even more succinctly.

“It’s sanctuary!”

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Fiona Anderson
Sun

With interest rates still near all-time lows, despite the recent increases in the Bank of Canada’s overnight target rate, it may be time to rethink mortgages, not just the rates, but every element of them. Because with rates still low — the best five-year rate with Invis this week is 4.09 per cent — the only way rates are likely to move in the long term is up. That means perks like portability and assumability may become more popular.

The rate should never be the only thing a homebuyer looks at, but it often is, said Feisal Panjwani, senior mortgage consultant with Invis-Feisal & Associates Mortgage Consulting in Cloverdale.

“There’s lots of lenders out there who may have great rates, but rate is not the most important thing,” Panjwani said. “You’ve got to look at everything.”

Recently, as rates dropped, some borrowers found that out the hard way, having locked themselves into mortgages whose terms included huge penalties to get out of, even if they were selling. Others who wanted to re-mortgage to take advantage of lower rates, or to add a bit of money to help them through the tough times, found their mortgage didn’t allow that.

So the terms of a mortgage can be

very important, Panjwani said. For example, make sure you know what that penalty to prepay the mortgage is. Most mortgages will charge the borrower the greater of three months’ interest or the interest differential to pay off the mortgage before the term is up. It’s the interest differential — the difference between what you would have paid in interest for the remainder of your mortgage term and what the lender can get by re-lending the money to a new borrower for that time period — that can add up, and that can differ among lenders who may use different rates for the calculation.

That means if you want to sell and pay off your five-year mortgage two years after taking it out, the lender could charge you the difference between your rate and the rate on a current three-year mortgage, which is always lower than a five-year.

As interest rates rise that penalty is less likely to be enforced, and lenders will instead ask for three months’ interest. But borrowers should know what the penalty is before they borrow the money.

While pre-payment penalties may become less important as rates rise, terms like portability and assumability will become more important, he said

Portability lets you take your mortgage with you if you sell your home and buy something new. That could mean a lot if rates have gone up significantly, Panjwani said. Some lenders only let you port the exact amount remaining in the first mortgage so if you need more funds you may have to take out a second mortgage, which would be at a higher rate, or do what’s called a “blend and extend” where money is added to the existing mortgage and the going rate is averaged with the existing lower-rate mortgage. But in the end, a borrower whose mortgage is portable should end up with a rate lower than the current market rate at the time of the new purchase.

But even if a mortgage is portable, there may be limits to when it can be ported, Panjwani said. For example, some lenders, like smaller credit unions, will only lend if the home is within a certain geographical area. So if you are moving outside the area, you lose the portability.

Assumability is another perk in times of rising rates. Assumability lets the buyer of your property assume your mortgage, provided they qualify with your lender. So if your mortgage rate is below the market rate at the time you sell — which will be the case if rates go up between the time you buy and the time you sell — then having a cheap mortgage to offer along with the house can be quite attractive to potential buyers, Panjwani said.

“If the rate is below market, the purchaser would likely be willing to pay more money for the property,” he said.

Also by passing off the mortgage the seller wouldn’t have to pay the penalty for breaking it, and the buyer would take over all responsibility under the old mortgage, Panjwani added.

Some mortgages have absolutely no frills, with no ability to pre-pay, no portability, nothing, Panjwani said. Lenders offering those mortgages often say only a small percentage of people use those features anyway.

“But that’s not the case,” Panjwani said.

In fact, on average, people change their mortgage every three years, he said. So make sure you know the terms of the mortgage you’re signing.

“Don’t just look for a mortgage based on rate,” Panjwani said. “A lot of people make that mistake.”

Next: Should you go long? And what about fixed versus variable?

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Developers push wave of pre-sales into slow market

Derrick Penner
Sun

Metro Vancouver developers may have got ahead of themselves with the number of housing projects they are pushing into the pre-sale marketing phase, says a local market research firm.

MPC Intelligence Inc. counted 6,659 units put into the marketing phase between March 1 and July 1, which approaches numbers thrown onto the market during the headiest days of pre-sales in 2007. But the sales are not at 2007 levels.

“It’s a big jump,” Jeff Hancock, senior manager at MPC said in an interview.

Hancock compared the 6,659 units now in the marketing phase with just 1,937 in 2009 and 5,066 in 2008.

“I wouldn’t say [the 2010 number] is too many. I would say it will be interesting to see whether the market can absorb the number of units that have just come on [the market],” he said.

The more important question, however, is how quickly the units being put onto the market will sell, according to Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate in the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C.

Somerville said marketing is a bit of a “lagging indicator” of market sentiment, since it takes a long time to plan a housing project, obtain approvals and bring it to the marketing phase.

“We should view this [report] as, to some extent, how people were viewing things at the end of 2009 and the first part of 2010,” Somerville said.

Metro Vancouver ended 2009 with sales in the resale market that were almost 45 per cent ahead of the dismal months at the end of 2008.

By mid-2010, however, the resale market for housing, the bellwether for overall market health, had cooled from the rebound experienced over the last half of 2009 and the start of 2010.

In the coming months, Somerville said, “I don’t think we’re going to have a lot of round-the-block lineups [for condo pre-sales].”

He said the wave of pre-sales flowing into the market also reflects the extent to which developers pared back their development plans during the market slowdown. Current projects represent developers’ attempts to catch up and capitalize on market sentiment, Somerville said.

Cameron McNeill, president of MAC Marketing Solutions, said the fall-off in sales this summer has been nothing like the collapse in 2008.

MPC Intelligence is another firm in McNeill’s McNeill Group of Companies.

McNeill said he is seeing some sales at projects he is marketing but predicted fast sellouts will be a thing of the past. “Traditionally, over the years, a project would normally take as long as it would take to complete construction for it to sell out,” he said.

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