Yaletown, Gastown, theatres, arenas nearby; more than 50 floorplans available

Michael Sasges
Sun

DOLCE SYMPHONY PLACE

Location: Downtown Vancouver

Project size: 198 apartments and townhouses, 32-storey building

Residence size: From 507 sq. ft.

Prices: From $389,900

Sales centre location: Richards at Smithe

Hours: 12 p.m. — 5 p.m. Saturday to Thursday

Telephone: 604-677-8386

Email: [email protected]

Developer: Solterra

Architect: Merrick

Interior designer: Portico

Tentative occupancy: Spring 2010

– – –

To the organizers of the Dolce sales and marketing campaign, the eventual occupants of the homes in the downtown tower will reside either at a ”cultural crossroad” or in a symbol of international enthusiasm for a Vancouver address.

The champion of the latter is Cameron McNeill of MAC Marketing Solutions, the new-home project’s broker, while the former perspective is that of Darcy Nyrose of Solterra, the project’s builder and developer.

Who’s to argue? The Dolce campaign generated more than 160 sales in less than two weeks.

The cultural-crossroad metaphor speaks to the tower’s arts and entertainment proximities, the most important being the Orpheum Theatre, across Seymour Street. Gastown is to the north and Yaletown is to the south. GM Place and BC Place are to the east.

McNeill ‘s description of a Dolce residence speaks to another geography, only partially local.

“I think Dolce is very symbolic as to what the local, and the international, buyer feels about Vancouver.

“I think when we talk about these projects we talk about what’s happening on the micro level. But I believe the real driving force is what’s happening on the macro level.

“Vancouver has just constantly remained, year after year after year, the No. 1 place to live. The coming Olympics are an event. Some people think they are a non-event. They are a real significant event.

“There is a lot of buzz and excitement, more than last year, which was more than the year before and more than the year before that. We’ve got an economy that is really thriving. . . .

“And I really believe that is the underlying current that is really driving a lot of the excitement in our marketplace.

“Having said that, what are the options [downtown]? You can go to the absolute, absolute Rolls-Royce: waterfront. Or you can do a Mercedes/BMW that more people can afford, which this is.

“It is still expensive, by a Canadian standard, even by a Lower Mainland standard.

”But as far as buying the best city in the world, which many people believe this is, and buying a location from which you can walk to work, walk to Yaletown, go rollerblading on the seawall, where you can make a lifestyle . . . I really believe in my heart that that is far more important than what our countertops look like or even how our floorplans are done. That’s what Dolce, for me, symbolically means.”

However, the plans and the counters are not unworthy of mention — if only by numbers alone.

Solterra is selling more than 50 different plans in Dolce, proportionally a high number, and in four colour-and-material schemes. Two schemes, light and dark, are typical in a new-home project; three, generous. Four, rare.

There will be five townhouses; 21 lofts; 139 apartments on floors five through 24; and 33 ”view suites” on floors 25 through 32. The lower-floor apartments are mostly sold.

The lower-floor apartment mix will include studios, one bedroom-and-flex and two-bedroom-and-flex residences. The townhouses are one-bedroom, two-bedroom or three-bedroom residences.

The lower-floor apartments and the townhouses share two of the colour-and-finish schemes; the townhouses and “view suites,” the other two.

“This is kind of a vertical community here. I think you’re going to have a real variety [of residents],” McNeill says.

As pleased as they are with the success of their sales campaign, McNeill and Nyrose don’t want anyone to think there’s not much left to buy. There is.

“We still have a pretty good selection. I don’t want to discourage people from coming down,” McNeill comments.

EXEMPLARY MASTERY OF THE SMALLER SPACE

Curious about the mastery of Vancouver‘s developers and architects and designers of small-space homes? You owe yourself a visit to the Dolce sales centre on Richards Street, open from noon to 5 p.m. daily, except Friday.

There, the Solterra development company has installed a complete apartment, a two-bedroom, two-bath residence with den or “flex space” in less than 800 square feet.

Artful placement and treatment of components matters in the smaller home.

In the Dolce show home, the microwave is located below one of the two kitchen counters (top, left).

It’s not located above the counter or in or around the kitchen fan, a common treatment.

Further, its controls are not on the face, which would force the cook to bend over. They’re on the frame, under the counter.

Large, robust components enhance compact residency, as the basins, and their extenuated faucets, in the master bath (top, right) and the kitchen (left) demonstrate.

