‘Not everybody needs the space,’ NPA councillor says

Frances Bula
Sun

VANCOUVER – The city should look at building dormitory-style housing as one way of getting people off the streets or out of the city’s “Third World” residential hotels.

That’s one suggestion from a package of proposals coming from the city’s Non-Partisan Association councillors this week.

The councillors are trying to come up with city responses to the growing homelessness problem and the continuing reluctance of federal and provincial governments to fund old-style social housing.

“It’s wonderful to have a Cadillac model but it doesn’t work if the dollars aren’t there,” said Coun. Kim Capri. “And not everyone needs the space that we mandate.”

At the moment, the city’s minimum standard for self-contained units is 400 square feet, with permission in some cases to go down to 320 square feet.

Capri and Mayor Sam Sullivan say they’d like staff to look at options for different forms of housing down to 100 square feet, the size of many existing residential hotel rooms.

“Not everybody needs the space,” said Capri. “That rule is limiting our options. We could look at a dormitory style with shared amenity spaces.”

While Capri said she sees something like that as transitional housing, Sullivan seems to see new small-unit housing as a form of permanent housing, one that would be better than the “Third World” residential hotels where some Downtown Eastside people now live.

Sullivan says a project being built now on East Hastings is costing $200,000 a unit because it has to be built to the existing guidelines.

If rooms were built smaller, the city could get four or five units out of that $200,000 instead of just one.

Capri’s motion, which has been worked out with the NPA caucus, will also propose that:

– The city ask the provincial government to amend the Vancouver Charter so it can give tax breaks or bonus space for “affordable or supportive housing.”

– The city “fast track” three of its current 19 lots available for social housing to take advantage of Housing Minister Rich Coleman’s recent offers of money for transitional housing.

– The city ask for more flexibility in opening emergency winter shelters, which currently can only take in people when the temperature drops below 4 degrees C.

– The city ask for money to help landlords of existing residential hotels keep them up to a livable standard.

Capri and Sullivan said the Homeless Action Plan, a 105-page document with 85 recommendations that was approved by the last council, is good but puts too much emphasis on things the federal and provincial governments should do.

They said they wanted to look more at what the city can do, especially in light of Coleman’s recent announcement of money for supportive housing — $10.7 million for 450 units — and his recent public comments that municipalities often create barriers to social housing.

But Vision Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal, who has not yet seen the proposed motions, said she has doubts about the package.

Much of it seems to be recycled from the existing homeless action plan, such as the request for more flexibility in when the winter shelters are opened.

She questioned why Sullivan and his caucus aren’t simply acting on the plan, which called for the city to do whatever it could to add 800 new units of social housing a year to the existing stock, including buying one residential hotel every year.

The city currently has 292 units of social housing under construction, 200 at Woodward’s and 92 at 65 East Hastings, which were announced during the previous council.

“Mayor Larry Campbell and Jim Green lobbied and got housing for this city, even after the housing programs were shut down. Why isn’t Sam doing that?”

Deal said she also has serious concerns about dropping the allowable room size to what Sullivan appears to be proposing.

“That’s stacking them like cordwood. Creating transitional housing is a good thing if there is something for people to transition to. But if you create a large, large stock of substandard housing, that’s what people will have to live in.”

Deal said small units mean people have to share washrooms, which many women don’t like because they feel unsafe.

Vancouver has always been one of the province’s most energetic municipalities in looking for ways to create social housing, no matter what the political party, with about 21,000 units in the city. That’s about eight per cent of the total housing stock.

When the Homeless Action Plan was being developed, the city’s housing staff proposed dropping the minimum unit size to 275 square feet, but the Campbell council decided it wouldn’t accept that.

At the time, staff also cautioned that the city should never allow too many small units to be built, as only about 20 per cent of the existing low-income population indicated they would be satisfied living in a room that had no bathroom in it.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Tony Gioventu
Province

Dear Condo Smarts: We live in an owner-occupied condo building of 58 units. Our strata has never allowed rentals, and until recently no one has ever attempted to challenge the bylaw. That being said, we have two residents, one of whom is on title and the partner, who is not. They are not legally married and they plan on travelling for two years and want to rent out their unit. They did not ask our permission but simply informed us that they would be renting the unit to the partner’s parents. Our bylaw prohibits any rentals.

