Saskatoon heading the pack among big gainers

Helen Morris
Province

OTTAWA — The price of new housing edged up 0.3 per cent from January to February 2008, said Statistics Canada.

The rate slowed down after two months of accelerated growth but followed a downward trend which began in September 2006, said the federal agency.

Contractors’ selling prices increased 6.2 per cent in February 2007 from a year earlier. The year-on-year growth was slower than the 6.5 per cent yearly increase seen in January.

In British Columbia, the federal agency reported a 6.6 per cent rise year-on-year in Vancouver and an increase of 1.6 per cent in contractors’ selling prices in Victoria.

Prices in Saskatoon again rose at the fastest rate.

Annual prices in the city increased 58.3 per cent — the fastest rise on record in the city. Prices in Saskatoon rose 4.3 per cent month-on-month in February.

Regina, meanwhile, recorded a year-on-year price hike of 28.6 per cent — up from 25.9 per cent year-over-year growth in January.

Statistics Canada said that builders reported higher prices due to a rise in the cost of materials, as well as labour shortages pushing up the cost of labour.

“Clearly Saskatchewan is the new Alberta, with economic growth there being driven by the commodity price boom.” said Jacqui Douglas, economics strategist at TD Securities.

Strong demand continued for new houses in Saskatchewan on the back of a healthy natural resource sector as well as the push to encourage migrants to the province in an attempt to alleviate the labour shortage.

The rate of year-on-year growth of new housing prices in Edmonton slowed to 14.8 per cent in February — the seventh consecutive deceleration in growth.

Prices in Calgary increased 5.2 per cent in February 2008 compared to a year earlier.

This showed a slight decrease on the 5.6 per cent yearly rise reported by Statistics Canada in January.

The federal agency said that the departure of some migrants from Alberta meant that there were more resale houses on the market contributing to slower sales in the new housing sector.

Both Calgary and Edmonton saw a decline month-on-month with prices falling 0.3 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively.

In the East, Statistics Canada said that builders reported increased material and labour costs coupled with higher land development costs contributed to record price increases in Newfoundland and Labrador and in Nova Scotia.

Prices in St. John’s. N.L., rose 12.2 per cent year-on-year and in Halifax the rise was 11.4 per cent.

In Ontario, prices in Windsor inched up 0.3 per cent from February 2007 — the first inflation in 17 months.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

Tony Gioventu
Province

Dear Condo Smarts: We are in a divided strata of a highrise and a commercial division. Several years ago, we voted to create sections so that the costs that were allocated exclusively to each section would be fairly divided.

In March, the residential owners were voting on a bylaw that would limit rentals to a maximum of five units. Several commercial-section owners registered their votes and voted against the resolution, preventing us from adopting a rental- limitation bylaw.

We lost the vote by one. Can you please explain to us why the commercial section has a right to dictate to the residential section how owners use their strata lots ?

— JWV, Vancouver Island

To understand sections you have to understand the legal authority of a strata corporation.

The Strata Act says that a strata corporation has the power and capacity of a natural person of full capacity. In simple terms, a strata corporation can buy or sell property, mortgage, lease, commence lawsuits, create bylaws and enter into contracts for service or operations, like any normal person.

A section is a corporation and has the same powers and duties as the strata corporation. So a section can do all of the same things, but only those that apply to that section. This also means sections can create their own bylaws that only apply to their section, such as your rental-restriction bylaws, and only that section votes on those bylaws.

The commercial section did not have voting authority at the special general meeting of the residential section as it only applied to the residential section.

Furthermore, when I reviewed your documents and minutes, I discovered each commercial strata lot was counted as one vote, but on the registered strata plan, all of the commercial strata lots have less than one vote, in most cases .49 votes. Therefore, the commercial section did not represent enough votes to defeat your resolution.

Commercial strata lots may have fewer or greater than one vote per strata lot as their voting is based on the relevant area of their strata lot.

Always seek legal advice when creating or amending rules or bylaws that pertain to sections.

Tony Gioventu is executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association.

E-mail him at [email protected]

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Granville Island townhouses define ‘stout’

Michael Sasges
Sun

A handsome addition to the residency opportunity in the vicinity of Granville Island, the dwellingson3rd townhouses are also a robust expression of the contribution of the oversized and the pronounced to livability.

The zebrawood that faces the doors of the kitchen cabinetry, for example, is the perfect wood for the first-floor spaces, the townhouses’ principal, or public, living quarters.

Use this dramatically striped wood from Africa “where a spectacular effect is desired,” a carpentry manual in my home library recommends.

The spaces are spectacular: Open plan, they are unusually wide, at 24 feet, and high, at 11 feet.

They will be defined by walls of either glazing or concrete, by a ceiling of concrete, and by a floor of 24-by-24-inch ceramic tile over more concrete.

They would not be ill served by a more gently patterned wood, like the white oak of the cabinetry in the bathrooms, but they would not be as well served.

The presence of at least three attached outdoor spaces in each townhouse is an exterior equivalent of the zebrawood in the kitchens.