In another new-home project, there would probably be two basins on the kitchen counter and two in the master bath. In the Dolce apartments that would be one too many in these rooms.

Also worthy of note in the kitchens is the concealed refrigerator, on the left in the photo, and the shallow storage on the right, its depth just enough to accommodate just about any packaged food.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Michael Campbell
Sun

To borrow from the late, great George Burns, “Gracie, we have a problem.” The big question is: When it comes to the losses in the subprime (read low-quality) mortgage market, no one knows just how big the problem is.

I love the quip that analyst Denis Gartman offered up when the first significant losses in the subprime mortgage market were reported in February. Gartman, in anticipation of more problems to come, told his investors to hold on to their money because “there is never only one cockroach.”

Since that time, the cockroaches have been scurrying out of the deep dark corners — the likes of Bear Sterns, France‘s AXA, Japan‘s Shinsei Bank, Germany‘s IKB Deutsche Industriebank, plus several hedge funds in the U.S. and Australia.

The monster cockroach that triggered Thursday’s massive stock market sell-off came courtesy of France‘s biggest bank, BNP Paribas, which announced that it was suspending client withdrawals from three of its investment funds with a face value of $3.79 billion US.

The problem is that the lack of liquidity in the subprime market makes it impossible to reliably determine the asset values of the funds, so Paribas put an end to withdrawals.

This is just the kind of uncertainty that the market abhors, and it encourages investors in other mortgage-related funds to withdraw their money before their funds are frozen.

The fact that just a week earlier the bank’s CEO had said that the firm’s exposure to the U.S. subprime market was “absolutely negligible” lends credence to the fear that no one knows the extent of the problem.

Even companies themselves don’t know their exposure, because billions of dollars in low-grade mortgages were repackaged and sold to hedge funds, mutual funds and institutional investors around the world.

What’s ironic is that in 2005, when BNP Paribas Asset Management launched two of the now-frozen funds, the bank declared that these kinds of mortgage-backed securities “have lost their exotic status and entered the mainstream of fixed-income investing.”

In other words, these high-risk investments had taken on an aura of respectability, which aided their proliferation. Last year alone, Wall Street issued $773 billion US in mortgage-backed securities.

What’s amazing is that anyone paying attention is surprised. The massive increase in debt levels and the complacency surrounding the risks being taken made the whole situation like a game of musical chairs. Analysts and investors knew the music was going to stop, the only question was when.

Well, the “when” seems to be now, although central banks in the U.S. and Europe seem bent on letting the party go on with the infusions of billions of dollars into the system.

To be fair, the Federal Reserve is caught between a rock and a hard place. It can’t allow a panic liquidation to take place, which would end in a nasty recession, but by trying to alleviate the problems by pumping money into the system, it is sowing the seeds of a bigger problem down the road.

In November, 2002, I wrote in this space that the massive decline of the U.S. dollar and accompanying hard-asset inflation were inevitable as then-Federal Reserve governor and current chairman Ben Benanke declared that they had an invention to prevent Japanese-style deflation, and it is called the printing press.

Since that time, every panic has been met with the printing presses running full speed, with a lower U.S. dollar and higher hard-asset prices the obvious results.

My bet is that unless some really ugly surprises come out of the subprime woodwork, they will be able to pull it off, but not without some gut-wrenching gyrations for some investors.

Significant damage has been done, and a sober reassessment of risk should take place.

Michael Campbell’s Money Talks radio show can be heard on CKNW 980 on Saturdays from 8:30 to 10 a.m.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Regulatory body issues warning after condo contracts cancelled by developers

Derrick Penner
Sun

A flurry of problems in the pre-sale marketing of condominium projects has prompted the British Columbia Financial Institutions Commission (FICOM) to issue a buyer-beware reminder to consumers.

The Riverbend condominium project in Coquitlam, where the developer CB Development 2000 Ltd. cancelled 34 pre-sale contracts is a recent high-profile case. FICOM stepped in to issue a stop-marketing order against that project.

However, Ken Fraser, FICOM’s executive director for enforcement, said his staff is reviewing at least one other case where a developer cancelled pre-sale contracts. They have recently issued two other cease marketing orders and one refrain from marketing order and has sought voluntary actions to stop marketing on three other projects.

“We want to make sure that purchasers do their due diligence and know what they’re getting themselves into,” Fraser said of the bulletin.

FICOM is the provincial regulator responsible for enforcing B.C.’s real estate legislation.

