The Province

Airbnb, the global, online short-term rental booking service, has released a new report on its Vancouver rental community, generated from guest surveys and the firm’s own data. 

Here are some highlights:

5½ nights
The average length of stay for an Airbnb user in Vancouver, compared to 4.8 nights for typical overnight guests. 81 per cent of Vancouver Airbnb users say that compared to other accommodations, the service made them more likely to visit the city again. One in three guests say they would not have come or stayed in Vancouver as long had it not been for Airbnb.

$6,500
How much an Airbnb host in Vancouver typically earns hosting in a year. According to the firm, 53 per cent of hosts report being able to afford to stay in their homes because of the added income. Five per cent of hosts say Airbnb helped them avoid eviction while seven per cent say the added income helped them avoid foreclosure. Nearly three-quarters of hosts chose to list their home on Airbnb because they want additional income, while 10 per cent report having extra space and eight per cent report “enjoying being a guest and thus wanting to become a host.”

Vancouver Airbnb guests, inbound and outbound
123,900 are international inbound
22,100 are B.C. domestic inbound
31,800 are rest-of-Canada domestic inbound
170,000 are Vancouverites booked outbound (7,500 are also Airbnb hosts)

An entire home
The most commonly-booked listing, representing 4,400 out of the 6,400 listings that hosted a trip in 2015, was an entire home. There also were 1,800 private-room listings and 200 shared-room listings. Total 2015 booked listings grew by 86 per cent from 2014 and in 2014 grew 93 per cent from 2013. 

Nights hosted on Airbnb by percentage of listings in 2015 (including all room types)

1—30 nights hosted: 35% of listings

31—60: 18%

61—90: 11%

91—120: 8%

121–180: 10%

181–240: 9%

241–300: 7%

301+: 3%

Airbnb’s ‘Community Compact’ to address housing-shortage concerns
“In cities where there is a shortage of long-term housing, we are committed to working with our community to prevent short-term rentals from impacting the availability of long-term housing by ensuring hosts agree to a policy of listing only permanent homes on a short-term basis.”

Hosts with one or more entire-home listings that were booked up to 30 days in 2015

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

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SIMPLE LIFE: More privacy than a condo and no grass to mow attracts buyers to Intracorp townhomes

? Mary Frances Hill
The Province

What: The Intracorp Townhome Collection.

Where: 218-282 W. 62nd Ave.; 74307488 Granville St; Granville St & W. 57th Ave., Vancouver

Residence sizes and prices: Two- and three-bedroom townhomes, 1,617-2,650 sq ft., from $1.49 million.

Developer and builder: Intracorp

Display home: 266 W. 62nd Ave, Vancouver

Hours: By appointment

Telephone: 604-891-1288

 In Vancouver, where real estate chatter can sometimes be seen as residents’ official second language, the challenge of securing a single-family home within city limits is often a heated topic.

But as he organizes sales of the Intracorp Townhome Collection, a series of homes in three established neighbourhoods, Barrett Sprowson is hearing a different tone to the conversation.

The Intracorp sales manager says many people may be surprised to learn that townhouses are growing in popularity not only because of their cost relative to single-family homes, but because they answer a need for more convenience and for less maintenance than a larger home would demand. At the same time, they offer more space and privacy than the average condo.

“A large majority of the folks we’re encountering don’t want to own a single-family home,” Sprowson says.

“The townhome really fits their lifestyle and what they want out of a home, more than owning a large home on a piece of land , where they have to spend their weekends mowing the lawn.”

The Intracorp Townhome Collection includes homes on West 62nd Avenue, and extends to 26 homes at 7430-7488 Granville Street, and 14 at Granville and West 57th.

In the open-concept kitchen and dining area of one set of homes, Trepp Design principal Scott Trepp paired dark wood, in the island and wall cabinetry, with a marble backsplash for a luxurious touch; the chairs accompanying the island contrast in a lighter wood shade. Those differences add sophistication and warmth — a look similar to that in the living room, where dark brown seating dominates a light backdrop, and in the dining room, where white gloss cabinetry covers the dining room wall. Drama continues in the bathroom’s dark storage units and cabinetry.

In another scheme, the shades are reversed, with white dominating one kitchen and living room, which is also graced with darker shades. In both schemes, the design is all simplicity and elegance.

The key to Trepp Design’s work on the townhomes, no matter the community: avoid trends, and stick to timeless pieces.

“Since each of those communities has its own specific feel we actively sought to avoid furnishings that are trendy. Instead, we opted for pieces that are more simple, clean and classic,” Trepp says.

The designer also explains that this simplicity is essential to the homes’ appeal, mostly due to their layout. “Within the display home itself, the dining, kitchen and living areas are all within the main floor and visible at the same time. Had we not implemented a strategy of cleanliness and simplicity things could have easily become overwhelmingly busy.”

