Government urged to help first-time buyers enter property market by reducing or scrapping tax

Michael Kane
Sun

Finance Minister Carole Taylor is being urged to make homes more affordable for first-time buyers in her budget next February.

Pre-budget consultations show broad support for raising property value thresholds to allow more buyers to escape property transfer tax, according to the select standing committee on finance and government services.

The tax currently adds $6,000 to the cost of a $400,000 home. Projections indicate it will take $650 million out of the pockets of property purchasers this budget year alone, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association.

“The [tax] strikes at the very heart of housing affordability across our province and I’m hopeful that the February budget will include measures to reduce its burden on first-time homebuyers, middle-income purchasers and low-income earners,” association president Dave Barclay said in a news release.

The property transfer tax is charged at one per cent of the first $200,000 of a property’s value and two per cent on the remainder. First-time buyers are exempt if they spend less than $325,000 in Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Victoria, or $265,000 elsewhere.

The all-party select committee of 10 MLAs recommends that the government review the exemption levels for first-time home buyers with a view to making homes more affordable, but doesn’t spell out how that should be done.

It notes that the issue has been exacerbated by dramatic increases in housing prices over the past few years and that ownership for many housing types remains “firmly out of reach of median income earners.”

A study commissioned by the B.C. Real Estate Association shows that eliminating the tax would allow 7,310 families to enter the housing market, create 5,460 person years of employment, generate $422 million in extra spending and $81 million in tax revenue.

The study, by Malatest & Associates Ltd., also says that if the government simply removed the one per cent payable on the first $200,000 of the purchase price of a home, but kept the two per cent payable on the balance, it would enable 3,850 families to enter the housing market, create 2,880 person years of employment, generate $223 million in extra spending and $43 million in tax revenue.

Barclay described the select committee’s acknowledgement of concern about the impact of the tax on first-time buyers as “very encouraging.”

His association is recommending the provincial government table a plan to eliminate the tax, or “at the very least, significantly reduce it,” while the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is calling for the exemption ceiling for first-time buyers to be raised to $375,000 and adjusted every year.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Strata act and bylaws prevail but outside chairperson may help

Tony Gioventu
Province

Dear Condo Smarts: Our strata building has almost 200 units. Over the weekend we attempted to have our annual general meeting. Unfortunately, the 137 people who attended resulted in 137 different opinions on how our meeting should be run.

One person vehemently stated that unless there were any other rules of order that Robert’s Rules of Order automatically applied. Another group of owners insisted that the chair controlled the meeting and made all of the decisions. Others said it was our bylaws.

After five hours we were exhausted and the meeting adjourned on a rather acrimonious tone, with nothing accomplished. Was anyone correct?

— Diana W., Richmond

Dear Diana: Actually, the group who referred to your bylaws were the closest. Unless the strata has adopted any specific version of rules of order into its bylaws, the strata bylaws and the act prevail.

In a nutshell, all matters decided at general meetings are conducted by a majority vote unless a 3/4 or unanimous vote is required. Majority-vote issues include approving the agenda and past minutes, election of a chair for the meeting, if necessary, passing of motions, approval and amendments to the budget, election of council and even whether the chairperson has made a valid decision. Issues requiring a 3/4 or unanimous vote include bylaw amendments, special levies, changes to property use, amendments to the strata plan or court proceedings, to name a few.

Unless they have been adopted into your strata bylaws, neither Robert’s Rules of Order nor any other rules of order have any effect over your proceedings and never take priority over the strata act. Try to hire a qualified and competent outside person to chair your meetings. It can make all the difference and provide some much-needed help for your strata.

Tony Gioventu is the executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association (CHOA). Contact CHOA at 604-584-2462 or toll-free 1-877-353-2462, fax 604-515-9643 or e-mail [email protected].

© The Vancouver Province 2005

REAL ESTATE: Interest rates should stay low

Province

OTTAWA — The market for resale homes will end 2005 with an expansion of five per cent over 2004 with a record 484,025 properties sold, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Friday.

It’s the fifth straight year of record national activity in the Multiple Listing Service, the realtors’ group said, adding that regional markets have reached new peaks in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

National MLS homes sales hit 126,890 in the July-September period, the highest seasonally adjusted quarterly level on record.

