Jordan Maxwell
Other

Real estate agents are turning to guys like Derek Celedon, a real estate photographer in Fresno, California, who uses drones to photograph homes and properties in the region.

“For people who can’t travel to see homes, it gives you a high-definition look at images of the property, both inside and out, and gives you a better quality image than what Google Maps or Earth could give you,” Celedon told REPA in an interview.

The Federal Aviation Administration began allowing drones to be used last year for commercial purposes. Since then, real estate agents have been teaming up with photographers like Celedon, who runs Aerial Properties Ltd.

The trend is helping agents to sell high-end homes and has also helped those looking for agricultural land to build on or harvest food.

Under the new regulations, drones must weigh 55 pounds or less and can only be flown during the day. The drones also must stay below 500 feet and have to be within eyesight of the operator.

Since the regulation change, real estate businesses have won nearly a third of the first 500 commercial done permits, according to a FAA study obtained by USA Today.

The most popular use accounted for 153 of the early permits granted by the FAA beginning in September, according to a study by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

On a geographic scale, California businesses received 70 permits, with 46 in Texas, 40 in Florida, 18 in Illinois and 17 in Arizona. While privacy concerns, as well as how drones interact with air traffic, is still a worry for officials, the rollout is going to help agents offer buyers a multimedia experience.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has been a vocal supporter of the new drone rules and is actively lobbying for the FAA to speed up the process for implementation.

“NAR plans to submit comments to the agency and will continue to work with our members to educate them about the future safe, responsible and legal uses of UAVs,” said Chris Polychron, president of NAR, in a press release.

“However, until the final rule is published, NAR discourages Realtors from using UAV photography or video for commercial purposes without an FAA exemption.”

Copyright © 2015 Key Media Pty Ltd

Other

Metro Vancouver home sales were more than a third above the 10-year average in July, while the number of homes listed for sale continues to trend below recent years. Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=NruZRBIZzkg&app=desktop

Jordan Maxwell
Other

Lenient border laws, permissive property rules and loose regulations are being identified as key drivers of foreign investment in the Canadian market, including money laundering by Chinese and international investors, according to a recent newspaper report.

According to an article in The Province, which obtained data from the Canadian Border Service Agency through a freedom of information request, Vancouver is being targeted by a small percentage of Chinese nationals as a place for illicit offshore investment. A recent fraud investigation reported by The Province shows that the number of Chinese, another other international groups, laundering money in Canadian real estate is increasing by the day.

Kim Marsh, a B.C.-based fraud investigation executive, told The Province that he recently started working on a new case involving a man who disappeared with $450 million in corruption money and has been laundering it in Vancouver real estate in the Lower Mainland region for several years.

“This guy is just one of many,” Marsh, who served 25 years with the RCMP for organized crime, told the newspaper. “The evidence is mounting of a lot of grey money coming into Vancouver’s real estate market. So we have some serious issues in Vancouver and we need more deterrents.”

Despite the report’s assertion that laundering occurs mostly in the property sector, only a small fraction of the illegal money is flowing into the real estate market.

However, a lack of data and transparency on foreign investment has left many gaps in research to assess the impact.

Still, according to numbers obtained by The Province, customs agents at airports in Vancouver and Toronto seized $15,019,891 in either undeclared cash or monetary instruments from 869 Chinese nationals between June 2012 to December 2014.

Under Canadian laws meant to hinder money laundering, values over $10,000 must be claimed before brought into the country. However, the law allows nationals and other internationals to pay a fine in order to walk out scot-free.

The talk of foreign investment and what level of responsibility falls on the Chinese nationals has been swirling across the country for months as an overvalued Canadian real estate market persists with many calling for a housing correction down the line – especially as the country begins to dip towards a recession.

Layla Yang, a real estate agent with Re/Max who works closely with foreign investors, declined to comment on the issue when contacted for an interview by CREW, but has maintained that a free market has led to this outcome, not foreign investors from China.

Others, however, don’t feel the same way.

“It should be a real concern that our associations and boards, including BCREA and CREA and in particular the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, fail to see the importance of collecting data on the impact of foreign or offshore buying in our real estate markets,” Calvin Lindberg, a real estate agent in Vancouver, told CREW.

“Saying that only five per cent of the market is made up of foreigners is disingenuous.” 

Copyright © 2015 Key Media Pty Ltd

Charlie Smith
Other

Senior Vancouver city staff’s proposal to ban demolition of pre-1940 houses in First Shaughnessy District has generated a heated response.

It’s one of several measures included in a rezoning application to create Vancouver’s first “heritage conservation area” in the neighbourhood bounded by West 16th and King Edward avenues and Arbutus and Oak streets.

Of the 143 letters sent to the city, 89 were in favour of general manager of planning and development Brian Jackson’s recommendation to council. However, a majority of speakers at a public hearing on July 28 were opposed, and their written submissions to the city reveal how worried they are about the effect on property values.

One speaker, real-estate agent Peter Saito, said that he and his partner, Vivian Lee, have sold almost $100 million worth of property in Shaughnessy since the start of 2014.

“Today, not many people will dare to actually buy a run-down pre-1940 house anymore,” Saito wrote in his submission. “The last 4 sales in 1st Shaughnessy not on a busy street have all been post 1940s.”

Those “demolishable lots” were priced at $642 per square foot. He claimed that a pre-1940 house would have to be sold for $400 per square foot, which would be a considerable discount.

“Someone truly desperate to sell enough because of circumstance will eventually agree to sell at this price,” Saito stated.

Another speaker, Nancy Tchou, claimed that banning demolitions of pre-1940 homes in First Shaughnessy will “choke” development, leading to the deterioration of the neighbourhood. “There will be a lot more dilapidated eyesores,” she stated in her written submission.

