Trevor and Jamie Linden, with Evoke International Design, take a contemporary approach

Kim Pemberton
Sun

Most new homes in Vancouver look like they were built 80 years ago, so when a project comes along that isn’t your typical “arts-and-crafts” home it gets noticed, even without the added interest of former Canucks forward Trevor Linden’s involvement in their creation.

Linden, his brother Jamie and Evoke International Design are taking a contemporary approach to a traditional Point Grey neighbourhood yet ensuring the two homes they are now building, on adjacent lots, fit into the streetscape

This is largely achieved by the choice of familiar material like cedar and stone. But newer materials like Epi-wood cladding on one home also plays a strong role in giving it a contemporary look.

The Linden brothers have worked together in the past on a multi-family project on West 10th with the Airey Group. And while Linden plans to continue working with owner Howard Airey on other multi-family homes, he also wants to continue building more single family homes under the Linden Construction banner.

“For us the traditional home is something you see so much of, especially on the west side. We wanted to do something different and we think other people also want something contemporary, clean and unique and that is something we’d like to deliver,” says Trevor Linden.

“Howard and I are doing a [multi-family] project in Victoria and we work well together. I also like working with my brother. He’s very talented and creative.”

Linden says one of the features in both homes is a floating staircase, designed by Jamie, that is bolted into a concrete wall on one side, which receives an abundance of light thanks to a stairway skylight. The stairs will be encased in wood while most of the home’s floors are polished concrete.

“It looks so cool and runs from the bottom to the top of the home,” says Linden, noting the idea for it came after Jamie saw a similar one in a magazine. Thanks to his 10-year background in construction, with lots of experience working with steel, he was able to build the staircases himself.

“I like doing single family homes because it allows you to be a little more creative,” says Jamie Linden.

Adding to that creative process was Evoke International Design, which was founded in Vancouver in 2001 by intern architect David Nicolay and graphic designer Robert Edmonds, whose work is best described as modern contemporary.

The Linden brothers chose Evoke to work with them on the homes because the company’s modern aesthetic and their use of building materials not generally used in single family homes.

There’s Epi-wood panels on one homeEvoke principal David Nicolay says instead of building two identical homes they tried to ensure the uniqueness of the streetscape by individualising the facades on both homes through the use of materials, the arrangements of windows and massing.

The homes the biggest challeng was making the houses fit into the RS1 zoning requirements.

“The requirements almost forces designers into [designing] traditional homes. There’s nothing wrong with that but some people are interested in modern homes. Our clients didn’t want to repeat the past,” says Nicolay.

The homes, which are 2,500 sq. ft., are slated to be completed by March 2010 and no price has yet been decided for them.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Bob Ransford
Sun

Monday, the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver Rapid Transit Project, now known as the Canada Line, will begin operating.

This $2-billion-plus public infrastructure project has been in the works for nine years now.

Two weeks ago, Vancouver city council approved the terms of reference for a planning program that will end up in the fall of 2011 with policies in place that direct how development might occur within a 500-metre radius around four of the transit stations along the Cambie corridor south of 16th Avenue. No plans are in place yet for special re-development around the two other stations outside the downtown.

Once the new policies are in place, it will likely take any property owner at least another two years to rezone a property for higher density redevelopment around these transit stations. Construction will take about two more years, with the first of any new transit-influenced housing or commercial development along the Cambie corridor opening its doors in late 2015 at the earliest.

The location of the stations was pretty much cast in stone early in 2002. The full scope of the project with precise station locations was detailed in February 2003 in the Project Definition Report.

So, in short, urban planning and design is lagging behind public infrastructure by almost a decade and a half. Something is wrong with this picture.

Land use and transportation infrastructure planning are supposed to go hand-in-hand. Transit supports the movement of people who live and work in more dense development around transit stations and more dense development around transit stations support ridership on transit systems.

Study after study demonstrates that by strategically locating transit supportive uses and density along transit corridors, we can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Higher density buildings have smaller carbon footprints and by providing easy access to public transit, there are sharp declines in vehicle miles travelled.