They have claimed family status and that we cannot discriminate against their same-sex relationship; therefore, they are exempt. What’s the point of our bylaws if they can’t be enforced? We are fining them $500 per week, but hope you can provide a clear answer so we can avoid a messy conflict.

— M.J., New Westminster

Dear MJ: It might be time for your strata council to obtain a copy of the Strata Property Act & Regulations and review the section on rentals. The act sets out exemptions that do not require your strata’s permission. One of those is family rentals. The bylaws may either limit or restrict the number of rentals, but this does not apply to a family member as defined by the regulations.

Family and a family member means: the spouse of an owner, a parent or child of the owner or the owner’s spouse. A spouse of an owner includes an individual who has lived with and cohabited with the owner of a period of two years, including a marriage-like relationship between persons of the same gender.

If they have completed Form K properly, they are not in violation of the bylaws. Your strata council may request verification of the relationship.

This should serve as a reminder to all strata corporations that their bylaws do not override the act, regulations or B.C. Human Rights Code. Before you try to enforce bylaws, ensure they are valid.

Tony Gioventu is the executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association (CHOA). Contact CHOA at 604-584-2462 or e-mail Tony at [email protected].

© The Vancouver Province 2006

 

Peter Simpson
Sun

I admit it; I am an incurable housing junkie. In the business I may be, but I can’t get enough information on new homes and renovations.

Housing affordability is definitely a challenge these days — and a thorny topic for another day — but choice is certainly no challenge for folks willing and able to buy a new home.

Thumbing through the ads in the weekend dailies, the regional newspapers and the magazines devoted exclusively to new homes, I am constantly goggle-eyed at the wide variety of home types and styles being offered locally.

The impressive offering includes highrise and lowrise apartments, apartments above shops, townhouses and single-family detached homes of every size, shape and style. You name it, it’s available.

During the first nine months of this year, almost 15,000 homes were started in the Lower Mainland, up six per cent from the same 2005 period — and, remarkably, up more than 80 per cent from the 8,200 started in the first year of the new millennium.

Starts activity has actually slowed somewhat during the past few months, but this moderation was expected much earlier in the year. If you are into crystal-ball gazing, the forecast for 2006 was for marginally higher starts totals, with no sharp increases or dramatic drops expected. That seems to be the case with three months worth of starts left to count.

Due to the rising cost of land, building materials, municipal development charges and skilled labour, new-home prices continue to rise. Currently, demand for new homes outstrips supply but conflicting reports paint very different pictures of the current situation.

Some builders say sales have slowed, while others report brisk activity. One builder reported that no one visited his site all week. Another, however, said a group of prospective buyers recently camped out overnight for a chance to buy homes at his new community in Fort Langley.

Builders, still coming to grips with an across-the-board labour shortage, are exercising caution when considering new projects. No bodies, no building. Some view the situation as a self-imposed breather.

The labour crunch is also being felt in the planning and development departments at city hall. Despite their best efforts, municipalities are falling behind in their approvals and permitting processes, with one high-growth city now taking more than 11 weeks to issue a building permit.

The sheer volume is also affecting attention to after-sales service. I don’t know about you, but anything unfinished or unfixed at our house drives me to distraction. Through the grapevine I heard some home buyers are becoming frustrated by the lack of attention to deficiencies in their new homes.

Alas, patience is not one of my virtues, so I understand the buyers’ concerns. They believe they are paying good money for their homes and they, particularly cash-strapped first-time buyers, expect perfection for their investment. And they want any glaring deficiencies to be fixed expeditiously.

Most builders take seriously their commitment to customer service. In fact, many have won awards for their service excellence. Typically these builders have on-staff representatives who schedule service appointments and an in-house technical crew to rectify most deficiencies.

Problem is, builders’ schedules are subject to the availability of the sub-trades, the plumbers, electricians and tile setters. Like it or not, patience needs to be the order of the day.