Tchou alleged that some property owners are unable or unwilling to maintain old, rundown homes and huge yards due to their financial circumstances, health, advanced age, and/or other reasons. And she insisted that there are buyers prepared to invest millions of dollars to redevelop these sites “only if demolition is allowed”.

The written submission from Loy Leland claimed that not all houses built before 1940 are worth saving. Leland also declared that the process has “created cynicism and mistrust”.

Another speaker, Pearl Chow, maintained in her written presentation that the proposed changes “would have grave impact on the value of my property as well as the beauty and development of First Shaughnessy”.

An economic analysis by Coriolis Consulting Corp. suggested in a report to the city that incentives—such as allowing secondary suites, coach houses, infill units, and multiple-conversion dwellings—would enable homeowners to generate more revenue. The consulting company acknowledged that lots between 18,000 and 30,000 square feet “appear to be the most negatively affected”.

But the firm stated that this “might be offset” by permitting two infill units rather than one on these sites.

That didn’t satisfy Chow. She mentioned in her written submission that a person doesn’t spend millions of dollars on a beautiful home in a very good neighbourhood so a unit can be rented out. She also claimed that having tenants would “negatively impact” privacy.

“I feel that the characters [sic] of First Shaughnessy would be significantly improved if the pre-1940 houses are allowed to be demolished and rebuilt with stricter guidelines to ensure desirable designs are retained, rebuilt or added; rather than imposing a blanket ban on demolition of all pre-1940 houses,” she wrote. “There are already a good number of houses in First Shaughnessy on the Heritage list.”

Another speaker, Victor Wong, also urged council to lift the prohibition on redevelopment of pre-1940 homes.

“The pre-40s home property will lose market value in comparison to those who have the right to build,” he wrote.

There were more than 40 other short form letters from Shaughnessy homeowners on the list of July 28 speaker submissions. They declared support for existing zoning and opposed creation of a heritage conservation area.

All of this suggests that this controversy likely won’t die down when the public hearing reconvenes on September 15.

Heritage advocates are keen to retain those old homes in Shaughnessy, even if not all of the residents agree with this idea.

© 2015 Vancouver free press

Little summer lull this year with sales activity 33.5 per cent above 10-year average and prices up 11.2 per cent over last July, says board

Joannah Connolly
Other

July’s hot weather did not deter home buyers in Greater Vancouver this year, with real estate sales up 30 per cent annually and prices up 11.2 per cent, according to Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) figures released August 5.

MLS home sales totalled 3,978 in July 2015, compared with the 3,061 sales per cent seen in July 2014. Although high for July, this figure is a month-over-month drop of 9.1 per cent compared with June’s stratospheric figures, so there was some element of a summer decline.

However, last month’s sales were 33.5 per cent above the 10-year sales average for the month, even higher than previous months.

Darcy McLeod, REBGV president, said, “Much of today’s activity can be traced to strong consumer confidence, low interest rates and a reduced supply of homes for sale.”

Resale home prices continued to beat previous records, with the benchmark price of a Greater Vancouver home breaching the $700,000 mark for the first time at $700,500. This is an 11.2 per cent increase compared with July 2014.

Sales and Listings

Greater Vancouver home sales rose 30 per cent to 3,978 units in July, compared with the 3,061 sales of July 2015. This is a drop of 9.1 per cent compared with the 4,375 sales in June 2015, which was the second highest month of activity on record.

Broken down by housing type, detached home sales reached 1,559 units in July, an increase of 17.9 per cent from the 1,322 detached sales recorded in July 2014 but a month-over-month drop of nearly 19 per cent, reflecting the limited supply of detached homes.

Apartment sales again saw the biggest annual rise, reaching 1,729 in July 2015, a rise of 42.7 per cent compared with the 1,212 sales in July 2014.

Sales of townhouses and other attached properties totalled 690, a year-over-year increase of 30.9 per cent versus the 527 sales in July 2014 and the only property type to see a month-over-month gain in activity.

“Although there aren’t as many homes for sale today compared to recent years, home buyers continue to have a range of housing options, at different price points, to choose from across Metro Vancouver,” McLeod said. “The diversity of housing options is part of what’s driving today’s demand.”

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Metro Vancouver totalled 5,112 in July. This is a 3.8 per cent increase compared with the 4,925 new listings reported in July 2014 but an 11.9 per cent drop compared with June.

However, inventory remained extremely limited, with the total number of properties currently listed for sale on the region’s MLS at 11,505, a 26.3 per cent decline compared with July 2014 and a 5.5 per cent decline compared to June 2015.

With the sales-to-active-listings ratio currently at 34.6 per cent, Greater Vancouver remains firmly a sellers’ market, said the board.

“We have about 5,000 to 6,000 fewer homes for sale today than we’ve seen at this time of year over the last five to six years,” said McLeod. “Today’s activity continues to benefit sellers as home buyers compete for the homes available for sale.”

Benchmark Prices (MLS Home Price Index)

The benchmark price for combined MLS residential property types in Metro Vancouver continued to set its monthly new record, now standing at $700,500. This represents an 11.2 per cent increase compared with July 2014.

The benchmark price for a detached property in Metro Vancouver increased 16.2 per cent from July 2014 to $1,141,800, the highest price growth rate of all the property types.

Townhome and other attached unit prices increased 7.8 per cent between July 2014 and 2015 to $511,500.

The benchmark price of an apartment property continued to increase at a much more modest annual rate, this month rising 5.9 per cent compared with July 2014 to $400,900.

The composite benchmark prices by housing type are:

Home prices vary widely throughout the REBGV region. To get a good idea of home prices in a specific location, check the detailed MLS Home Price Index in the REBGV full statistics package.

© 2015 Real Estate Weekly