Its bulletin notes that pre-selling homes prior to construction is common, but buyers have to be aware that projects may be delayed or not proceed.

Developers might also terminate pre-sale contracts if construction of their project is delayed beyond the contract’s completion date, unless both buyer and builder agree to an extension.

Every development project that makes presales must prepare a disclosure statement about the project that is filed with the provincial superintendent of real estate.

Fraser said buyers need to read the disclosure and seek the advice of a lawyer to make sure they understand it.

“What we’ve found in the past is that a number of purchasers have a tendency not to read the disclosure, or don’t understand the disclosure and rely primarily on information being given to them by the sellers or by developers or realtors,” Fraser said.

“The purchaser should enter into some independent type of review to ensure they know. . . what risks are involved going into the presale agreement.”

To see the full text of the bulletin go to FICOM’s website www.fic.gov.bc.ca/index.htm.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Solar-powered water heaters could soon be in thousands of Canadian households

Kathryn Young
Sun

Thousands of Canadians could soon have new solar-powered water heaters in their homes if their local gas or electrical utilities, homebuilders or municipalities take advantage of a federal pilot project.

Natural Resources Canada has $9 million to spend on major projects that promote solar-powered water heaters to Canadian homeowners, said Jeff Knapp, a spokesman for NRCan’s EcoEnergy for Renewable Heat program.

It is inviting proposals that would put solar-powered water heaters into at least 200 single-family townhouse or semi-detached homes.

“It’s going to be a revolution,” Knapp said.

“It’s going to change the dynamics of the water heating marketplace in Canada.”

Knapp predicted utilities will offer several options, including installing systems in homes for free but charging homeowners a monthly rental fee.

Utilities could also sell the entire systems to homeowners, set up a rent-to-own plan or create a system where residents pay just for the energy used to heat their water.

Solar hot-water systems use roof panels to collect the sun’s energy, which would heat enough water for normal household use.

A back-up heating system is typically needed for cloudy periods.

Solar systems can save homeowners 50 per cent of their hot-water bills and, at the same time, cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

A previous NRCan program, hampered by high costs, took nine years to get 400 solar water-heating systems into Canadian houses, Knapp said.

However, with the price of such systems declining and fossil fuel prices rising — along with public interest in environmental issues — he believes solar-powered hot water is poised to take off.

Elizabeth McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Solar Industries Association, said solar water systems will save significant amounts of energy and money for homeowners around the country.

“Once they see that it works, I think the adoption rates will increase rapidly,” McDonald said. “The utilities know the pressures of electricity … and so it’s also good for them to become involved in the renewable area.”

Spokesmen for Enmax Corp. in Calgary, Alta., and Union Gas in Ontario said they are examining NRCan’s proposal and considering various ways in which they can start promoting renewable energy technology to their customers.

“We’re definitely interested in solar hot water,” said Robert Falconer, Enmax’s director of distributed generation.

“It certainly looks like a good program,” said Jack Mantyla, an R-2000 coordinator for the Canadian Home Builders’ Association. “It’s an emerging technology we believe more and more builders are going to want to offer to their clients.”

The program targets large-production builders, but Mantyla said he hopes there will also be help for smaller builders, who tend to be the leaders with new technologies.

Spokesman Robert Ross said the Federation of Canadian Municipalities couldn’t comment on the project.

However, he noted that the group’s environmental policy supports renewable energy in Canada.

“Shifting toward more sustainable energy sources will be critical to improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” the federation policy said.

One developer in western Canada is interested in solar water heaters for 3,500 Canadian homes, while a major utility with a million customers is also considering starting up a project, Knapp said.

If only one per cent of those customers were interested, that would amount to 10,000 new systems, he said.

“I want to see solar water all across the country. We Canadians are ripe for it.”

The program is part of the $36-million EcoEnergy Renewable Initiative fund announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in January.

The deadline for proposals is Sept. 28 and decisions on the winning projects — which would make solar water available to the most customers for the lowest cost — are expected in November.

The pilot project will run for three years or until the money runs out, Knapp said.

“It really is the most exciting thing in solar in 20, 30 years,” Knapp said.

“We want to bring solar water heaters to the marketplace efficiently and effectively,” he said. “And that’s what the utilities want, too. We’re not at cross-purposes here.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Multiple-unit starts fall off

Ashley Ford
Province

The bloom is slightly off Greater Vancouver’s home-construction industry, with starts for the first seven months of the year falling 10 per cent from 2006.