Despite all of the talk about improving public transit infrastructure in Metro Vancouver to promote more compact communities and ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we can’t seem to get the timing to mesh between land use planning and transit infrastructure.

Coquitlam town centre has taken shape as a relatively dense mixed-use town centre. In fact, there has been enough density in the area for probably a decade to support a mass transit system extending to the heart of the town centre. Meanwhile, the launch of the Evergreen Line rapid transit project is stalled over the last dollars of funding needed.

Almost since the day the SkyTrain Expo Line opened in Surrey in the early 1990s, the City of Surrey has been working to develop Surrey City Centre a regional downtown and as the main business, cultural, and activity centre for the city and the South Fraser region. It’s probably come the closest to having policies in place to support dense development and in attracting some of that development. However, it is again density following in the path of infrastructure by years rather than months.

When Vancouver planning staff presented their two-year work plan to city council for the Cambie corridor planning, they reminded council that they originally intended to plan only one station at a time along Cambie–a process that would have taken six to eight years to complete for the four stations.

Thank goodness they reconsidered “in order to address opportunities and challenges in a more timely and coordinated manner and to realize efficiencies in plan delivery.”

We need to find a better way of coordinating land use planning and transit infrastructure planning. The current model isn’t working.

Bob Ransford is a public affairs consultant with CounterPoint Communications Inc.

He is a former real estate developer who specializes in urban land use issues.

E-mail: [email protected]

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Derrick Penner and Gary Marr
Sun

Record July sales in Metro Vancouver and Victoria helped lift British Columbia‘s real estate market into balanced conditions between buyers and sellers across the province, the B.C. Real Estate Association reported Friday, compared with last summer’s slide into buyer’s territory.

Across the country, meanwhile, markets experienced record sales in July posting their biggest year-over-year increase in two years.

With lower prices and near record low mortgage rates, buyers across the province rushed to buy up 10,051 homes through the Multiple Listing Service in July, the association said, lifting the month’s results 53 per cent over the same month a year ago.

“Record home sales in Metro Vancouver and Victoria propelled the province into balanced conditions last month,” association chief economist Cameron Muir said in a news release.

Conditions are not equal everywhere, Muir cautioned. He said interior markets have been hampered by their reliance on struggling resource industries, and interior markets have been interrupted by forest fires.

And while the last six months have seen increasing sales and declining inventories, the 46,380 homes sold through MLS in the first seven months of 2009 is still down six per cent from 2008.

The dollar value of those cumulative sales, at $21 billion, is 10 per cent less than the same period a year ago.

Nationally, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported Friday that realtors sold 50,270 units sold via the multiple listing service last month. That’s an 18.2 per cent jump from a year ago. It also marked the first time sales had topped 50,000 in July.

“The difference in the resale housing market now, compared to the beginning of the year, is night and day and nowhere is this more evident than in the west,” said Dale Ripplinger, president of CREA. “Homebuyers recognize that interest rates and prices have bottomed out, and are taking advantage of excellent affordability before prices and interest rates move higher.”

A five-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most popular product among consumers, is still available for under four per cent at some financial institutions. Variable rate mortgages, tied to prime, remain in the three per cent range and are not expected to rise until June. The Bank of Canada has pledged not to change its lending rate until then — but it is not an ironclad guarantee.

The low rates seem to have worked and have the housing market even hotter than it was in 2007, a record year. July sales in 2009 were 3.9 per cent above the previous July high set in 2007.

It has been a stunning reversal for a real estate market that had almost ground to a halt over the winter. MLS sales on a seasonally adjusted basis have risen for six straight months and are up 61.2 per cent off the decade-low set in January. Sales are only off 1.4 per cent from the May, 2007 peak.

The strength in the market is being felt right across the country. Vancouver sales last were up 90 per cent from a year ago to lead the pack. Toronto sales climbed 28 per cent from a year ago and Edmonton sales rose 28 per cent during the same period.

With demand strong in the country’s highest-priced markets, it is skewing average price but in the opposite way from what was happening when the market was slumping. The average price of a home sold on MLS last month rose 7.6 per cent from a year ago to $326,832.

