Holborn Properties head seeks feedback before renovations on social-housing site

Frances Bula
Sun

The developer selected to do a massive and potentially controversial makeover of Vancouver‘s oldest social-housing site says his first priority will be to pay attention to what the community wants for the site.

“If there is going to be a single message I have, it’s that we will listen,” said Simon Lim of Holborn Properties.

BC Housing will announce today that Holborn is the successful bidder from among more than 20 companies for the Little Mountain site in central Vancouver.

The deal, which the province hopes will be the first of many as it sells off old low-density social housing sites to generate new money for housing, will require Lim to replace the site’s existing 224 social-housing units within the market housing he builds there.

Lim also said he wants to make the project as green as possible, learning from other projects around the region.

“I’m looking to improve on what has been done in the past.”

Those attitudes were some of the factors, along with the price Holborn agreed to pay for the six-hectare property, that landed him the deal, said BC Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay.

“His proposal had a number of components that were attractive — the commitment to creating a new chapter for Little Mountain was important.”

Ramsay said the price, along with other aspects of the deal, will only be made public once the legal transfer has happened, but observers expect it will be high. The city sold a six-hectare parcel in Southeast False Creek, the site of the Olympic village, for $193 million to Millennium two years ago.

This sale is the first of what Housing Minister Rich Coleman has said he hopes will be repeated in the province, with its old social-housing sites sold, redeveloped and densified as a way of generating money for new social housing. Current zoning allows 1,000 units on the site, but Coleman had talked at points about trying for as many as 2,000.

Lim and his team face a long, arduous process, between high expectations from the city, the need to build according to BC Housing requirements, a rezoning to go through in order to get increased density, and a built-in opposition group.

Mayor Sam Sullivan says he wants to see the development become a “model of sustainability and achieve some of the principles of EcoDensity.”

A group of Little Mountain residents and housing activists has mounted a campaign over the redevelopment, saying the province shouldn’t be selling public land to finance social housing and that BC Housing emptied people out of the units too far in advance of redevelopment.

“We hope the developer would show his commitment to listening by reopening the homes that are empty until construction actually starts,” said Kia Salomons, a member of Community Advocates for Little Mountain.

BC Housing has resettled about 170 of the 224 original families in other housing projects and given them the right of first refusal in the rebuilt project.

Ramsay said all the original 224 families will be included in consultations about the redesign.

At least one of them says he’ll be waiting to see how things go before he decides whether to move back in.

“Ourselves and the people we know are kind of sitting on the fence,” said Gary Cross, who had lived there for 14 years. He and several others have been moved to a social-housing project in southeast Vancouver, which Cross said he chose to go to early because it gave him some certainty rather than scrambling at the last minute.

“There are things that we miss, but I think it will depend on the size of the units and how they’re laid out. I guess that’s up to the developer.”

Actually, BC Housing sets the standards for its buildings, which are typically built to be more durable than private developments.

Lim was a little-known developer five years ago when he emerged as one of the partners in a bid for the Woodward’s redevelopment.

He and Concert Properties didn’t get the project, but Lim has since gone on to increasingly high-profile projects, including the Arthur Erickson “twisting tower” that will become a Ritz-Carlton on Georgia Street, a 330-unit project at Nanaimo and Kingsway, and a redevelopment of four hectares in the middle of Whistler Village.

He also bought the Bay parkade two years ago, where he is planning to build an office and condo tower, and has developed a couple of small condo projects in the Main Street area.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Province

OTTAWA –The value of building permits in Canada fell unexpectedly in March — led by a big decline in Alberta — due to rising costs and weakening demand, Statistics Canada said yesterday.

“Construction intentions in Canada continued to cool,”the federal agency said, with both residential and non-residential sectors declining in March.

“This was the fourth decrease in five months.”

Permit values dropped 4.5 per cent to $5.6 billion in March from February, as a 32.9-per-cent plunge in Alberta pulled the rest of the country into negative territory. Ontario led all other provinces in building activity, posting a 7.3-per-cent rise to $2.1 billion.

“Excluding Alberta, the value of building permits would have increased by 5.1 per cent instead of declining 4.5 per cent nationally,” the agency said. “With marked retreats in both sectors, the total value of construction intentions was below the $1-billion mark for the first time in 13 months.”

Most economists had expected a 1.2-per-cent rise in the value of building permits in March.

In February, permits values rose by a revised 0.8 per cent.

“Overall, the performance in the Canadian major markets were mixed, with Calgary, Montreal and Edmonton declining, while Vancouver and Toronto posted gains on the month,” said Millan Mulraine, of TD Securities.

“However, despite the overall softness in this report, the Canadian housing market remains in reasonable shape, though housing activity is expected to moderate in 2008.”

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Lora Grindlay
Province

For six years B.C.’s residential real-estate market has been sizzling hot for sellers, but a dip in demand has created balance between supply and demand and buyers and sellers.

Moderation, balance, less frenetic and equilibrium are words used by Cameron Muir, chief economist for the B.C. Real Estate Association to describe current market conditions.

Their 18-page spring housing forecast released yesterday predicts a nine-per-cent decline in the number of housing units sold this year and a further two per cent decline next year.

Muir expects 93,800 units to sell in B.C. this year and 92,000 to sell next year.

Home sales in B.C. were down 14 per cent in the first quarter of this year while listings were up 24 per cent.

Muir said the edging down in sales and an increase in the number of homes on the market “means less upward pressure” on prices but prices will still rise, he said.

Homes (detached, attached and apartments) are expected to rise in price by nine per cent this year and four per cent in 2009. In 2007 the average B.C. price rose12 per cent to $438,975.