That said, builders who ignore a home owner’s reasonable request for service, or try to run out the clock on the problem, do so at their own peril. Allowed to fester, the problem will assuredly erode the buyer/builder relationship, with the potential of severely damaging the builder’s image.

Timely and frank two-way communication is the sensible way to foster good relations.

The Vancouver Home & Interior Design Show continues today and Sunday at BC Place. Stop by the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association’s ”Renovation Gallery” to discuss with professional renovators, architects and interior designers your renovation projects.

On display will be many before-and-after photographs of recently renovated homes.

More than $6.1 billion will be spent on home renovation this year in B.C. and homeowners need to engage in some careful planning and solicit professional advice before embarking on any renovation project.

Renovation guru Mike Holmes says homeowners, before they hire a home renovator, should be prepared to call in 20 different contractors and interview them individually.

Now, Mike is a terrific guy who dispenses some valuable advice, but 20 contractors to visit the home? Heck, in this market a homeowner would be extremely fortunate to get five contractors to return the call, let alone visit.

If you can’t attend the home show, and you are considering renovating your home, you might want to attend the popular home renovation seminar, presented by our association’s renovation council on Oct. 26 in Vancouver. More than 350 homeowners attended the spring seminar.

Seminar presenters will discuss the various stages of the renovation process, including design and planning, legal and contracts, selecting a renovator, municipal permits and living through a renovation. For details visit gvhba.org on the Internet or call 604-588-5036 during business hours. Admission is free, but the council encourages participants to bring along a donation to the Vancouver Food Bank Society.

Peter Simpson is chief executive officer of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association. Email:

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

But the high cost of real estate remains a deterrent

Michael Kane
Sun

Andrew Newman could make bigger bucks back home in Calgary but he and partner Jordi Geddes love the cosmopolitan Vancouver lifestyle.

“If you are into anything, it’s here,” said Newman, a 25-year-old real estate graduate working with Urbanics Consulting in the penthouse of the historic downtown Marine Building.

“If you are into food, into art, into sports, into any sort of cultural thing, you’ve got far more diversity here compared to anything you find in Alberta.”

Whether it’s the lifestyle, job opportunities or a combination of the two, British Columbia gained 40,816 new residents in 2005, including a net gain of 7,456 people from other provinces, according to the final instalment of the BC Check-Up released Friday by the province’s chartered accountants.

Last year was the second consecutive year of net gains in inter-provincial migration after six years of losses.

However, the CAs warn the high cost of housing is making it more difficult to entice people to B.C. and threatens to make skills shortages more acute.

They note that Vancouver ranks as the 15th most expensive city in the world in the 2006 Demographia International Housing Affordability study which rates median house prices to median household incomes in 100 major urban markets in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

“However, at the end of the day, B.C. continues to be a very desirable place to live,” said Richard Rees, CEO of the Chartered Accountants of B.C.

Newman agrees, particularly when Vancouver’s robust real estate market means opportunities for Urbanics Consultants, a firm of land economists and development management consultants whose past projects include Granville Island, Whistler Village and Lonsdale Quay.

“You hear all these things about Calgary and I have to say I do get a little bit jealous at times when I hear of the salaries and bonuses that my friends are making,” Newman said in an interview. “But then I have to step back and put it into perspective and say, ‘Well, they’re in Calgary.’ “

Geddes, also 25, attended high school with Newman in Calgary and is now studying for a master’s degree in audiology at the University of B.C. where Newman earned his urban land degree.

She shares his enthusiasm for the West Coast lifestyle, but if there’s a cloud on their horizon, it is the high cost of residential real estate. The couple currently rent an apartment near UBC.

“The ability to settle down here is a little bit harder, but it’s the lifestyle that’s worth paying for,” said Newman who enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and hiking.

Although personal disposable incomes in the province are rising faster than the national average, the Check-Up shows that high housing costs are pushing up personal debt levels.

B.C.’s average real personal disposable income in 2005 was $913 higher than in 2000 — an increase of 4.1 per cent, and ahead of the Canadian average of 3.1 per cent.

The CAs attribute B.C.’s gain to a 10.3-per-cent cut in real direct taxes over this period, largely as a result of significant personal tax cuts in 2001. Real direct taxes dropped by two per cent across Canada over the same period.