Part of the pressure on prices is coming from a dearth of supply. New listings in July were down 13 per cent from a year ago to 73,444. It marked the seventh monthly year-over-year decline in new listings.

The overall supply of homes for sale on the MLS was down to 219,982 at the end of July, a 12.5 per cent decrease from 2008. Based on present activity, there is only 4.4 months of housing inventory in the mark. That’s a sharp contrast to the 12.8 months of inventory available in January.

“Home sales through the MLS systems in July provide clear evidence that sentiment about making major purchases continues to improve,” said Gregory Klump, chief economist with CREA. “Activity may level out over the rest of the year as home prices and mortgage lending interest rates creep higher. The number of new listings coming onto the market is down from last year and the rebound in sales activity is paring inventories, so the number months of inventory is on the wane. These trends are supporting average prices.”

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Home stagers are the magicians behind many fast house sales

Randy Ray
Sun

Like many in the fragile spring housing market, Barb and Luc Bouchard crossed their fingers and hoped for the best when a For Sale sign was hammered into the lawn of their Kanata, Ont., home.

They didn’t have to worry.

Their eight-year-old home in the west-end community was listed on April 5, and within days they were sifting through multiple offers.

On April 14 it sold for $305,250, $350 more than the asking price.

The Bouchards give plenty of credit for the quick and lucrative sale to home staging, the process of prepping a house inside and out to appeal to the largest possible audience and to sell it for the highest possible price.

Interior designers and decorators do much the same thing in new communities, gussying up model homes with helpings of granite in the kitchen, bright colours in a child’s bedroom or buttery soft leather couches in the family room.

The leather and paint colours are designed to appeal to buyers’ senses, helping them visualize living in the house. Often a builder seals a deal because of its model homes.

Many of the same techniques are used when selling a home in an existing neighbourhood. In most cases, staging involves hiring a professional to make a house look bigger, brighter, cleaner and warmer.

“Professional stagers are highly skilled artists,” says the website About.com. “They can take a blank canvas and paint a sensuous portrait without ever lifting a paintbrush. Stagers possess the skills of a top-level designer and they create dramatic scenery that appeals to all five senses.”

“Did staging sell our house? We’ll never know, but it really helped it sell faster,” says Bouchard.

“There were several others for sale in the neighbourhood and not too many sold signs. We thought it would take a few weeks to sell and we never thought we would get more than we asked.”

Staging has grown by leaps and bounds over the past five years. Some real estate agents say up to 90 per cent of their listings are staged, though market-wide, a more accurate figure is probably about 25 per cent, says Geoff McGowan, the broker with ReMax Affiliates Realty who listed the Bouchards‘ property.

McGowan and other agents say staging is rapidly becoming an essential step in the sales process, much like home inspections, which once were a rarity and now are a norm.

“Does every house need staging? Maybe not. But could every house benefit? Absolutely,” says McGowan, who feels the improvements not only helped the Bouchards sell quickly, but also enabled them to boost their asking price by $10,000.

Royal LePage Performance Realty agent Lyse Freeborn uses stagers in half of her listings, often when dealing with clients who don’t see the need for cleanup and improvements before their home hits the market. In her experience, staging has helped sellers reap up to five per cent more than anticipated for their homes.

“The first 15 seconds is the moment of a showing that gives a potential buyer the gut feeling that he or she is in the right house,” says Freeborn. “A stager can help make that happen by getting rid of things and making certain additions.”

Staging wasn’t the only reason her home sold in a jiffy, but it helped, says Barb Bouchard.

With advice from professional home stager Connie Nedergaard, founder of Ottawa-based Stage- Sold Properties Inc., and McGowan, and by using some of their own ideas, the couple overcame two significant roadblocks they thought would scare off buyers — the home’s unfriendly layout and their large Bernese mountain dogs, Mina and Mojo.

To boost the family appeal, a second-floor home office was returned to its bedroom status by borrowing a bed. Then, the basement, which was used as a woodworking shop, was converted back to a recreation room that would accommodate children and family social events. The conversion involved painting and drywalling, ceiling repairs and the purchase of a new carpet.

Knowing that pets alienate some buyers, the Bouchards erased all traces of their dogs. Hardwood floors, scratched by the dogs, were refinished and at every showing the canines and all pet-related paraphernalia, including bones, toys and bowls, were removed.

“It was a no-brainer,” says Bouchard. “Our fear was that anyone who was not a fan of dogs would feel dogs can be hard on a house. We did not want buyers making a pre-judgment.”

Another key adjustment was to replace a computer table in the kitchen with a table and four chairs, giving the home a second eating area.

“It was an eat-in kitchen, but it was not set up that way,” says Bouchard. “The change made the kitchen more useful.”

The stager also made a raft of suggestions in her report, from decluttering to a thorough house cleaning, removing all family photographs to adding strategically placed blankets, pillows, a duvet, coffee-table books and vases.

The only exterior work was some serious window washing and staining the backyard deck.

“Where staging really helped was in ensuring we set the place up to look like a family home. If people looking for a home had kids, ours was not set up to appeal,” says Bouchard, who along with her husband, did most of the work.

Not everyone sees the value in home staging, says Nedergaard, including some who don’t squirm when their homes receive lowball offers and take months to sell.

“The way homeowners live in their homes and the way their homes should look when they sell are two different things,” says Nedergaard. “People who have lived in a home for 30 years don’t see the flaws. We are in the business of uncovering those flaws.

“Staging is about eliminating excuses for people to not buy a home, and making that home move-in ready.”

The biggest turn-ons when staging are uncovering or refinishing hardwood floors, replacing worn carpets, repainting, installing new light fixtures, brightening rooms with natural light or high wattage bulbs and softening the look of rooms with something as simple as a vase of flowers or a cosy blanket thrown over the back of a chair.

Turnoffs include cooking and animal odours, messy or dirty living spaces, lack of lighting and fireplace mantels cluttered with knick-knacks and closets and garages stuffed with boxes and clothing.

“The best market is the first 10 days. If your home doesn’t look good, it will quickly be forgotten, so it is important that it shine and be at its best when it goes on the market,” says Nedergaard, noting that most agents who use her services sell their listings in 14 days or less and within 98 per cent of the asking price.

Her packages range in price from a $300 limited service plan which includes two visits from a stager and a written report containing a fistful of recommendations that are the homeowner’s responsibility to complete, to a $1,200 to $1,800 package, which includes full staging, decorating and accessorizing by her staging team, followed by de-staging and the pickup and delivery of any rental furniture and accessories. The fee also includes the cost of renting furniture and other items. Seventy-five per cent of her clients use the limited service plan.

The Bouchards opted for the limited service plan, which was paid for by their real estate agent, a fairly common practice for homes priced at $300,000 or more.

The recommended improvements set them back about $2,500, although some would have been made even if they had not decided to sell their home.

“When the staging was all done. . . we stood back and said, ‘This place looks great, we would buy it,’ ” says Bouchard.

MAKING AN IMPRESSION

– 79 per cent of sellers will spend up to $5,000 to get their house ready for sale.

– 64 per cent of buyers will pay more for a house that is move-in ready.

– 30 per cent of women place a premium on updated decor.

– 41 per cent of men place a premium on updated decor.

– 52 per cent of buyers say the kitchen had the biggest impact on their decision.

– 72 per cent of aspects create a first impression that are within seller’s control.

– Buyers’ top three features: freshly painted walls, organized storage space, up-to-date flooring.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Derrick Penner
Sun

Despite a rebound in Metro Vancouver real estate resales, June new-home prices continued to slide as builders adjust to changes in the market.

Statistics Canada said Wednesday that Metro Vancouver new-home prices dipped 0.9 per cent from May to June, the biggest monthly decline among Canada‘s major centres, and stood 9.1 per cent below prices in June of last year.

Nationally, new-home prices slipped 0.2 per cent, the ninth straight month of decline, despite predictions the slide would likely end.

“In general, [new-home prices] are a lagging indicator in the market,” said Robyn Adamache, a market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Adamache said the housing resale sector sets the tone for the overall market, but it takes some months for the new-home market to follow.