Three outdoor spaces don’t merely speak of location. They announce: This household can elect to be outside all seasons, all hours, and this household lives with adjacencies that demand viewing: English Bay, the North Shore mountains, the downtown skyline.

In all its projects, Trasolini Chetner tries to incorporate a couple of features that will add distinction to its work, partner Rob Chetner says. At dwellingson3rd, the outdoor spaces are one of those features.

The courtyard between the five townhouses across the rear of the development and the five across the front was one inspiration for the strong outdoor-space component of the townhouses.

Each of the five front-of-development townhouses has a patio on the courtyard, an approximation of the front yard of the traditional detached residence.

The neighbourhood, of course, was another inspiration. Each residence has a rooftop deck from which the household, and its visitors and guests, can enjoy the views.

” . . . there is a cost to doing it, railings and glass and waterproofing and what not, but it added more dimension, more excitement, uniqueness, style,” Rob Chetner says of the outdoor spaces. ”And when you’re inside, whether you use them or not, just having that extension to your space outside is really nice.”

When you’re inside a dwellingson3rd townhouse, you’re inside a concrete building. Concrete construction is an important component of the Trasolini Chetner marketing of the townhouses.

Concrete construction certainly facilitated the handsome elevations of the building and the outdoor spaces; it permitted developer and architect to ”do a few different things that you couldn‘

outdoor spaces; it permitted developer and architect to ”do a few different things that you couldn’t achieve with wood-frame, some of the cantilevers and overhangs … ,” Chetner says.

Partywalls and floors and ceilings of concrete are better barriers to the easy passage of noise between attached residences than insulated walls and ceilings of steel or wood studs skinned with drywall.

Concrete construction is also accepted by the market as the more substantial construction technique.

”A lot of it has do with the perception that the house is more stout and solid and rigid and will stand the test of time,” Chetner says. ”And it will. As we all know, it’s a more solid product; it’s as close to rock as you can get.”

Having said that, he is quick to acknowledge concrete’s limits. ”A lot of people have the misconception that wood leaks and concrete doesn’t.

”I think concrete can help in certain ways, but you still have to pay attention to the detailing, the waterproofing, the flashings, the membranes. Water can go through concrete.”

Yes, a concrete building costs more per square foot, than a wood-frame building to erect. And, yes, typically, homes in a concrete building will command higher prices, per square foot, than homes in a wood-frame building.

The ”premium” will vary, from project to project.

”You could ask any realtor, what’s the premium, how much more does it cost to build concrete, how much more can you sell it for?” Chetner comments.

”Both are very difficult questions to answer. It definitely costs more, not astronomically more, but more.

”And I think you can definitely get more. Again, I don’t know how much more, but I know buyers just like the fact it’s more solid, it’s built to last, it will stand the test of time a little bit better. It has no shrinkage, no warpage, those types of things.”

The widths of the townhouses are also important components of the marketing of the dwellingson3rd townhouses: At 24 feet, they are wider than most new-construction townhouses, Chetner says.

“By having those widths, we have something different with which we can distinguish and differentiate our product.”

Developer and architect looked at including 12 residences in the development, six across the back and six across the front. That number would have reduced widths to about 18 feet. ”which is a lot smaller and we just liked the fit and the feel of the way the [two rows of five residences] laid out. It just seemed like a good number.”

It is certainly a number that is flagged on the West Third elevation, with columns of concrete and poles of steel defining each of the five residences.

”Also, with 12 or 14 or 16 or any other number upwards, you would have to have more parking and you would have to go underground.”

The dwellingson3rd households will park in a common garage, almost at grade and entered from, and exited on, the lane. There are 19 parking stalls, 10 of them included in the purchase price of a townhouses and the other nine for sale, at $25,000 each.

”We just felt the area warranted larger units, which are more costly, we acknowledge.

”But based on where we are geographically, we thought the demographic we anticipated we would attract would be that demographic that would look for two bedrooms and a den and for something in the vicinity of our square footage.”

The anticipated demographic has materialized: Seven of the townhouses have been sold, mostly to households that are equity endowed by lifetime ownership of a single-family-detached home and no longer encumbered by bringing-up-baby responsibilities.

The location of the developer’s head office is, perhaps, the most important example of the oversized quality of dwellingson3rd residency: It’s on the ground floor of the building.

”Having our office here, I think, speaks to our belief in the project, the fact that if there are problems, people know where to find us,” Rob Chetner says. ”We can’t run and we can’t hide. We never would, of course … we will always stand behind what we do. For the owners, the people buying in here, I hope it adds a dimension of comfort, knowing we’re here.”

DWELLINGSON3RD

Project location: West Third at Burrard, Vancouver

Project size: 10 townhouses

Residence size: From 1,400 sq. ft., 2 bedrooms + den, 21/2 baths

Prices: From $1.2 million

Contact: Ken Chong, 604-671-1025

Web: dwellingson3rd.com

Developer: Trasolini Chetner Construction Corp.

Architect: Gomberoff Bell Lyon

Interior design: Christina Oberti

Occupancy: Immediately

© The Vancouver Sun 2008