And the average resale home price for 2005 is projected at $256,200, up 13.2 per cent from 2004, in the biggest annual percentage increase since 1989.

“Transactions are still running exceptionally high, but small interest-rate increases are beginning to bring sales activity back to earth in a number of major markets,” said Gregory Klump, chief economist of the 82,000-member association.

“Sales activity is forecast to gradually trend lower as interest rates creep higher next year.” Still, 2006 sales volumes are forecast to be the third-highest ever with average prices increasing a further five per cent.

“Price gains will be more modest in 2006 as the market becomes more balanced,” Klump said.

“Mortgage interest rates are expected to remain within one per cent of current levels in 2006, so many homebuyers will still be able to finance more expensive home purchases.”

© The Vancouver Province 2005

It’s now the Canada Line: Politicians sound praises of ‘a generational investment’ in transportation

Jonathan Fowlie
Sun

Representatives from all three levels of government gathered at Vancouver International Airport on Friday to announce the new name of the planned Richmond-Airport-Vancouver transit line, and to unveil the design for the 16-station system that is expected to be open by 2009.

Formerly known as the RAV line, the newly-dubbed Canada Line will feature sleek grey trains that will be able to travel at a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per hour and carry up to 334 passengers between Waterfront Station, the airport and Richmond.

“[The Canada Line is] going to serve tremendously when the eyes of the world are on British Columbia when we are hosting the 2010 Olympics,” said Minister of Industry David Emerson.

“[It’s] going to be a critical piece in terms of making sure our transportation system — including the Gateway components that connect North America with Asia — also has an efficient connection into the local community in Vancouver,” added Emerson, also a co-senior minister for British Columbia.

“The world is going to see exactly why Vancouver is the world’s most livable city,” he said.

B.C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon, who was also at Friday’s announcement, lauded the project as a “generational investment.”

“One hundred years from now people will still be riding the [Canada Line], still receiving the benefits and we will still be receiving the environmental benefits and sustainability this line represents,” Falcon said.

TransLink chair Doug McCallum added that once it is built, the Canada Line will be a key part of the region’s rapid transit network.

“Adding the Canada Line to our region’s transportation system will open up the road capacity that our ports will put to good use to benefit the entire country,” said McCallum, who lost his mayoral chair in the recent Surrey election.

McCallum added he is happy to see the project finally taking shape.

“It’s been a long process to get it to this point and now it is actually physically being constructed, and it’s on time, on budget and we hope to be able to open it in 2009,” he said. “I think it’s really exciting.”

In his brief address, Vancouver mayor-elect Sam Sullivan acknowledged the construction of the new line will mean “difficulties for our citizens and our businesses,” but said everyone involved will “work hard to make sure we minimize those [disruptions] and to make sure all citizens of our city, and our region, benefit from this wonderful development.”

Officials in charge of the $1.9-billion Canada Line estimate the system will carry about 100,000 passengers each day when it is up and running in 2010.

On Friday, YVR president and CEO Larry Berg further estimated about 20 million people will be using the airport by 2010, and that 3.7 million people are expected to travel to the airport each year using the new transit line.

Unveiled for the first time on Friday, the design for the Canada Line train cars includes features such as driverless operation, air-conditioned interiors and electronic signs to indicate upcoming stations. Twenty of the trains will be supplied by the Rotem Company, a division of the Hyundai Motor Group.

The Canada Line project is being funded jointly by the governments of Canada and B.C., TransLink and the Vancouver International Airport Authority. Once completed, TransLink will own the line and set the fares.

GAMES VENUES I Despite tightening designs costs expected to escalate by 50 per cent