She noted that it took a few months after sales in the resale sector collapsed last fall for builders to roll back their production of housing starts and adjust prices to reflect declining values on the resale side.

“Since the spring of this year we’ve been seeing builders respond to what’s happening in the resale market,” Adamache said. “We saw some pretty big market promotions where prices were reduced, and we’re still seeing more of that.”

She said builders are likely watching the resale market to see whether the higher sales seen in June and July hold to form a trend.

“And if we continue to see lower levels of listings on the resale market, we could start to see new-home prices start to turn around as well,” Adamache said.

Statistics Canada, in its report on the new housing price index, said though prices for some of the most popular home models rose in Vancouver, on balance contractors lowered prices in an effort to stimulate sales and sell off their inventory.

Rob Grimm, a principal with builder Portrait Homes Ltd., said his company dropped its prices 15 to 20 per cent after sales collapsed.

“I think the market knows where prices need to be,” Grimm said. “We’ve found the price point that people are happy with and are buying homes at. You start playing with that, and you start playing with your velocity.”

Grimm said Portrait Homes “took a bath” on sales of its inventory last winter as it lowered prices to reflect the market.

Since then, however, the builder has won the cooperation of its contractors on price reductions for labour and materials, allowing it to build new homes on a “razor-thin” margin.

Grimm said the firm hopes to make up the profit on increased sales, and though overall, Metro Vancouver housing starts are way down, Portrait expects to build and sell 60 to 70 new single-family homes in a development called The Crest at Silver Ridge in Maple Ridge, compared with 30 to 40 in 2008.

Grimm said he was surprised that new-home prices continued to slide in June because he has started to see upward pressure on prices from his contractors.

Nationally, economists had forecast prices to remain flat for the month.

“On balance, when combined with the disappointing housing starts report released [Tuesday], this report provided further confirmation on the dichotomy between the new and existing homes markets in Canada,” said TD Securities economics strategist Millan Mulraine.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver suffers Canada’s biggest May-June decline as builders get creative with marketing

Province

New home prices in Vancouver continue to slide, posting the largest drop in Canada between May and June, Statistics Canada says.

The price of new houses in Vancouver fell 0.9 per cent, followed by a 0.8-per-cent decline in Edmonton and a 0.5-per-cent drop in Victoria. “In Vancouver, some builders lowered their prices to stimulate sales and sell off their houses in inventory, while others offered free upgrades and cash incentives,” StatsCan said.

“A small number of builders did increase their prices on some popular models that were selling well.”

The main reason for Edmonton‘s monthly decline was lower negotiated prices between builders and homebuyers, StatsCan said.

Vancouver prices lost 9.1 per cent between june 2009 and a year earlier — the third-steepest annual decline after Edmonton‘s 11.7-per-cent drop and Saskatoon‘s 10.4-per-cent fall, the federal agency said.

The declines in the West dragged down the national average price. Across the country, new home prices in Canada fell for the ninth-straight month in June despite predictions the slide would finally come to an end.

National prices declined by 0.2 per cent in June, after a 0.1-per-cent decline in May. Economists had forecast prices would remain flat for the month.

“On balance, when combined with the disappointing housing starts report released yesterday, this report provided further confirmation on the dichotomy between the new and existing homes markets in Canada,” said TD Securities economics strategist Millan Mulraine, referring to the fall in July housing starts reported Tuesday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

“Indeed, while there is evidence that the existing home market may have stabilized, and is beginning to benefit from increased activity, the same cannot be said for the new home market.”

The largest monthly gains were recorded in Saskatoon at 0.5 per cent, followed by 0.4-per-cent increases in both Winnipeg and St. John’s, NL.

Year over year, new home prices were down 3.3 per cent compared with June 2008, the sharpest pace of decline since the early 1990s, Mulraine said.

The largest yearly gains were seen in St. John’s at 10.3 per cent, due to the “continued strength of the local economy.”

Yearly gains were also recorded in Saint John, N.B., Moncton, N.B., Fredericton, Regina and Winnipeg.

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