“The province’s recent increase in personal disposable income, combined with robust job growth, suggests that further gains in disposable income are on the horizon,” Rees said. “If there is a concern, it is about the high cost of housing in the province and its impact on personal debt levels.”

B.C.’s personal debt levels rose by six per cent last year, primarily due to rising mortgage debt. Mortgages comprise 75 per cent of B.C.’s total personal debt, compared to between 55 to 68 per cent in other provinces.

The CAs point out that mortgage debt is not all bad, since mortgages usually replace rent and contribute to asset accumulation.

In other findings:

n B.C. spends $2,662 on health care per person, more than Alberta at $2,654, Ontario at $2,495 and the national average of $2,561.

n While B.C.’s crime rate has declined over the last five years, it remains higher than the national average and is 25-per-cent higher than in Alberta.

The BC Check-Up compares the province with Alberta, Ontario and the country as a whole as a place to invest, work and live. The full report is online at www.bccheckup.com.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

House hunters put off by the out-of-reach prices in Vancouver’s overheated neighbourhoods are finding good values in communities outside the buying frenzy

Derrick Penner
Sun

Sure, buying a home in 2006 can seem to be a daunting prospect. In Greater Vancouver, appreciation on the value of houses is running 100 per cent since 1999. The average price is now $713,000, and the prospect of any kind of deal seems to be a memory that your parents had.

That picture clouded James and Jennifer Shaw’s expectations in their recent move to Maple Ridge, where James is opening an office for McElhanney Associates, from Penticton.

“We thought we’d probably be buying a shoe box with a blade of grass for more money than we could afford,” James said.

Instead, with young daughter Sam in tow, the Shaw’s are settling into a spacious, spanking new four-bedroom house in the newly developing Albion area priced in the $450,000 range.

It is an example of the values buyers can still find if they’re willing to look beyond the Lower Mainland’s overheated neighbourhoods and consider places that offer the amenities they want, but are off the radar, or are just on the radar but haven’t been noticed yet.

Around the province, look for places that have the community amenities that lifestyle buyers, such as retiring baby boomers, want that are outside of locations that have been caught up in the current real estate frenzy.

Call them the next hot spots.

In the Greater Vancouver market, which has been on a tear for the past five years, finding deals is often a matter of degree. But instead of newly trendy Strathcona, buyers might consider Hastings East — the neighbourhood north of Hastings and east of Nanaimo.

Or, for those with ambitions to really move up, they might look at South Granville instead of Kitsilano or Point Grey.

Or Maple Ridge, which is where the Shaws needed to be. Jennifer Shaw said their new house cost a bit more than they’d hoped to spend, but they couldn’t turn it down for what it offered: new construction, off busy main streets and close to parks and schools. “I like where we’ve bought,” she added.

Ron Antalek, the Shaw’s realtor, said Maple Ridge has really been put on house-hunters’ radar with talk of the province’s Gateway transportation initiative, which will deliver new bridges and road improvements that promise to ease the commute from Greater Vancouver’s northeast region.

Maple Ridge prices for brand new construction, however, are still discounted compared with locations across the Fraser River in Langley.

“Typically, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows is the most affordable community in the Greater Vancouver regional district,” Antalek said, which attracts a lot of first-time buyers, and a lot of buyers trading condos in nearby Port Moody, Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam for their first detached homes.

However, Antalek added that Maple Ridge has not been immune to the run up. Activity has heated up over the last 36 months, and current prices reflect the expectations of buyers that the community will become more desirable as transportation improvements are completed.

Cameron Muir, a market analyst for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., said Greater Vancouver has seen phenomenal price increases.

The average detached house price, for instance, is up precisely 100.4 per cent from the $377,763 it was in 1999. Townhouses, with a current average price of $415,767, are up 83 per cent. Condominiums, with an average cost of $340,362, are up 93 per cent.

Muir added that the current market cycle did start from an almost depressed state at the end of the 1990s. With low economic growth, thousands of British Columbians left the province looking for work and those who were left were not in a real-estate-buying mood.

Muir added that plunging mortgage rates after 2001 “turned the spigot on” for Lower Mainland real estate, drawing new buyers in.