GARY KINGSTON
Sun

VANCOUVER I Organizers of the 2010 Olympics have cut capital costs by tightening designs of Games venues, but may still need help from government with construction costs expected to escalate as much as 50 per cent, John Furlong said Friday.
   In a status report speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade, the CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (Vanoc) said reports about the construction sector in B.C. would have you “think the sky is falling.”
   But he still conceded that with $70-$75 billion in construction projects on the books for the next three years in a “frenzied” southwestern B.C. marketplace, he is worried about the availability of skilled labour, the lack of housing for those workers and rising steel and concrete prices.
   “Escalation today for projects being built today is running at 40 to 50 per cent,” he said.
   Challenged by reporters after the speech, Furlong refused to say that Vanoc has approached the B.C. or federal governments directly for more cash, insisting only that “we’re having a dialogue with them about our situation.”
   But he mentioned several times that cost estimates on the $470 million in new facility construction — everything from the bobsled and luge track at Blackcomb to the athlete villages to the speed skating oval in Richmond — were done in 2002 dollars and that those costs “need to be protected through 2007” when the major contracts will have been let.
   The federal and provincial governments have committed to splitting the $620 million total capital cost of the Games, but Victoria is the one legally on the hook for any shortfalls once the Games are over.
   Furlong said Vanoc has cut about $85 million in 14 months from the original capital costs budget by refining designs, taking out elements that are too challenging to build and moving the broadcast centre downtown from Richmond.
   “We’ve got very serious about making sure we’re building what we have to build . . . and being creative to mitigate against a very serious challenge,” he said.
   “We’re looking at other elements, such as getting assistance and we’re looking to our partners about the situation that we’re in.”
   So far, Vanoc has spent about $14 million in preliminary work on the Nordic Centre in the Callaghan Valley and $6.5 million on the sliding centre at Blackcomb. Both projects now have been shut down for the winter, but the early work came in on time and under budget, said Furlong.
   Furlong said Vanoc’s revenue target remains “north” of $1.7 billion, but once again reiterated that the organization won’t be in a position to release a comprehensive budget on the expense side until after the 2006 Games in Torino have been analyzed.
   Furlong, who often talks about creating a culture of cooperation built on the vision of the Games ability to touch the soul of the country, also challenged contractors to be fair with pricing, “to be part of the solution and help us with the project.”
   “We want motivated contractors . . . we want them to rise to the occasion be at the top of their game . . . want their best people on the job, people who care about what they’re doing.”
   In his wide-ranging 40-minute speech, Furlong also warned that the Games can’t be “put in harm’s way” or embarrassed by labour disruptions.
   He also said there is too much focus already being put on security, calling the issue a great headline-maker.
   “The worry we have is that the agenda will get ambushed to some degree by outside forces, by a lot of what I would call alarmist rhetoric about stories that are planted by folks who stand to make lots of money by being involved in this area.”
   Asked later to clarify his comments, he said “every time you open up the paper, somebody from some university or some company that’s involved in security is talking about all the things people have to be worried about, just creating a lot of difficulty for organizations that are trying to do their job.
   “What we need to do is try and be focused on what this is about, about sport and athletics.”

MICHAEL SASGES
Sun

For the Cressey development company and executive Hani Lammam (above), the Duke on Dunbar is a small departure, at 23 homes.

Developments from Cressey and overseen by Lammam this year and last include Park 360, 214 homes; Elan, 229; and Olive, 109. The eventual views of sea and mountain, recorded by a Cressey camera, include (top) north by northwest, north and north by northeast. IAN SMITH/VANCOUVER SUN