In Greater Vancouver, last year’s Multiple Listing Service average price was $570,795 and by 2009, said Muir, it’s forecasted to increase to $651,000.

“Prices are still climbing . . . but not in the 15- to 20-per-cent range we’ve seen in previous years,” Muir said.

The balanced conditions are a relief for home buyers, he said, but sellers will need to be patient.

“No longer are many home sellers immediately realizing their asking price upon putting their home up for sale,” Muir said.

Muir attributed the decline in housing demand to weakness on the provincial economy’s export side due to a high Canadian dollar and a weak U.S. economy,

But B.C.’s economy is forecast to grow 2.5-per-cent this year and 2.7 per-cent in 2009, he said.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Province

Canadians are forgetting to tell their insurance companies when renovating their homes, a new survey suggests.

About 40 per cent of Canadians renovated their homes in the last year.

However, 67 per cent of them didn’t alert their insurance broker or company before doing the upgrades, according to the survey done for insurer Royal & SunAlliance

Almost one in five people doing renovations were either unaware they should report upgrades to their insurance company or forgot to do so, the survey said.

The main reason those that were surveyed did not tell their insurance company was that they thought the work was minor, the survey of 1,504 adult Canadians said.

Royal & SunAlliance vice-president Irene Bianchi said people don’t always consider the potential for water damage when considering upgrades such as backyard decks and hot tubs.

“Many people don’t realize that it is necessary to report any renovations to your insurance broker or company to make sure that they have enough coverage should they experience a large loss such as a fire,” Bianchi said.

Renovations range from backyard decks and hot tubs to redesigned kitchens, refurbished bathrooms and finished basements.

The price of improvements ranged from less than $5,000 to more than $20,000, according to the survey.

The survey is considered to be accurate within plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

No longer do you need to cart your belongings out of, and into, two homes in a day

Bev Cline
Province

For eight days this spring, Duncan Fremlin will be the proud owner of two homes in downtown Toronto. An empty nester, Fremlin and his partner, Karen Laing, are in the midst of downsizing, moving from a three-floor, four-bedroom place to a more modest two-storey home just a few blocks away.

The couple are joining the thousands of Canadians who choose to finance two homes at the same time.

Fremlin, a broker with Re/Max Hallmark Realty Ltd. in Toronto, estimates that close to 90 per cent of his clients opt for at least a few “moving days” between packing up and unpacking at their new digs.

He says this is different from when he started in the real-estate business 21 years ago. In those days, Fremlin says, it was “taken for granted that you closed the deal on your old home and your new one on the same day.”

Interests rates were high at the time — approaching 14 to 15 per cent — so “very few people wanted to carry two mortgages at the same time, even for a couple of days. And lines of credit were quite hard to obtain.”

Times have changed. “Today we have low interest rates. There’s a shift in mindset on the part of the public toward a less stressful moving experience. In addition, lenders have been quite creative in creating new products.” As a result, fewer people “are scrambling to get the legal paperwork done, hand over keys, and cart their belongings out of, and into, two homes all in a single day.”

This has necessitated alternate ways of thinking about financing. People who are buying a more expensive property, generally will require bridge financing.

Many people think the term refers to having two mortgages simultaneously. But the meaning “as the banks use it, is that you own a property with a mortgage that you are living in. You buy a new property before you close your sale of the old one, and therefore, require a bridge loan,” says Lois Volk, a mortgage consultant with Invis in Toronto.

It works like this: You have a mortgage on your existing property, the lender sets up a new mortgage on the property you are buying, and the lender gives you a loan “because of course you don’t yet have the equity from the first property to finance the purchase of the second one,” says Volk.

People who are downsizing and will not require a mortgage on the new property, on the other hand, might find lenders reluctant to provide a bridge loan. Subject to qualification, however, consumers can put a line of credit on both properties.

One scenario might be that your existing home is worth $600,000 and you are purchasing a home worth $400,000. Your existing property has little or no mortgage and you will not need a mortgage after the sale of your home. Then you would arrange a line of credit on your existing property for up to 80 per cent or $480,000 and the line of credit on your new property if necessary, and the buyer will have enough to close on the new property.

There can be legal costs associated with setting up a line of credit, and the interest rate on lines of credit are variable, so it’s important to factor this into any financial planning.

Upsizing? Do your homework

If you are buying a more expensive home than you currently own and plan to use a bridge loan to finance the new purchase, it’s important to keep in mind the following, say experts.

– Know what you’re getting into: There are interest, administration and legal costs involved. You will be carrying two mortgages and a loan, all at the same time. Work the numbers to ensure you can carry the load, says Lois Volk, a mortgage consultant with Invis in Toronto.

– Be realistic about the selling price: How saleable is your home at your asking price? asks Duncan Fremlin, a Toronto real-estate broker with Re/Max Hallmark Realty Ltd. If your existing home takes much longer to sell than you envisioned, you could find yourself carrying two homes and a loan for longer than you intended. This could cut into the amount of money you earmarked for renovations.

– Do your research: Most institutions offer bridge loans, but there is still the odd one that does not, says Volk. Remember that if you decide you want to change lenders (to one different from the one who holds the mortgage on your existing home), there could be penalties. And if your credit is not good, you could find it hard to get a bridge loan.

– Watch timelines: There can be restrictions by lenders on the time they will allow a bridge loan to extend. Many lenders say 30 or 45 days, but may make exceptions; most don’t like the bridge loan to extend beyond 60 or 90 days. Be certain the length of the bridge loan meets your needs.

© The Vancouver Province 2008