Muir said lower interest rates made housing more affordable for a lot more potential buyers.

“When affordability increases, all things being equal, prices tend to be bid up until you reach a new equilibrium,” Muir said.

He added that Greater Vancouver is getting close to that equilibrium point today.

Prices have become so high, Muir said, that regardless of mortgage rates, “at the margins, more buyers find that asking prices don’t fit into their budgets,” which has slowed sales over the past year.

The slowing of sales is a sign buyers are sensing uncertainty, “and taking a step back,” said Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate at the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business.

In the short term, Somerville added that real estate markets might experience some turbulence, such as price declines, once the current construction boom in B.C. ends.

“You don’t normally see a market tank unless there’s some kind of negative shock,” he added. “Interest rate hikes or a recession.”

In the long run, however, he noted Greater Vancouver has had historically steady population growth, which should bode well for real estate as well.

“The long-run historical performance of B.C. real estate has been very strong,” Somerville said.

“It depends on your time horizon for investing. If your time horizon is long, even if you buy when prices are high and they fall, that’s going to work itself out over time.”

Muir added that in the immediate short term, B.C. has a robust enough economy, unemployment rates are low enough and incomes have risen enough that there’s no sign of a shock that could cause price corrections.

It is getting to be late in the real estate market’s cycle, added CMHC regional economist Carol Frketich.

She added that the current run up of prices in the Lower Mainland has pushed out into desirable locations where those sellers who have cashed in like to move — such as Kelowna, the Kootenays, Victoria and other Vancouver Island resort spots.

Somerville added that a community’s amenities, whether urban or rural, is the important factor.

THE UP-AND-COMING AREAS TO INVEST YOUR MONEY IN. . .

They may have once had a not-so-favourable reputation, but the following places are all being redeveloped and offer great value to potential buyers

Hastings East/Burrard View

The neighbourhood east of Commercial Drive and north of Hastings bordering Burrard Inlet is a spot buyers who missed out on Main Street and Strathcona might consider.

The area is still a gritty part of the city, says realtor Rob Chipman of Legend Coronet Realty, but some spots are being redeveloped into multi-family housing, there’s shopping on Hastings, the schools are good — despite what people might think — and the people coming in are reviving it.

Chipman said buyers might find 50-year-old homes for the mid-$400,000 range to fix up and apartments from the high $100,000s to mid $200,000s.

Hastings East might not be so vibrant now, but Chipman adds that, once more people move into the multi-family developments, the produce shops and other stores start doing better business and “all of a sudden Commercial drive isn’t the only cool place to walk up and down the street.”

Granville, south of 41st Avenue

Homeowners with significant equity to trade can look at spending $1 million to get into a house on a 33-foot lot in Kitsilano, or realtor Lorne Goldman thinks they might want to consider spending a bit more to get more room in the pocket between Arbutus and Granville streets from 41st Avenue to 57th Avenue.

“Between $1 million and $1.5 million, there are definitely deals out there,” Goldman, of MacDonald Realtors Lorne Goldman, says.

The neighbourhood might not have as many trendy restaurants or shops as Kitsilano or Point Grey, and there might not be a lot of families with young children around anymore, Goldman adds, but it has the same quiet, tree-shaded streets and good schools. Plus, for the price, Goldman says they’ll wind up with a lot twice the size.

“Interestingly, there are quite a number of realtors who have moved into the area,” Goldman notes.

Central City, Surrey

What used to be called Whalley is being re-branded as Central City. And, as all of Surrey is undergoing phenomenal growth, Central City’s redevelopment is starting to hop, says Scott MacDonald at Re/Max 2000 Realty.

Simon Fraser University has a new campus there, new condominium towers are being built and new residents are starting to buy the old houses to tear them down and start over again, MacDonald adds, which is a relatively new phenomenon for the city.

“The city centre market is evolving the most from what it used to be, to a much more modern-style living,” MacDonald says.

Buyers will start finding condominiums on resale in the low $100,000s on the Multiple Listing Service. The older teardown homes can be had starting from around $300,000.

