Vivian Luk
Sun

Modular housing units will be shipped out from local manufacturers to 11 rural communities across B.C. by the end of this month as part of an affordable-housing initiative for seniors, says Minister of Housing and Social Development Rich Coleman.

The units, 358 in all, will be rented out to seniors and people with disabilities in Creston, Pemberton, Port McNeill, Prince Rupert, Qualicum Beach, Keremeos, Lake Country, Lumby, Naramata, New Hazelton and Terrace.

The project costs $15.5 million, and is funded by the provincial and federal government. It is part of the Seniors‘ Rental Housing initiative, a $124-million project that aims to provide affordable housing to seniors.

“We wanted to find a way for seniors to be able to age in their own, small communities,” said Coleman, who inspected one of Britco Structures Inc.’s factories in Agassiz Monday. Britco, one of four modular manufacturers contributing to this project, is building 152 units.

“It’s virtually impossible to build a care home for only five, six people, so they get moved to institutions farther away.

But if we can bring services and home care to them, they wouldn’t have to move.”

The modules will be 600-square-feet, single-storey, one-bedroom houses. The needs of seniors and people with disabilities will be met by wide, lever-handle doors for wheelchair access, lower light switches, showers with sit-down areas and grab-bars in bathrooms.

According to Mike Ridley, executive vice-president of Britco, modular houses are more affordable — $160,000 per unit — because building identical units in a factory assembly line cuts production costs and time. Once the floor, cabinets, windows, kitchen and living room have been completed, the module will be shipped out by truck to a site, where a foundation system, plumbing services and electricity have already been put in place.

“Then you just put it all together like Lego pieces,” Ridley said. “The house will be craned in place. A crew on site will put the sidings and the roof structure on, do some landscaping work and build parking units.”

Rent will either be set at 30 per cent of income, or at a low, flat rate, said Coleman.

All the modules are being built with 100-per-cent B.C. pine-beetle-infected wood that, if unused, would be left to rot.

“Some overseas clients in Japan and China tend to be concerned about the sturdiness of building materials made from infected wood,” said Coleman. “But we’ve performed tests and have proven that pine beetle wood is as good any.”

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Huge hikes in Vancouver area while national figures falter

Province

Housing starts across the Vancouver area showed healthy increases in May, posting a year-over-year jump of 150 per cent, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

In Abbotsford starts climbed 159 per cent and in Chilliwack they were up 128 per cent, the housing agency said Tuesday.

“The single-family housing market is performing well and overall new-housing construction is in line with key economic indicators,” CMHC said.

Nationally, housing construction in Canada is coming off the boil, economists say, pointing to weaker-than-expected levels of home starts in May.

The seasonally adjusted level of activity slipped 6.3 per cent in the month to 189,100 units, compared with expectations of 202,000 starts, CMHC said. April was revised up slightly to 201,800.

But “the details of today’s report were softer than the headline would suggest,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

He cited the fact that the closely watched single-family component of starts fell for the second month in a row, off 14.1 per cent after an 11.4-per-cent slide in April and now at an eight-month low. Multiple-unit starts also fell, down 5.6 per cent.

As a result, TD Economics forecasts that resale home prices in Canada will drop six to seven per cent over the next four to five quarters.

Even with May’s declines, new-home construction is still running hotter than the market needs, said Porter, pointing out that May’s total lies well below the volume needed to meet the demands of newly formed families, currently 175,000 homes a year.

Burleton calls for the number of starts to moderate in the second half to an annualized pace of 160,000 to 170,000 homes. At the same time, seller’s market conditions are quickly on the wane.

“Some centres, including Vancouver and Calgary, are already beginning to favour buyers over sellers, while others such as Toronto are becoming far less competitive,” said Adrienne Warren, senior economist at Scotia Capital.

The CMHC report stated that declines in home construction were most pronounced in the Prairie region, off 21.8 per cent, followed by Quebec, down 13 per cent, and B.C., off 12.9 per cent. Ontario dipped 2.7 per cent, but rose 23.3 per cent in Atlantic Canada.

Still, Tuesday’s data won’t be enough to stop Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney from raising interest rates another 100 basis points in 2010, as some slowing was widely anticipated, said RBC assistant chief economist Paul Ferley.

The central bank increased its key rate by 25 basis points to 0.5 per cent last week, after holding borrowing costs at a record-low level for nearly three years in an effort to pull the economy out of recession.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Improving economic conditions should counterbalance erosion in affordability

Brian Morton
Sun

Residential sales across the province are expected to ease by three per cent this year to 82,350 units before increasing four per cent in 2011 to 85,900 units, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association.

Waning demand, upward pressure on mortgage rates and tighter lending restrictions will moderate consumer demand this year, particularly in the Metro Vancouver, Victoria and the Fraser Valley areas, the association said in its second quarter housing forecast released Monday.

Improving economic conditions, however, are expected to counter-balance some of the erosion and stronger economic and employment growth next year will push home sales higher.