The Duke on Dunbar newhome project is a house-on-ahill proposition that has generated all the right-for-the-site responses from developer and architect.
   Each home’s generous glazing will maximize the views. Each home’s balconies and terraces will minimize time spent inside.
   Further, the building’s rooftop garden ought to facilitate some only-in-Duke moments for residents. How charming is it to tell dinner guests, these herbs . . . why I just picked them on the roof this afternoon!
According to city hall’s electronic map, the 64-metre mark passes through will sit. For me the ascent of that hill has
always started, and the descent has
always ended, at about 16th and Trutch the Duke property at 18th and Dunbar. That’s an absolute and, therefore, only half the site story.
   I have lived all my life below the hill on which the Duke on Dunbar building
   The 24-metre mark passes through that intersection.
   Accordingly, the 18th and Dunbar and 16th and Trutch intersections are 40 metres below and above each other. They are also about 570 metres apart.
   That relief, seen on the one-metre-contour version of VanMap, comes darn near to the dictionary definition of escarpment as ‘‘inland cliff.’’ As the Cressey executive responsible for the Duke project, Hani Lammam, says: ‘‘It’s very well located geographically, because it’s on top of a hill.”
   If natural geography will favor Duke homeowners, human geography facilitated their opportunity to own there: The Duke is a multiresidential development in a famously, resolutely singlefamily-detached neighbourhood. Its Dunbar Street location is key. Dunbar Street, at city hall, is an ‘‘arterial.’’
   As the Dunbar Community Vision, law of the land locally since city council approved it more than seven years ago, comments:
   “In addition to apartments above stores in the shopping areas, new types of housing, such as rowhouses . . . and duplexes should provide other affordable housing choices for young families and people wanting a smaller home in Dunbar.
   ‘‘This new housing should be developed as small projects over time, and should fit in with the character of the adjacent single-family areas.
   ‘‘There should be further community involvement in the detailed planning for this new housing, which should include assessing the most suitable locations on the arterials (Dunbar Street, 16th, and/or 41st Avenues). Housing for seniors could be in a variety of forms, including low-rise apartments.”
   Or, as Cressey’s Hani Lammam almost said, we’re here because city hall said we should be here.
   “What we try to do is identify neighbourhoods that we want to work in,” he said in explaining how Cressey came to involve itself in what, for it, is a small development.
   ‘‘The neighbourhood, not a piece of land, draws us. So when we like a neighbourhood we go and start digging. This site was an assembly, two different vendors, one middle piece [on the block between 17th and 18th] that was on the market for a very long time and never sold. We liked the neighbourhood so much we acquired that middle piece and then . . . the corner.
   ‘‘It all stems from the city decision to have these urban centres and Dunbar was one of the first neighbourhood plans that was put together by the city.’’
   (The city’s purchase of a lot less than a block north of Duke, a purchase some Dunbar residents fear will impose a drug-treatment centre on the neighbourhood, has been received at Cressey with neighbourly interest. Fundamentally we’re not opposed to it [the purchase],’’ Lammam comments. ‘‘Whatever it will be it will be a use that fulfils the needs of the city.” City hall has said no decision on the use of the property has been made.)
   The apartments at Duke, Cressey (explicitly) and city hall (implicity) will appeal firstly to older residents of the neighbourhood who will turn their single-familydetached equity into maintenance-free, mortgage-free apartment residency.
   The five townhouses will probably appeal to younger buyers who want to raise a family on Vancouver’s westside, but can’t afford a singlefamily-detached home there.
   Any of the homes would appeal to buyers who are the parents of university-aged children and, further, who might eventually want to retire in the Dunbar neighbourhood. Do not doubt this possibility: Earlier this year I interviewed a Burnaby family who bought, not in Dunbar, but in False Creek South, in the hopes that their children might eventually live in False Creek while attending the University of B.C. or Vancouver Community College.
   In Hani Lammam’s opinion, whoever will own at Duke will be looking for something unique in their next home. “It is the discerning buyer who wants a sense of exclusivity, who doesn’t want to be in a building where there are 30 other units exactly the same,’’ Lammam says of the expected buyer.
   ‘‘There are very few typical units in this project. Virtually every unit is unique; every one is special .’’

Bob Ransford
Sun

We can build better places for people to live if we can get past some of the fears that people have about smarter growth.

Most people in Canada live in suburban communities. When suburbs first started growing 65 years ago, they were supposed to be bucolic places the masses would flock to when escaping crowded, polluted and unsafe cities.

Everyone would own a big detached house on a big lot with plenty of green space. Every family would have at least one car to get from home to work and back with a weekly stop at the supermarket.

Suburbs are anything but bucolic places today.

Every family owns at least two cars. Many have three or four cars they use to get from home to work and from home to school, to the shopping mall, to soccer practice, to a friend’s home or wherever. Everyone is battling growing traffic congestion. Few have time to cut their lawns, so they hire a gardener who arrives weekly in a truck.

People living in sprawling suburbs walk less, weigh more and are more likely to be hit by a car if they venture out on foot or by bicycle. In fact, people living in suburbs make fewer than six per cent of their daily trips on foot.

Imagine for a moment embracing just one of the concepts of smart growth — creating more walkable communities.

That might mean wider sidewalks with street lighting closer to the ground. It might mean fewer curb-cuts for driveways, if two homes were to share one driveway. It might mean single-car garages or car ports. It might mean a series of inter-connected pathways that link dead-end streets and cul-de-sacs and provide direct routes out to arterial streets.