Despite the decline the industry is not standing at the edge of a huge decline and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says demand for new and existing homes remains strong across the Lower Mainland.

The volatile multiple-unit sector is mainly responsible for the drop. Large fluctuations in this sector are not uncommon due to the lengthy approval process, the federal agency said. As well, CMHC does not classify a project as a start until construction has reached the first floor.

“Wild monthly fluctuations in multiple starts are a common occurrence. However, single- detached-home building has been holding steady at well below last year’s high level,” said Robyn Adamache, senior market analyst at CMHC.

Multiple levels are only off slightly from a year ago, CMHC said. There are many projects in the planning pipeline, some of which will take longer to handle given the current civic labour problems. So far this year, there have been 8,442 multiple starts compared with 8,611 a year ago, a two-per-cent drop.

The single sector has long been under pressure given the high price of land and construction costs. There have been 2,426 single starts across the Lower Mainland this year, down nearly 31 per cent from last year’s 3,513 starts.

Overall, there have been 10,868 starts this year, a 10.4 per cent drop from 12,124 last year.

B.C.-wide starts show a similar pattern with a decline of four per cent to 18,852 starts from 19,722 last year.

Nationally, starts declined 4.3 per cent last month to 215,600 from 225,300 in June.

Statistics Canada reports price increases continue to slow.

“Looking ahead, the future for the Canadian housing sector remains good, with the sustained economic boom and favourable demographic factors contributing to the buoyant outlook,” said Millan Mulraine economics strategist at TD Securities.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Sue Kirchhoff
USA Today

WASHINGTON — Even in the midst of a housing recession, one segment of the mortgage market has been booming: reverse mortgages, which provide a line of credit or monthly payments to seniors 62 or older, using an existing home as collateral.

Reverse mortgages rose more than 9.5% on a dollar basis in the second half of 2006 compared with the first six months of the year, and the number of loans was up 19%, the Mortgage Bankers Association says. The Federal Housing Administration, which insures about 90% of reverse mortgages, announced a tenfold jump in the loans from 2000 to 2006.

More than 76,000 senior citizens got a federally insured reverse mortgage in 2006, up from 6,637 in 2000. Lenders may top the 2006 total by the end of this summer.

“We both have pensions. We both have Social Security. And we could exist on that, and that’s (all) we could do: exist,” says Joan Borden, 74, of Kings Park, N.Y.

She and her husband, Noel, also 74, took out a reverse mortgage with a line of credit three years ago. They’ve used the money for home improvements, trips to see their children and gifts for their grandchildren.

The Bordens always expected to leave their home as their legacy to their children. Instead, their kids were the ones who suggested they take out the loan to improve their quality of life.

“The one thing that holds people back: They think that the government will own their home, and that’s not true,” says Joan. “The other thing, if you can believe it, is that their children talk them out of it. … We’ve heard this from so many people.”

Unlike a traditional home-equity loan or second mortgage, borrowers don’t repay reverse mortgages until they sell their home, move or take some other action that means the house is no longer their main residence. Lenders collect the loan principal plus interest when a home is sold. FHA insurance protects lenders against loss if borrowers’ equity withdrawals exceed the value of a home when it is sold.

While most reverse mortgages are adjustable-rate products, lenders are beginning to develop fixed-rate and larger-denomination loans. Additionally, many reverse mortgages don’t require a credit or income test. As an added protection, borrowers taking out FHA-insured products undergo mandatory financial counseling. Some states also require counseling.

Baby boomers awaited

The volume of reverse mortgages is still not large enough to have a big impact on the overall mortgage sector. But that could change as millions of baby boomers hit retirement age in coming years. Further, federal officials estimate millions more borrowers could become eligible for loans if Congress passes legislation raising the current $362,790 home-value cap on FHA-insured products.

“We’re just starting to scratch the surface,” says David Peskin, CEO of the Senior Lending Network. “The baby boomer generally is accustomed to debt, so they’re walking into this understanding the concept of a mortgage.”

Lenders are gearing up, holding training sessions for brokers and hiring celebrity spokesmen such as actors James Garner and Robert Wagner. Ginnie Mae, a government-sponsored entity charged with creating a market for bonds backed by federally insured or guaranteed mortgages, is trying to rev up more reverse mortgage bonds. Mortgage giant Fannie Mae also creates a market for the loans.