“The housing market will exhibit much more stability over the next 18 months,” BCREA chief economist Cameron Muir said in an interview. “The erosion of affordability will be somewhat offset by improving economic conditions.

“This is largely due to pent-up demand during the recession being expended as well as higher pricing and tighter lending. That’s had an added impact on affordability.”

Muir said that while B.C. home sales are expected to be near their 10-year average of 85,569 units this year and 2011, sales in Vancouver are expected to be down 7.9 per cent from 2009.

After climbing 2.4 per cent in 2009, the average residential price in the province is forecast to increase another 6.2 per cent this year to $494,600 before rising one per cent to $499,700 in 2011. Vancouver, Victoria and the Fraser Valley comprise two-thirds of provincial home sales and the 2009 year-over-year change in B.C. home prices largely reflects gains already realized in those markets, he said. “In 2009, housing sales rebounded a dramatic 44.2 per cent in Vancouver, much higher than elsewhere [in B.C.] This year, [sales] in Vancouver, Victoria and the Fraser Valley will edge lower while other markets [in B.C.] will increase moderately.”

For Metro Vancouver, sales are forecast to drop 7.9 per cent this year and rise 4.5 per cent in 2011 to 34,900 units. Prices are expected to increase 10.7 per cent this year in Greater Vancouver to $655,900 and 0.4 per cent in 2011 to $658,800.

“Strong consumer demand in Vancouver, Victoria and the Fraser Valley was largely responsible for driving the average home price in the province higher over the last three quarters,” added Muir. “However, demand has moderated in those markets and a larger inventory of homes for sale has pulled market conditions into balanced territory, providing less upward pressure on home prices.”

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Why drive when you can walk?

Mary Frances Hill
Province

THE FACTS

James, in Southeast False Creek

WHAT: 155 homes

WHERE: 290 West 1st Avenue, Vancouver

DEVELOPER: Cressey Development Group

SIZE: 553-1,449 sq. ft. PRICE: $379,900 -$1,299,900 OPEN: Sales centre 289 W. 2nd Avenue HOURS: noon -5 p.m. Sat -Thurs

Ruth Masterman’s car is three and a half years old, and has a mileage of 22,000 kilometres. Those figures may not seem important to most people, but as a barometer of how she lives her life, they tell an interesting story.

Every day, she and Samantha, her shepherd-husky cross, leave their home on West 1st Avenue, walk over the Cambie Bridge, into False Creek north, toward Science World and down again into her neighbourhood of False Creek south and back home.

In 2012, when she’ll move into James, a Cressey development to be built just a block east of her, the active grandmother’s community will be a little closer.

“Everything’s so convenient for me in this area,” says Masterman. As an owner at James, she’ll be a five-minute walk east to the social hub of the Millennium Water community and its grocery stores, coffee shops, banks, drugstores, and a community centre,

where she plans to take her grandchildren.

A walk even further east brings her to work at Main near Kingsway, where she owns a Curves fitness club franchise. She’ll stroll uphill south from her home to Cambie and 7th, for another retail hub surrounding Best Buy, Canadian Tire, Winners and Whole Foods on Cambie and 7th Avenue.

“When you look at other cities of the world where people want to live in proximity to each other, they don’t want that exclusionary feeling; they want a vibrant neighbourhood,” says Cameron McNeill of Mac Marketing Solutions, the organizers of the James development, which will have 155 homes.

Cressey’s goal was to incorporate the residences into what the Southeast False Creek community is becoming: a diverse neighbourhood designed to please ecologically sensitive residents who, like Masterman, would rather ditch their cars and bike or stroll along the waterfront, bring their family to parks that dot the seawall, to shop locally or zip downtown by nearby transit.

“Five years ago, [Cressey] identified this neighbourhood as the best place to live in terms of parkland, amenities and transit,” he says, referring to the Main Street-Science World SkyTrain to the east and Olympic Village Canada Line station to the west. The transit stations act as bookends to a hub of waterfront activity — a dragon boat launch, walkways and bike trails, a community centre, retail and amenities keep the Southeast False Creek seawall hopping with cyclists, pedestrians and shoppers.

Inside James’ one-bedroom and den display suite, the design is in the detail.

Kitchens come with standard task lighting, stone countertops, islands with breakfast bars. The bathrooms and master ensuites feature porcelain tile tubs and shower surrounds. dens have with frosted-glass pocket doors.

Standard built-in features designed to take advantage of every square foot of valuable urban space. Open pocket doors to the den; slide a vertical cover in a standard built-in entertainment unit to hide the television.

All owners will be able to take advantage of the “Up” Lounge, a clubhouse with a business centre, media room, sauna, steam room and yoga studio, a catering kitchen and children’s play area.

In a bid to reflect the spirit of Southeast False Creek’s plan, Cressey has also set up a co-op care share program and a gardening space for residents.