Albion-Maple Ridge

More than just the Fraser-crossing ferry, Albion is one of high-growth Maple Ridge’s fastest-growing neighbourhoods with new schools and plenty of retained green space, says Ron Antalek at Re/Max Ridge Meadows.

And, comparatively speaking, new residents can find good values. Antalek estimates first-time buyers can find new studio condominiums starting in the $149,000 range, new townhouses in the $339,000 range. Buyers who want to move up to their first house start looking in the $375,000 range, Antalek adds, for which they can expect a 2,300-square-foot house, albeit on a small lot.

Albion might have been off the radar because of its distance from bigger urban centres to the west, but Antalek adds that the province’s Gateway transportation improvements — the new Golden Ears and Pitt River bridges in particular — have put it on.

Abbotsford

It might be a long commute from the central Fraser Valley to Vancouver, but Geraldine Santiago of Re/Max Crest Realty (Westside) encourages the first-time buyers she works with not to think of it that way.

“They shouldn’t think of the commute as a hindrance, because [they are] getting a piece of real estate and becoming homeowners,” Santiago says. The Abbotsford buy is about value.

Once they have a foot in the market, Santiago adds, buyers can work toward moving to the community they would prefer to live in on their second move, or their third.

Randy Dyck, a realtor with Re/Max in Abbotsford, noted that the city’s market has boomed along with the whole Lower Mainland. However, buyers can still get into two-bedroom condos starting at $160,000, townhouses in the low $200,000s, and a decent family home in the low $300,000s. The region’s economy is growing so fast, commuter buyers might find it more convenient to move their careers to the Valley as well.

Saltair

Tucked between Chemainus and Ladysmith, Saltair offers bucolic beauty, ocean views and room to move for a lot less than busier resort areas on Vancouver Islands, according to Darrell Paysen of Sutton Group realtors in Duncan.

Paysen says Saltair’s mean sales price is $330,000. That is less expensive than Nanaimo, he adds.

It is primarily a residential, rural community without a lot of new development, but Paysen says that median price will buy a homeowner a not-too-old house of about 2,000 square feet on one-third of an acre.

Part of the Cowichan Valley regional district, Paysen notes that Saltair isn’t big enough to attract a lot of its own services, but it does have its own beach. An excellent marina is close by in Ladysmith, and the nearest major commercial centre, Nanaimo, is about a half-hour drive away.

“It’s off the beaten track, but close to everything,” Paysen says.

Squamish

Squamish is definitely on the radar of B.C.’s real estate market and has been since about 2002, says Lisa Bjornson, managing broker of Re/Max Black Tusk realty, but it is still a beacon that keeps getting brighter.

Vancouver realtor Robert Chipman is still bullish about Squamish because, with Sea to Sky Highway improvements continuing apace, it becomes a closer commute to Vancouver every day. And, unlike the Fraser Valley, it is a commute with a view.

Bjornson adds that prices have skyrocketed, particularly on the new construction side. On resale, however, buyers might find a detached home starting in the $450,000s. Townhouses, when available, can be had in the $290,000 to $350,000 range.

Bjornson notes that Squamish is starting to attract major commercial development, yet it will always be a small town. Even when it fills out its current community plan, Squamish will top out at 40,000 residents.

Campbell River

A few years ago, the Comox Valley was on the radar, but now maybe it’s Campbell River.

Vancouver real estate investing consultant Ozzie Jurock likes Campbell River for quality of seaside life, at a lower price than desirable spots in the Courtenay/Comox area.

Bob Clarke, managing broker of Coast Realty Group, says, like everywhere else, the city has seen a considerable run up of real estate over the past couple of years. But more retirees are looking to Campbell River.

Campbell River’s average sales price is around $267,000. Or buyers can get into patio-home developments for about $175,000, which would get them 1,000 square feet on a single level, Clarke adds. Put that patio home on a golf course and it’s about $270,000.

The Mount Washington ski resort is nearby, it is right on the water and hiking opportunities abound.

“You could probably go golfing, fishing and skiing all in the same day,” Clarke adds.

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

Think Whistler Blackcomb resort quality at not-quite-yet Whistler Blackcomb prices, boasts Michael Dalzell, the resort’s director of sales and marketing.