“Growth has been really fantastic, but we’re still in a situation where the market is very new. … We’re at less than 1% of potential customers,” says David Cesario, executive vice president of 1st Reverse Financial Services.

Cautions for consumers

The jump in lending also comes with some cautions.

AARP says the mortgages can be a boon but adds that they can have higher rates and fees than some other loans.

Reverse mortgages have been seen as a way to help seniors who are asset rich but cash poor remain in their homes and cover medical bills, home upkeep and daily living costs. A surprisingly large number of borrowers are using the loans for other reasons, or carrying debt into retirement.

A “use we had not anticipated is that many homeowners also use all of the reverse mortgage proceeds that they are eligible to borrow at closing to pay off any existing conventional or ‘forward’ mortgage,” says Bronwyn Belling, director of the Reverse Mortgage Education Project for the AARP Foundation.

Peskin says about half of his customers use reverse mortgages to help retire an existing mortgage.

Cesario says more-affluent retirees seeking jumbo reverse-mortgage products may not want to touch their stock investments to finance current spending. They can effectively use reverse mortgages to cover conventional mortgage payments of a second house without affecting cash flow. Reverse-mortgage lenders’ websites also offer testimonials from people who used the loans to finance international trips, for example.

Meg Burns, FHA director of single-family program development, notes that pricing is becoming more competitive as the market expands.

“One of the things that we hear over and over about the baby boomer population is that they’re entering their retirement years with less savings,” Burns says, because of lifestyle choices as well as declining pensions and other financial issues.

“We see more people who maybe don’t desperately need it … but it’s somebody who feels that they could live more comfortably if they tapped into their equity,” Burns says.

Burns notes she has heard from seniors that reverse mortgages have allayed their fear that they won’t be able to cover their bills in case of an emergency. Burns expects the FHA share of the reverse mortgage to decline over time as the overall market expands and more lenders offer their own specialty products.

A recent report by the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association estimated that Americans 62 and older hold $4.3 trillion in home equity.

Association promotes high standards of professionalism

Sun

Last year signaled many significant landmarks for the real estate profession. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) and its member boards contributed to those landmarks. Among the most noteworthy of BCREA’s achievements was the adoption of a new Strategic Plan, which guides the governance and operation of the Association. BCREA’s focus supports the commitment to high standards of professionalism and personal pride already put forward by real estate boards and REALTORS across the province.

Another milestone was the creation of an Economics Department, beginning with the addition of Cameron Muir as Chief Economist in November 2006. As part of BCREA’s commitment to being recognized as a trusted source of credible information, the new department provides timely research, analysis and information on economic factors affecting BC and its housing markets.

The department looks to build on its recently released, semi-annual Housing Forecast, the first of its kind for the Association, which was very well received by the media and the profession. The efforts of the Economics Department will go a long way to helping the Association achieve its long-term goal (that is, 10-30 years) of becoming THE voice of real estate in BC.

In a recent BCREA report, President and REALTOR, Andrew Peck said, “I see minimum standards as the starting point, not the destination. To me, that’s part of what it means to be a REALTOR.”

“I take great pride in this profession, and I hear the same thing from REALTORS around the province. We take responsibility for ourselves and the services we provide our clients. Every meeting and every transaction goes one step further toward public recognition of our value. One of our responsibilities is fulfilling the requirements of the Professional Development Program.

REALTORS are committed to high standards and, in this dynamic

environment, that commitment is

significant.

I’m also proud of BCREA’s use of the Quality of Life philosophy. The five principles aren’t an end on their own, but they are an excellent way to establish common ground among groups with different points of view and similar interests. It was the Quality of Life approach that led us to ask the provincial government to develop a comprehensive water action plan to ensure an adequate supply of safe drinking water and minimize flood risks. The philosophy also made it possible for BCREA and the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver to work with the Vancouver Board of Trade to plan several public Dialogues, each focusing on one principle and actions that can be taken to improve quality of life.

With more than two-thirds of BC’s 17,000 REALTORS active as community volunteers, we have yet another good reason to celebrate our contributions.

It’s easy to shrug off this work as our duty as good citizens, but that’s outweighed by the importance of demonstrating to the public and to decision makers that we’re committed to this province, not just to our bottom lines.

We are community and business leaders, as a profession and as individuals.

It’s time to embrace this reality and say: “I’m proud to be a REALTOR!”

 

© The Vancouver Sun 2007