© Copyright (c) The Province

6 factors driving Chinese towards Japan real estate

Juwai
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What’s more, those 5 million Chinese travellers splurged $13.4 billion while in Japan during that period of time, accounting for 41% of total tourist spending in Japan.

Clearly, Japan is fast becoming one of the favourite travel destinations for Chinese.

More importantly, this strengthening purchasing power of Chinese is rippling through the Land of the Rising Sun, spawning multi-billion dollar China-targeted investments that range from hotel chains³ to ski resorts⁴ to shopping malls⁵, and even giving birth  to the new buzzword  of ‘bakugai’, which means ‘explosive buying’ in Japanese.⁶

For property agents and brokers, this is nothing other than a bona-fide bonanza, as Chinese tourism tends to spur overseas property shopping. One such agent leveraging this trend is Tokyo-based Song Zhiyan, who markets his properties in China via WeChat. Song has been overwhelmed with Chinese demand, and is so confident in the market that he turns away mainland buyers who can’t pay in cash.⁷

 

Chinese buyer interest in Japan skyrockets 191%

According to Juwai Data, Chinese buyer enquiries for Japanese properties on Juwai.com surged 191% y-o-y in 2015 – enquiries that are worth $532 million in terms of consumer enquiry value.

— What’s interesting to note, though, is that 73% of these Chinese buyers cited investment as their core motivations to hone in on Japanese properties, which most Chinese see as a promising and safe investment. —

After all, apartment rental yields in Japan can reach close to 5%, as compared to a mere 2.6% in China.

What this means is that it’s not just China’s super-wealthy who are swarming into Japan’s real estate market, but China’s burgeoning middle-class and upper-middle-class investors as well – latest Juwai Data shows that over half of Chinese enquiries for Japanese property were for those priced at $500,000 or less.

And whilst most of these enquiries are for homes in the top three Japanese cities of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, Chinese buyers are not disregarding other Japanese cities as they remain open to more investor options and opportunities in the future. 

6 compelling factors underlying Japan’s appeal

While ‘bakugai’ might evoke a rapid and short-lived spending spree in mind, demand from China for property in Japan, however, is a long-term play being driven by the following fundamental factors:

• Increasingly open visa policy: Across the globe, visa relaxation has driven a wave of investment from Chinese buyers, and this is no different in Japan. In fact, to attract further investment, Japan’s government will follow up its move to ease tourist visa policy for Chinese in 2014⁸ with an introduction of a new 10-year multi-visa from 2016.⁹
   

• Convenient accessibility and connectivity: Besides the fact that Japan is closer to home – as compared to the US, Europe or Australia – an increase of new flight routes from industry giants like China Southern¹⁰ and Spring Airlines now link China and Japan like never before. Even hitherto unconnected hubs like Hangzhou¹¹, Tianjin¹², Harbin¹³, Zhengzhou¹⁴, Wuhan¹⁵, and Xi’an are now joining up with locations all over Japan, including more out-of-the-way places like Niigata and Fukuoka.
•  Tokyo 2020 Olympics investment value: Considering host cities in the past have seen dramatic price increases in the lead-up to the games – Beijing saw a 20% increase, while Athens recorded a 75% jump¹⁶ – savvy Chinese investors want in as well. What’s more, they want to get into the market before new infrastructure projects and increased investment around the event will drive what JLL expects to be a 20% to 30% price increase between 2016 and 2020.¹⁷ This, combined with the fact that Japan is already considered a safe haven investment destination by Chinese property investors, is basically a shot in the arm for Japan’s property market.
   
• Tantalising lifestyle appeal: Beyond yields and value appreciation, Japan is immensely attractive for Chinese seeking to either emigrate or have a holiday home as well. After all, Japan is famed for its rich and diverse culture, exquisite cuisine¹⁸, celebrated customer service and efficiency¹⁹, high-quality food and products²⁰, and rigorous consumer protection standards.
   
• Emergence as a tourism giant: Japan is making a huge play to boost its tourist industry, targeting 40 million foreign visitors by 2020²¹ – that’s double the target of 20 million in 2015. This means major investments in resorts and transport infrastructure, making property in tourist hotspots an even more attractive proposition for Chinese.
   
• Upsurge in Chinese purchasing power: The appreciation of the Chinese yuan between 2012 and 2015 has boosted Chinese buyers’ purchasing power by 60%. Though the Japanes yen has strengthened somewhat recently, the Chinese yuan is still some 40% stronger than at the start of 2012. When coupled with the fact that OECD sees house prices in Japan some 20% lower than long-term averages²², Japanese property definitely looks like a steal for Chinese property hunters.

All these add up to position Japan as the next rising sun (pardon the pun) for Chinese buyers. And while Japan currently ranks as the seventh most-popular country for Chinese buyers on Juwai.com, we believe this number would shoot up in the ranks in future, especially as more and more Chinese are increasingly looking to diversify beyond conventional investment destinations.

2016 © Juwai.

Nick Eagland
The Province

Metro Vancouver’s skyrocketing real-estate prices continue to show little sign of falling back to Earth. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver logged the highest-selling June on record for residential-properties with the benchmark price for a Greater Vancouver home at $917,800 — up 32.1 per cent from a year ago. The REBGV’s data excludes North Delta, Surrey, White Rock and Langley, which are part of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board:

48.5%
The one-year increase in the benchmark price of a single-family detached home in Richmond (now $1.7 million), the sharpest rise in Greater Vancouver. Across the region, prices of single-family detached homes were up about 38.7 per cent, with a benchmark price of $1.56 million. Tsawwassen’s single-family detached homes also saw a sharp rise over last year at 46.8 per cent, followed by Burnaby North (42.1 per cent), Coquitlam (41.5 per cent) and North Vancouver (41.4 per cent). The smallest increases were in Whistler (23.8 per cent), Sunshine Coast (25.5 per cent) and Bowen Island (25.2 per cent). 

4,400
The number of residential properties sold in June, which dropped 7.7 per cent from May but was up 0.6 per cent from June last year. Of these, 1,562 were detached properties, down 18.6 per cent from June a year ago, and 730 were attached homes, up 7.2 per cent. There were 2,108 apartments sold, up 18.8 per cent.

$3.55 million
The benchmark price of a single-family detached home in Vancouver West, the highest in Greater Vancouver and up 36.4 per cent from a year ago. West Vancouver had the second-most expensive single-family detached homes at $3.26 million, while trailing far behind were Richmond ($1.7 million) and North Vancouver ($1.66 million). The least-expensive homes were in Sunshine Coast ($462,200), Maple Ridge ($692,500) and Pitt Meadows ($760,600).

5,875
The number of listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver, down 6.6 per cent from May but up 1.2 per cent from a year ago. “Since March, we’ve seen more homes listed for sale in our market than in any other four-month period this decade,” Dan Morrison, president of the REBVG, said in a release.

Maple Ridge
Home of the $190,000 apartment — the lowest average price for a dwelling in Greater Vancouver — up just 10.3 per cent from a year ago. The benchmark price for a Greater Vancouver apartment was $501,000, up 25.3 per cent from June last year, while the highest-priced apartments were in West Vancouver ($846,300). Maple Ridge is also the least-expensive market to find a townhouse ($373,500) while the most expensive townhouses were in Vancouver West ($1.09 million). The average Greater Vancouver townhouse cost $656,900, up 28.1 per cent from a year ago. 

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

HOT HOUSING MARKET: Home Inspectors Association of B.C. raises concern over lack of due diligence

Joanne Lee-Young
The Province

Home inspector Vince Burnett has been in the industry for 17 years and thrived in other red-hot real estate markets. He should be run off his feet these days, but he hasn’t done a single home inspection in two weeks.

As few as 10 per cent of homes sold in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley are being inspected before deals close, a number that is drastically down from about 75 per cent a year ago, and an illustration of the latest concern in a sizzling market where some realty firms and mortgage brokers were already worried about a rising number of so-called no-subject offers.

Buyers going after limited listings are lobbing these in because, with prices spiralling ever higher, they are under intense pressure to find other ways of being competitive with their bids.

The Home Inspectors Association of B.C. is calling on the B.C. government to put in place a seven-day cooling off period to temper a market where it says buyers have “tight timelines of as little as two days from open house to making an offer in a competitive situation (with) no time for proper due diligence, including a thorough inspection. Fear of losing the home in a competitive bidding situation has encouraged buyers to take the dangerous step of making subject-free offers.”

The association warns it’s a precarious situation for buyers, but the rise in subject-free offers has hit home inspectors hard, too.

“Usually in January there is quite a bit of work, other than in the first week. Then you get into the spring season, March and April, and it’s 10 or 12 inspections a week, and you are going,” said Burnett, who is also president of the HIABC.

For years, he has been doing around 325 inspections a year, but right now, heading into July with no sign that there will be any pickup, he said: “I haven’t done 100.”

Shawn Anderson, a Vancouver-based home inspector, has his own gauge: “I was refusing about 20 to 30 inspections a week a year ago. And then all of a sudden, I was down to refusing two a week. People are buying blind. Now, I am going in after they buy and looking at the horror story.”

Anderson used to do very few inspections after a sale, but now some 30 per cent of his business is on homes that have already been sold.

“Recently, I had one house that was so catastrophic, it needed some $350,000 in repairs. They were not expecting that at all because it was newly renovated. But that only concealed all the issues. It was lipstick on a pig. It needs a new foundation, piping, you name it, it needs to be done,” said Anderson, who has been an inspector for six years and was a builder for 25 before that.

The HIABC is warning more of these cases will likely emerge. On Tuesday, it highlighted its point with the case of a Kevin Girard, who bought an East Vancouver home without doing an inspection.

Last October, the 40-year-old and his spouse bid $955,000 on an older home in Hastings-Sunrise. It was listed at $899,000 and “we heard there were five bids. We were in the middle. We expected this and wanted to have a differentiating factor.”

Ahead of taking possession, “we had asked if we could get in to do some measuring for our furniture, but they wouldn’t allow it,” said Girard.

On moving day, they arrived to find “an absolute disaster,” said Girard, who described the home as being “not safe for our one-year-old daughter. That was the biggest problem.”

There were also holes in the wall, exposed electrical lines, flooring that didn’t meet walls, kitchen cabinets sitting unevenly over dirt floors covered in rodent droppings. The house, when they had seen it, had been “staged. They had positioned things to cover up problems. Drywall had been ripped out. There weren’t enough circuit breakers for things like the stove to be powered. We had to MacGyver things to make them work.”

Real estate agents have come under fire for fanning the heat of multiple-offer situations with false claims that competing bidders have higher and more appealing offers.

But Girard, who described himself as a financial planner with some 550 clients, said that when it comes to managing his own affairs, “I’m a risk-taker. I probably wouldn’t have backed out. This was my shot in Vancouver.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Steve Randall
REP

Vancouver home sales continue to set new highs and 2016 can now add the highest-ever sales figure for June to the records. There were 4,400 sales in metro Vancouver, up 0.6 per cent from a year earlier and 28.1 per cent above the 10-year average. The benchmark price of all property types rose 32.1 per cent from a year earlier to $917,800.

Sales were driven by apartments (up 18.8 per cent) with a benchmark price of $501,100 – up 25.3 per cent from a year earlier. Detached home sales were down 18.6 per cent compared to a year earlier with the benchmark price up 38.7 per cent to $1,561,500.

Data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver shows that the record high for June came despite a 7.7 per cent decrease from May which had 4,769 sales as inventory slightly improved.

“While we’re starting to see more properties coming onto the market in recent months, the imbalance between supply and demand continues to influence market conditions,” Dan Morrison REBGV president said. “Since March, we’ve seen more homes listed for sale in our market than in any other four-month period this decade.”

Although there was a 1.1 per cent rise in inventory in June compared to May, there were still 35.9 per cent fewer listings than in June 2015.

Meanwhile, Fraser Valley Real Estate Board reported its highest-ever sales for June this year with 2,864 sales surpassing the 2005 previous-record of 2,517. The figure was up 18.7 per cent from June 2015 although down 1.5 per cent from May 2016. The benchmark price of a detached home was up 41.3 per cent year-over-year to $861,600.

“Demand for Fraser Valley homes grips the market, tightly. Still, we are seeing a slight leveling-off that while not drastic, is giving both buyers and sellers a bit more room to maneuver,” said Charles Wiebe, President of the Board.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

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B.C.?s finance minister says he expects to release new provincial data on foreign buyers in Metro Vancouver

ROB SHAW
The Province

B.C.’s finance minister says he expects to release new provincial data on foreign buyers in Metro Vancouver’s real estate market as early as next week.

Mike de Jong said Monday his government will publicly release the first data on citizenship in property transactions “in a week or so.”

“There’s lots of speculation about the magnitude of investment by foreign purchasers,” de Jong told radio station CKNW. “I’ve heard numbers as low as five per cent, and numbers as high as 30 per cent. Happily, we are collecting specific data that I intend to release very soon and we’ll get beyond the speculation and people will be able to deal in fact.”

The government began collecting citizenship data June 10, as part of a promise made in the February budget to collect more information about the impact of foreign buyers on rapid price increases in Metro’s real estate market.

Premier Christy Clark has been resisting calls for a foreign- buyers tax, or speculation tax, saying she needs to see more data on what is causing the housing price increases first. Meanwhile, critics have chastised her for not intervening to cool the housing market before it became unaffordable for local residents.

Under the new data rules, people are required to disclose if they are Canadian citizens on Property Transfer Tax forms, and if not, whether they are permanent residents of Canada or the foreign country in which they hold citizenship. The province also requires the citizenship of directors of corporations buying property, as well as the citizenship of beneficiaries of bare trusts (when a corporation sells property by selling the controlling shares of the business and the property does not technically change corporate owners on paper).

Clark has said she’ll begin rolling out her government’s housing strategy in the coming weeks. Last week, she revoked the ability of the real estate industry to police itself under self-regulation and said a beefed-up government superintendent of real estate would investigate and discipline real estate agents guilty of misconduct.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.