Located just north of Golden, Kicking Horse is heading into only its sixth season — its third with full resort services — and the U.S. men’s magazine Esquire has already ordained it “ski resort of the future,” for its “thigh-decimating” 4,133 feet of vertical drop from mountain top to its village.

Dalzell admits the real estate, at $300 to the mid $400s per square foot for condos in Palliser Lodge, is pricier than, say, Big White near Kelowna. But buyers are getting in near the beginning. Kicking Horse is only one-third of its way to building out the 3,500 resort beds in its plan.

“It embodies the spirit of the

surveyors and engineers who founded this area of British Columbia,” Dalzell says.

Prince Rupert

The northwestern port town popped onto the real estate radar in 2005 with news of major port developments, a cruise-ship dock and container terminal, then kind of just dropped off, says Ted Shepherd.

Shepherd, with Royal LePage in Prince Rupert, says a flurry of investor buyers rushed in,

starting within minutes of the announced container terminal pushing up long-depressed prices.

Then they just stopped. That has left Prince Rupert slightly behind the rest of the booming north, so buyers can find comfortable family homes for $134,000, which is currently the median price in the city. For $300,000, Shepherd says you get 3,000 square feet of house less than five years old with panoramic harbour views, though Shepherd admits those listings are rare.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Brian Morton
Sun

University of B.C. mathematics professor Michael Doebeli faced a costly dilemma earlier this year, when his insurance company told him to either rewire his 70-year-old Vancouver home or lose coverage on his house.

The 45-year-old Doebeli did some checking around and was told he’d have to spend more than $20,000 to tear out the old “knob and tube” wiring — which his insurance company wouldn’t cover — and update it to current standards.

Doebeli looked elsewhere, but was only offered help by an insurance firm that specializes in older homes. However, the insurance would be costlier and the house would be covered for much less than what it was worth.

Instead, Doebeli turned to PowerSafe Inc., a new Vancouver company that specializes in inspecting older homes for electrical hazards — including the state of knob and tube wiring — and was told there was nothing wrong with the wiring, although the house had other electrical problems that needed correcting.

For $1,000, Doebeli fixed the problems and got his coverage through the B.C. Automobile Association, which recently started covering homes with knob and tube wiring providing they have been given the green light by an inspection.

“For me, this has worked out very well,” Doebeli said in an interview about his experience with PowerSafe, to which the BCAA refers clients for safety inspections and wiring upgrades, when needed. “It cost me $1,000 [for repairs] and my insurance is about 10 per cent more than it was. That’s a heck of a lot cheaper than $20,000.”

Doebeli said he managed to get house insurance when he bought his home in 1999, but that it was subsequently denied when the insurance company changed owners and its policy on knob and tube wiring — an ongoing problem, according to BCAA. The old-style electrical system includes porcelain insulating tubes that holds wires, while modern wiring usually runs through plastic or PVC tubes.]

Brian Cook, an electrician who started PowerSafe with partner Rick Pow, said in an interview that they formed their company after getting calls from people complaining they couldn’t get insurance coverage, even when there was nothing wrong with the old wiring.

Cook said he saw an opportunity because fewer and fewer companies are offering coverage and replacement wiring costs a minimum of $10,000. “We’re capitalizing on what we foresee as a weakness in the insurance industry. We’re providing a solution.

“They [insurance companies] are saying that any house older than 1950 with its original wiring is uninsurable. But their risk assessments aren’t accurate. I’m saying it may be safe and it may not be safe.”

Cook said many problems stem from rewiring done by unqualified people. “There are no dangers with knob and tube. The dangers are in the handyman add-ons.” He said PowerSafe offers a 50-point inspection for $250.

BCAA insurance product manager Brooke Hanson said that BCAA started insuring the old wiring in May and has had an excellent response from customers who couldn’t get coverage elsewhere.

Hanson said BCAA charges a bit more because they want to be a little cautious. “It [knob and tube] is not inherently dangerous, but there are still some unknowns because of its age.”

Citing Statistics Canada, BCAA said as many as 200,000 B.C. homes were built using knob and tube wiring.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006