It also might mean more compact lots, a slightly higher density and even some “granny flats” or attached legal secondary suites.

It might mean more and smaller playgrounds in your neighbourhood. It might mean corner stores, shops along some streets in your neighbourhood, other streets with shops and homes or even offices above.

It might mean schools with smaller parking lots and restricted on-street parking around schools. It might even mean schools that are built two and three storeys high, instead of sprawling monstrosities, like some of the schools built lately.

It might mean proper off-street pull-outs for buses and bus shelters that actually shelter transit riders from wind and rain. It could even mean at-grade transit running along with traffic down main shopping streets.

By tackling this small list of initiatives in an integrated way, we could build new true walkable neighbourhoods or transform existing neighbourhoods where people could live healthier lives.

Oh, the automobile? It would be relegated to a second place position on our list of the most important things in life.

I can imagine this.

I can also imagine the outcry if any planner or developer were to suggest this.

The moment anyone talks about building smaller homes with a single parking space, with shared driveways and narrower streets, immediately citizens react and suggest their property values will drop because substandard housing is being planned for their neighbourhood.

How do we get past those unfounded fears?

Just imagine the better life we would all have if we were to take a few small steps and build better places to live. Our fears should disappear.

Bob Ransford is a public affairs consultant with COUNTERPOINT Communications Inc. He is a former real estate developer and a director of the Urban Development Institute – Pacific region.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

BRUCE CONSTANTINEAU
Sun

After years of delays, developers will launch a major marketing initiative next week for a $500 million residential resort development near Kamloops that will feature housing units, a golf course, a hotel, retail stores, an equestrian centre and a marina.
   The Tobiano project, located west of Kamloops along Kamloops Lake, is to be built on 1,000 acres of land that was removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve after much debate in 1998.
   Developer Mike Grenier of Kamloops-based Pagebrook Inc. could not be reached for comment Thursday but earlier reports say the project’s master plan calls for more than 1,000 homes and an 18-hole golf course that should open by 2007. Pagebrook bought the property in 1995 and Sotheby’s International Realty Western Canada is the exclusive agent for the development.
   The Robert Redford/Jennifer Lopez film An Unfinished Life was filmed in the immediate vicinity of the Tobiano development.
   The resort project is one of many that have sprouted throughout the province in recent years as the B.C. economy improves and the province tries to streamline the approval process for new resort developments.
   Some of the major new resort projects and expansions underway now include:
   The Rise, a $1-billion development near Vernon that features housing, commercial space, a winery and a Fred Couplesdesigned golf course.
   Crystal Mountain, an all-season resort near Kelowna with a capital investment of $110 million.
   Canoe Mountain near Valemount, a $100-million investment.
   Saddle Mountain near Blue River, a ski operation that requires a $115-million capital investment.
   Mount Mackenzie near Revelstoke, a $269-million capital investment aimed at turning a small ski facility into a major four-season resort.
   The province estimates $1.9 billion was spent directly by tourists at B.C. resorts in 2002, about a fifth of all tourism spending throughout the province, and the resort sector employs about 26,000 people in B.C.
   The province also says existing B.C. ski resorts plan total capital investments of $650 million over the next three to five years while resort projects currently under review represent more than $2 billion in new potential capital investment over the next 10 to 20 years.
   But some B.C. resort developers say little has changed to make it easier for them to proceed with new plans, despite the stated intention of the provincial government to promote more resort development.
   Pat McCormick, chief operating officer for Fairmont Hot Springs Resort Ltd., said the company’s plan to build a $300-million golf course resort on a 315-acre Columbia Lake property took a major hit this month when the East Kootenay regional district proposed to downzone the land from resort development use to agricultural use. The property has been zoned for resort development for more than 20 years but the district fears a new golf course could damage the environment.
   McCormick said that after going through all the provincial hoops, a lack of support at the local level threatens to drive away the international financial partners Fairmont Hot Springs had lined up for the project.
   “Frankly, we haven’t really seen any streamlining [of the approval process] and we would really like to see a better process at the local government level,” she said. “It just seems that there’s no certainty any more.”