The city’s long community planning process for Southeast False Creek has attracted much attention over the last five years.

Today, it’s being praised by planners for its sustainability: a natural, rugged shoreline and a seawall links up to similar trails to Yaletown to Kitsilano and beyond.

A man-made habitat island with inter-tidal pools has inspired a rejuvenation of sea life, with spawning herring found all over the shoreline.

The neighbourhood is also becoming a hub of social and economic growth.

The circa 1930-era Salt Building, a reconstruction of the Vancouver Salt Co., a one-time salt refinery-turned-paper-shredding and recycling plant, will be converted into its third life as a community gathering place, a bakery, coffee shop, restaurant and brew pub, sitting in a courtyard shopping plaza.

McNeill says that this “is an inclusive neighbourhood.”

“It’s very vibrant, so buying here is as much about purchasing a home as it is about buying into a neighbourhood.”

© Copyright (c) The Province

The Sovereign’s four-storey car elevator is a first for the Island city

Suzanne Morphet
Sun

Project name: The Sovereign

Location: Old Town neighbourhood, where Gordon meets Broughton Street.

Project size/ scope: 36 homes in an 11-storey building.

Prices: $359,000 — $2.8 million (incl. net HST)

Developers: Chard Development Ltd.

Architect: Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership

Interiors: BBA Design Consultants

Contact: Wendy Pryde

Telephone: 250-383-2999

e-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.thesovereign.ca

Occupancy: Fall 2012

—

What does little ol‘ Victoria have in common with much bigger, more densely populated cities like New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and even Vancouver?

Not much right now, perhaps, but by the fall of 2012, Victoria will have a residential building with a car elevator, just like you’d find in cities where space is at a premium and real estate is priced accordingly.

Space — or the lack of it — is what’s behind Victoria’s entry into the car-elevator world, as well.

The Sovereign, which will have 36 homes, is being built on a former parking lot that’s just 92 feet by 104 feet.

“One hundred and 20 feet is kind of a magic dimension for parking and we don’t have that,” says architect Bill Reid, of Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership. “So right off the bat, we’re too small and therefore inefficient.”

But Reid says the project’s developer -Chard Development -was able to “take a negative and turn it into a positive.”

Instead of building a ramp that would have taken up so much of the available space they “might get six cars on a floor,” Chard opted to install two car elevators. “So this was really a way of getting our parking into a tight floor area.”

Even though car elevators are not cheap -“they get up into the six figures, 100 grand, quite easily,” says Reid -they’re cheaper than blasting and drilling in a city like Victoria, which sits on lots of rock.

“It’s an expensive place to build an underground parking garage, so anything we can do to minimize the extent of the garage is a payback.”

Without the need for a ramp, parking spaces for the building can be contained on four floors; two below ground level, one above, and the ground floor itself.

But aside from the practicalities for the developer, a car elevator is a “cool” factor for buyers, admits Reid. “It’s kind of exclusive. That’s not why we’re doing it, but it’s kind of neat, it has a certain appeal.”

Roy and Gladys Abrams think so. The Victoria couple were among the first to purchase a condo in The Sovereign when pre-sales opened in mid-May.

Gladys Abrams says the car elevator “is a bragging right for us,” noting it’s innovative and also very “green”, since less space is wasted on parking.

She also likes the fact that a car elevator makes the building more secure. No one can access the garage without going into the elevator and the only way to open the elevator is with a special fob that only the owners will have.

Once you’re in the car elevator, you press another button on the fob to take you to your parking floor, then you back out, park, and take a passenger elevator to your condo.

The Sovereign is being built in the old part of Victoria, close to the Inner Harbour, with restaurants, theatres, art galleries and shops within walking distance. Owners will have some pretty highbrow neighbours -The Fairmont Empress Hotel and the Union Club are just a couple blocks away.

As its name suggests, The Sovereign should fit right into “old” Victoria. Developer Dave Chard says it’s the only new luxury building he’s aware of that’s moving forward in the city.

“It’s evident that a project such as this, with its unique location and quality features, was needed in the downtown Victoria market,” he says, remarking on the amount of interest received in the 11-storey building since pre-sales began.

The Sovereign will be the developer’s fourth project in downtown Victoria in five years and its first luxury building. Floor sizes range from 656 to 1,621 square feet.

Each of the 36 suites comes with high-end finishes, such as wide-plank flooring, wool carpeting in the bedrooms, full-height pantries and granite countertops.

“We have tried hard to differentiate our building amenities with a 12th-floor rooftop terrace for the use of all building residents and a guest suite for friends and family, the car elevators, traditional materials on the building exterior and by creating a blend of rich but contemporary interiors,” says Chard. “Our goal with The Sovereign is to set the bar at a new level of quality for Victoria.”

And if you’re wondering if the car elevators will be as upscale as the rest of the building, architect Bill Reid says: ” We won’t have mirrors and wood panels, but we might have some stainless steel to give it a good look.”

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun