After doing little to stop tax cheats, government is about to beef up West Coast staff

PETER O?NEIL AND GORD HOEKSTRA
The Province

A “bombshell” internal federal government document has triggered a new wave of accusations of inaction in dealing with Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis.

The document, leaked to the South China Morning Post, indicates the Canada Revenue Agency conducted only one successful global audit last year of the so-called “astronaut” millionaire immigrants who buy pricey homes and settle families in Metro Vancouver, but fail to report their worldwide taxable income.

The single overseas audit was one of 339 audits done by the CRA’s Pacific Region that yielded a total of $14.4 million in recovered revenues and $1.3 million in fines.

The document is stamped “protected B” — which indicates the public disclosure of the report could cause “serious injury to an individual, organization or government,” according to Public Works and Government Services Canada.

The Hong Kong newspaper quoted from a slide presentation to B.C. Pacific Region agency staff last month that said the agency is now beefing up its resources to go after tax cheats, especially the top 500 files of greatest concern in the city’s overheated housing market.

The additional 85 full-time staff on the West Coast will target the “astronauts” as well as speculators who “flip” properties to obtain a quick profit, then fail to pay capital gains tax and sometimes don’t pay the goods and services tax.

Some, according to the presentation, seek to avoid the GST by claiming the house is a “principal residence” and therefore exempt.

The quick sale is justified in a variety of ways, according to the slide presentation, including: “Dad tripped over a crack in the sidewalk in front of the house (bad omen).”

CRA spokesman Jeffrey Lansing issued a statement Thursday saying the agency’s efforts are not specifically targeting foreign buyers.

He also said the agency’s focus on domestic tax evasion and real estate flipping is taking precedence over failure to report offshore income because that’s the area “where the risk of non-compliance was highest.”

A Vancouver academic called the report a “bombshell” certain to enrage many British Columbians frustrated that the agency didn’t act sooner given evidence of tax evasion for years.

Postmedia reported last year that a study by University of B.C. geographer Dan Hiebert found some homeowners in tony parts of the west side of Vancouver and Richmond were claiming to have income as low as people struggling to survive in Vancouver’s poor Downtown Eastside.

A study by Vancouver mathematician Jens von Bergmann, formerly of the University of Calgary, published first in the South China Morning Post, had similar findings.

“This is a stunning failure on the part of the CRA,” said Simon Fraser University professor Joshua Gordon, who recently completed a study on the impact of foreign investment in Metro Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis.

“It represents gross negligence in this area, since questionable activity in this area has long been suspected.”

Gordon said the former Conservative government needs to take a considerable degree of blame because it “gutted” the agency’s international audit division as part of its budget-balancing initiative.

In a written statement, the B.C. government said it supports the CRA’s efforts and is already sharing information, but did not respond as to whether it believed the CRA effort should be beefed up even further.

B.C. finance ministry spokesman Jamie Edwardson said Finance Minister Mike de Jong raised the tax-evasion issue last month with Morneau, the federal finance minister.

That helped create a working group of federal, provincial and municipal officials examining this summer how to share more information to prevent further tax evasion in real estate, Edwardson said.

Also in a written statement, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he hopes the working group will result in concrete steps to strengthen real estate market oversight and rein in the Vancouver housing market.

The additional staff for the B.C. regional office include 50 income tax auditors, 20 GST auditors, and 15 “workload development officers” to assist them, according to the June presentation.

The slide show says any additional enforcement work “will not address the major concerns” involved in the affordability issue, which it says is driven by broader dynamics relating to the forces of supply and demand.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

The only thing hotter than B.C. housing prices is the debate over them and what can be done.

Jonathan Gelderman
The Vancouver Sun

The recent independent report on the state of the real estate industry’s self-regulation was largely good in my opinion. A number of their recommendations absolutely should be implemented, but some aspects I disagree with wholeheartedly.

As an industry insider, I want to respond. I especially want to explain why the limited dual agency — where one real estate agent acts for both the buyer and seller — is not getting full and fair treatment. The argument of the Christy Clark administration, which is endlessly recycled by often-sensationalist media, is that dual agencies and so-called “shadow flipping” are at the root of agency misconduct and that banning them will help ease housing cost inflation. This is a flawed notion and reflects a limited understanding of how things work on the ground.

Essentially, “shadow flipping” is when a property is sold under value because it was not properly marketed, which allows the buyer (and presumably the seller’s unscrupulous real estate agent) to maximize profit by immediately turning around and selling it at a fair market value plus inflation. The inflation part is really the key issue here. The fact is, a sale price that was fair at the time of confirmation is already under market value by the time of closing, an average time span of two to four months. This is a reality of our market and does not represent a malicious underselling of the property.

However, the rapid rise in prices (20 per cent in a few months!) and the staggeringly high prices in the Vancouver market mean a couple of months of inflation can reflect enormous sums of money, which draw the attention of the media and the ire of the public. The high prices and their effect on cost of living contribute to widespread public anger that easily finds focus on the notion of bad actors.

However, many of the apparent incidents of “underselling” aren’t cases of misconduct, but instead are examples of the effects of our wild inflation. Banning limited dual agency transactions can do very little to address unscrupulous intent, nor will it slow down housing cost inflation; instead it introduces its own issues into the real estate transaction process.

Limited dual agency has received a lot of negative, sensationalist press propelling the popular misconception that this is at the heart of the problems with agent misconduct. It’s easy to make an argument against such transactions when you don’t understand the realities on the ground, but once you start walking it through, the reasoning falls apart.

Consider: it is suggested that if my buyer is interested in one of my listings, I should hand them off to another Realtor, who is presumed to be impartial. Many clients don’t appreciate this or feel comfortable with an agent they didn’t select. And crucially, the new stand-in agent is not truly impartial because the only way they get paid is by ensuring this particular transaction goes through, even if it turns out not to be in the best interest of the clients.

Furthermore, this arrangement does nothing to protect the buyer if I had an unethical intent to use my prior knowledge of their needs to unfairly disadvantage them in the transaction. There certainly are some cases of agents taking advantage of sellers through underselling — the most problematic are Vancouver properties sold sight unseen to offshore investors that are then flipped to other absentee investors.

The independent report’s recommendations to raise the industry’s low bar of entry and increase the requirements for agents’ continuing education go a long was to addressing both of these central issues. Responsible, accountable, and transparent limited dual agencies are possible and this is the model we as an industry should strive for.

The recent actions taken by the provincial government, however, give me no confidence at all. A new law was introduced to address shadow flipping that restricts the assignment of property contracts to a new buyer before close. Additionally, when contracts are assigned at a higher price, the extra profit must be funnelled back to the original seller rather than to the first buyer/shadow flipper, purportedly eliminating both the profit margin and the incentive for this practice. On the surface, this appears to be a common-sense remedy to shadow flipping because the central issue and injustice lies with the underselling of the property for the original homeowner.

However, Clark’s new law merely forces the unscrupulous first buyer/would-be flipper to complete the transaction before flipping the property at a higher price the very next day. Indeed, this law is more about the government profiting off of flipping, and less about stopping it, because every time a property transaction is completed, property transfer tax is payable to the provincial government, potentially tens of thousands of dollars.

In fact, this is government’s largest single source of revenue and they’re now raking in record profits, as reported recently in The Vancouver Sun. An enormous governmental conflict of interest has been created, as government stands to become the largest single profiter from new flipping rules.

None of Christy Clark’s actions address the real problems of affordable housing, including the latest move to end industry self-regulation. Realtors merely bring buyers and sellers together, they do not determine market values any more than stock brokers control the price of stocks. The cause of housing inflation is not unscrupulous Realtors, but the basic law of supply and demand. The province permits offshore investors to purchase our property almost unabated, dramatically increasing demand, while they restrict the supply of property with Agricultural Land Reserves and other development restrictions. This keeps prices high and the property transfer tax dollars flowing into the provincial coffers.

Transparency and accountability are crucial for taming housing cost inflation and restoring the public trust, but it is needed from our government as much as it is needed from the real estate industry.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Prospective condo buyers left out as developers sell to friends, family first

JOANNE LEE-YOUNG
The Vancouver Sun

Would-be condo buyers and their agents are frustrated that, in a sizzling hot market with scarce supply, some projects are being sold first to a select group of VIP customers.

Dennis Ho had been trying to help his client get into a False Creek development. He emailed and received a quick reply from the developer’s sales staff that he would be contacted later. He never heard from them again, but a few months later, a friend forwarded a copy of an email announcing that units at the very same development were on sale, but only to clients of another agent.

“I emailed them to ask, ‘What is going on?’ I wanted to get my client in,” Ho, an agent with Sutton Group-West Coast Realty, said. “But it’s hard to break into the VIP — or the cream of these VIP — Realtor lists. Everybody is a VIP, they say, but that isn’t true.”

Condo developers are increasingly under fire for the way they and their marketing companies prioritize access to units. Usually, this is done in chunks: First, for socalled friends and family of these companies, then “VIP Realtors who guarantee a large set of buyers,” Ho said, then other Realtors and, finally, the public. The result is that some VIP agents have become known for their relationships with developers and their ability to get a client ahead.

George Wong of marketing agency Magnum Projects Ltd. has been feeling the heat this week. Vancouver agent Steve Saretsky said he noticed a slew of units at the 53-storey Telus Garden at 777 Richards St. pop up for sale on the MLS database.

He reported on his blog that some 16 per cent of units were already being flipped for a profit because the final occupancy of the building recently occurred. In 2012, some 150 Telus employees had first crack at buying over a third of these, followed by buyers with close ties to the developer, Magnum and certain Realtors, Saretsky said.

“We keep hearing that the Vancouver housing crisis is about (a lack of ) supply,” he said, “but even if there was more supply, how possible is it for the average Vancouver buyer to get their hands on these units when they are mostly presold?”

Wong said the formula varies with each developer and project, but in general, there is a “healthy proportion of suites for the public.”

“It’s a very hot market and not everybody is going to get to buy,” he said.

“In today’s marketplace, one has to adjust. Buyers that are more aggressive to get attention will get more attention. Those who are less (so) don’t get to the front of the lineup. It’s just the way it is.”

Asked to elaborate, Wong confirmed that certain agents “who muster up more buyers get more attention.”

“There are a number of Realtors out there with websites to attract pre-sale buyers,” he said. Wong emphasized that he didn’t mean they necessarily are allotted a higher number of units ahead of the public, only that they might get “more attention.”

“People who say they couldn’t get in because of certain tactics or favouritism are making a faulty conclusion,” he said. “It’s misplaced.”

Others aren’t convinced. Ian Watt, an agent who specializes in condos, said if “you’re really a VIP, you get in before the VIPs.”

And to become a VIP? You tell the developer “you have a boatload of people going to buy,” he said.

Recently, Ho went with another client in the market to buy a condo at a pre-sale event that he says felt a bit more fair. Invitees were asked to register online and arrive with a bank draft of $5,000 for the privilege of looking at floor plans and listing their top three choices.

“They never took the money draft, but (probably) wanted it to weed out legitimate buyers,” he said. After a few weeks, he received an email inviting them back to write contracts for a unit.

“I wasn’t sure who gets to go first, and how it all worked, but I was placed early in the lineup and got one,” Ho said. “It was a better experience.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

It represents gross negligence in this area, since questionable activity in this area has long been suspected.

? PETER O?NEIL AND GORD HOEKSTRA
The Vancouver Sun

A “bombshell” internal federal government document has triggered a new wave of accusations of government inaction in dealing with Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis.

The document, leaked to the South China Morning Post, indicates the Canada Revenue Agency conducted only one successful global audit last year of the so-called “astronaut” millionaire immigrants who buy pricey homes and settle families in Metro Vancouver, but fail to report their worldwide taxable income.

The single overseas audit was one of 339 audits done by the CRA’s Pacific Region that yielded a total of $14.4 million in recovered revenues and $1.3 million in fines.

The document is stamped “protected B” — which indicates that the public disclosure of the report could cause “serious injury to an individual, organization or government,” according to Public Works and Government Services Canada.

The Hong Kong newspaper quoted from a provocative slide presentation to B.C. Pacific Region agency staff last month that said the agency is now beefing up its resources to go after tax cheats, and especially the top 500 files of greatest concern in the city’s overheated housing market.

The additional 85 full-time staff on the West Coast will target the “astronauts” as well as speculators who “flip” properties to obtain a quick profit, then fail to pay capital gains tax and sometimes don’t pay the goods and services tax.

Some, according to the presentation, seek to avoid the GST by claiming the house is a “principal residence” and therefore exempt.

The quick sale is justified in a variety of ways, according to the slide presentation, including: “Dad tripped over a crack in the sidewalk in front of the house (bad omen).” A CRA spokesman issued a statement Thursday saying the agency’s efforts are not targeting specifically foreign buyers. “The source of funds for the real estate purchases are not the focus of tax non-compliance,” said Jeffrey Lansing. He also noted the agency’s focus on domestic tax evasion and real estate flipping is taking precedence over failure to report offshore income because that’s the area “where the risk of non-compliance was highest.”

A Vancouver academic called the report a “bombshell” that is certain to enrage many British Columbians frustrated that the agency didn’t act sooner given evidence of tax evasion for years.

The Vancouver Sun reported last year that a study by University of B.C. geographer Dan Hiebert found that some homeowners in tony parts of the west side of Vancouver and Richmond were claiming to have income as low as people struggling to survive in Vancouver’s poor Downtown Eastside.

A study by Vancouver mathematician Jens von Bergmann, formerly of the University of Calgary, published first in the South China Morning Post, had similar findings.

“This is a stunning failure on the part of the CRA,” said Simon Fraser University professor Joshua Gordon, who recently completed a study on the impact of foreign investment in Metro Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis.

“It represents gross negligence in this area, since questionable activity in this area has long been suspected.”

Gordon said the former Conservative government needs to take a considerable degree of blame because it “gutted” the agency’s international audit division as part of its budget-balancing initiative.

New Democratic Party MP Kennedy Stewart was similarly enraged.

“This confirms the federal government is leaving local residents to the wolves when it comes to our housing market,” said the MP for Burnaby South.

“It confirms that we have lost control of a significant segment of our housing market to foreign buyers, many of whom appear to be cheating our tax system.

“Worse still, the government has known about this problem for years, failed to take the right actions, and what limited actions they have taken have badly failed. It is scandalous and the government needs to start treating this situation as the emergency it is.”

Vancouver-Point Grey NDP MLA David Eby said the CRA has been asleep at the switch, failing to identify and penalize so-called low income owners of expensive houses that have avoided paying taxes.

The additional 85 auditors and support staff for tens of thousands of households that need this type of complex audit work is “grossly inadequate,” said Eby, who has been a vocal critic of federal and provincial government action on the overheated Vancouver housing market.

In a written statement, the B.C. government said it supports the CRA’s efforts and is already sharing information, but did not respond to a Vancouver Sun question on whether it believed the CRA effort should be beefed up even further.

B.C. Finance Ministry spokesman Jamie Edwardson said Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s raised the tax-evasion issue last month with Morneau, the federal finance minister. That helped create a working group of federal, provincial and municipal officials examining this summer how to share more information to prevent further tax evasion in real estate, said Edwardson.

Also in a written statement, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he hopes the working group will result in concrete steps to strengthen real estate market oversight and rein in the Vancouver housing market. He said the CRA could use more resources to track, audit and enforce tax rules.

“With unregulated, speculative global capital flowing into Metro Vancouver, we are seeing housing prices completely disconnected from local incomes,” he said.

The additional staff for the B.C. regional office include 50 income tax auditors, 20 GST auditors, and 15 “workload development officers” to assist them, according to the June presentation.

The document said only one B.C. audit was done in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016, on worldwide income, involving a total of 172 hours of work. It generated just $26,722 in additional taxes, or $155 per hour of work, and resulted in a $10,664 fine.

Auditors spent more than 11,000 hours during the last fiscal year looking at 93 flips, uncovering $3.4 million in additional tax revenue or $306 per audit hour. The probes led to 36 fines totalling $883,325.

CRA staff went after 20 instances of suspected capital gains tax evasion, generating $824,750 in tax revenue (or $297 an hour) and three fines totalling just under $30,000.

In total auditors spent almost 27,000 hours on 339 files, generating $14.4 million ($537 an hour) and triggering $1.3 million in fines.

As of April 29, 2016, there were four audits underway on people allegedly failing to report worldwide income, with another 283 involving probes of dubious flips and alleged failures to report capital gains or pay the required GST.

The slideshow says any additional enforcement work “will not address the major concerns” involved in the affordability issue.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Citing the results of a recent house price survey, real estate franchising giant Royal LePage announced that the growth and performance of the Vancouver housing market outpaced the rest of Canada by a significant margin.

The study released on Wednesday (July 13) found that Greater Vancouver experienced a 24.6 per cent year-over-year rise in the aggregate cost of an average home (up to nearly $1.1 million), as reported by Jon Azpiri of Global News.

Meanwhile, Metro Vancouver had its fair share of growth. West Vancouver saw the aggregate price increase by 29.7 per cent, up to more than $3 million. Burnaby, Coquitlam, and Richmond each benefited from upturns of more than 20 per cent, while Langley and Surrey both had 17.3 per cent growth.

To compare, the national average price of a Canadian residence rose by 9.2 per cent year-over-year, up to $520,223.

“Pronounced home price increases continue in Greater Vancouver driven by low inventory and tremendous demand,” Royal LePage Sussex regional manager Alan Stewart wrote in the report.

“Many homeowners within the region who may have considered selling their properties are holding onto their homes, as they are wary of being priced out of the market when they buy. This situation is placing added strain on inventory levels and causing prices to skyrocket further. On the flip side, properties listed for sale are being snapped up as soon as they hit the market,” he added.

For specific types of housing, condominium prices rose by 11.5 per cent year-over-year, while two-storey home costs climbed by 26.5 per cent (up to more than $1.4 million). Bungalow prices grew by 28.5 per cent (up to $1.2 million).

Royal LePage said that these numbers are just the beginning, as the predicted longevity of the current low-interest-rate climate will induce an upward pressure on prices.

“We don’t see even a mild correction for either the Toronto or pistol-hot Vancouver markets in 2016,” Royal LePage president and CEO Phil Soper said.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

In its latest study, Canadian real estate franchiser Royal LePage predicted a staggering increase in Vancouver and Toronto home prices as well as sounded the alarm on the dangers of speculation in the two cities.

According to the recently released “Q2 2016 National House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast” quoted by The Globe and Mail, prices in Greater Vancouver shot up by 24.6 per cent year-over-year in the second quarter of the year, with the median price settling on $1.1-million.

Meanwhile, the Greater Toronto Area saw a 10.2 per cent increase in the same period covered, up to $656,365.

Together, these numbers point at the long-term reliability of these markets, which might attract even more foreign buyers in the future and thus further inflame the already overheated housing segment.

Royal LePage pegged annual price increase in Q2 at 9.2 per cent, up to $520,223. It also forecast a 12.4 per cent year-over-year gain by the end of 2016.

“We don’t see even a mild correction for either the Toronto or pistol-hot Vancouver markets in 2016,” the report stated.

“Economic and social disruptions have rocked the world once again, introducing new risks and making it very likely that the Bank of Canada will leave interest rates as-is for now,” Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper said. “Few industries are as rate sensitive as real estate.”

Speculating is also a misguided path in the current climate, the executive said.

“A home is ill-suited as a buy-and-flip investment,” Soper noted. “People that engage in this kind of activity are inevitably burned when a market slows and the time it takes to sell the property increases substantially.”

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Justin da Rosa
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Although those two markets continue to perform well, a number of additional markets are also showing considerable strength.

Several Canadian real estate markets showed increased strength in May, according to Statistics Canada’s latest New Housing Price Index.

“The New Housing Price Index (NHPI) rose 0.7% in May, following a 0.3% increase in April,” StatsCan said in its report. “This was the largest monthly advance since July 2007, and was mainly driven by higher new housing prices in the combined region of Toronto and Oshawa and in Vancouver.”

According to the report, new housing prices rose 1.1% in Vancouver and 1.1% in Victoria; new home prices have seen 12 months of consecutive increases in Vancouver – but the price gains were also felt across the country.

St. Catharines-Niagara (+0.9%) and Windsor (+0.8%) also reported “significant price gains,” according to StatsCan.

“Builders in St. Catharines–Niagara cited market conditions as the main reason for the rise, while builders in Windsor reported higher material costs and land development fees,” the Crown Corporation said. “This was the largest monthly increase in Windsor since August 2013.”

Over the past 12 months, a number of markets also showed renewed strength.

“The NHPI rose 2.7% over the 12-month period ending in May, the largest increase at the national level since September 2010,” StatsCan said. “The combined metropolitan region of Toronto and Oshawa (+6.4%) was the top contributor, recording the largest year-over-year price increase in May. This was the largest year-over-year price gain in the region since July 2004.”

Again, gains were felt across the country.

“Other notable increases were observed in Vancouver (+5.1%), St. Catharines–Niagara (+3.6%), Hamilton (+3.1%), Victoria (+2.4%) and Ottawa–Gatineau (+0.2%),” StatsCan said. “This was the largest year-over-year price advance in Vancouver since June 2010, and the first year-over-year increase in Ottawa–Gatineau since June 2013.”

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

The Vancouver Sun

Realtor Royal LePage says the national average home price climbed 9.2 per cent during the second quarter compared to a year ago — the largest year-over-year gain in five years.

In its latest report, the realtor says the national average home price grew to $540,223 during the quarter, fuelled by low borrowing rates.

Royal LePage says the average price of a two-storey home rose 10.7 per cent from a year ago to $619,671.

The average bungalow price climbed 7.9 per cent to $437,121, while the average condo price was $348,189, an increase of 4.2 per cent.

The real estate agency is predicting that during the second half of the year, the average home price will increase 12.4 per cent, compared to the second half of last year.

The company says that’s because the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union will likely prevent central bankers from raising interest rates, therefore delaying any cyclical cooling of Canada’s hottest real estate markets.

“Our forecasting models, which pointed to a slowing housing market as the year progressed, included a modest increase in the cost of borrowing,” Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePage, said in a statement.

“Economic and social disruptions have rocked the world once again, introducing new risks and making it very likely that the Bank of Canada will leave interest rates as is for now. Few industries are as rate-sensitive as real estate. We don’t see even a mild correction for either the Toronto or pistol-hot Vancouver markets in 2016.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Young buyers attracted to old feel

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

Prescott Commons

Where: 3323 151st Street, Surrey

What: 248 apartments – various one- and two-bedroom plans in a master-planned community with a total of 400 homes

Residence sizes and prices: Between 642 and 969 square feet. Two-bedroom plans start at $299,900
Developer and builder: Polygon Prescott Commons Ltd., Polygon Harvard Gardens Ltd.

Sales centre: 3323 151st Street, Surrey

Hours: noon — 6 p.m., Sat. — Thurs.

For hundreds of new homeowners, east coast ‘old school’ set in a contemporary west coast setting is a perfect fit.

At Harvard Gardens community in Surrey, a polished Ivy League aesthetic is bringing in a new population, with its two newest buildings, Prescott Commons’ condominiums.

The look of the community, which includes a Rowing club-like clubhouse, was inspired by Polygon’s architectural teams’ impressions during their travels to Boston.
The U-shaped buildings are fashioned of red brick and wrought-iron inspired accents in entry canopies, stained wood-panelled walls and stone flooring, and will contain 248 homes; Harvard Gardens will include a total of 400 homes.

And while the homes’ interiors are appealing, the amenities are just as attractive to Prescott Commons’ buyers.

In the gymnasium, homeowners can play basketball, badminton, floor hockey and indoor soccer. An outdoor pool is open from May to October. The community also offers space to relax: the two Prescott Commons buildings are separated by a central courtyard.

“Homeowners love the private courtyard, especially those on the ground floor who have patios with direct access. it’s like an extension of their home – their ‘backyard,’” says Polygon’s sales manager Judy Rohatyn.

The magnet at Prescott Commons has to be the Rowing Club, which has proven to be popular among homeowners already. “It’s been well used by residents who are making connections and using the great facilities,” says Rohatyn.

She says Prescott Commons has attracted buyers from diverse life stages—downsizers and first timers among them. Many of the latter will be launching this new stage of their lives with some welcome financial aid: “We’ve seen a number of parents helping their children get into the market.”

In the two display homes on site, Polygon’s design team added darker woods and grey accents to help give the interiors an established feel, relating to the East Coast concept.

The contemporary design extends into the bathrooms, where visitors can find engineered stone countertops and spa-like showers.

Gourmet kitchens include engineered stone countertops and modern flat-panelled cabinetry.

Rohatyn says that Polygon wasn’t surprised to see young buyers ready to own their first homes at Prescott Gardens.

“Often young first time buyers are savvy and do a lot of research online before heading out to see our display homes and communities,” she says.

“We often have young couples who have spent years renting downtown, now making their way back to South Surrey for affordability and lifestyle. They are always delighted to see that we offer modern homes that fit their ‘city style.’”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.