Townline presents The Parker, a 47-unit low-rise apartment building in Vancouver

Simon Briault
The Vancouver Sun

The Parker

Project location: 305 West 41^st Ave., Vancouver

Project size: 47 homes, 1-3 bedrooms, 1,008 to 1,334 square feet. Prices start in the upper $1,000,000s for two bedrooms and a den and in the mid $1,600,000s for three bedrooms and a den

Developer: Townline

Architect: ZGF Cotter

Interior designer: Cristina Oberti Interior Design Inc.

Sales centre: 5844 Cambie Street

Hours: noon –  5 p.m., Sat – Thurs 

Completion: September 2019

Website: http://www.townline.ca/en/homes/new-homes/parker

Savvy buyers of new apartments in Metro Vancouver tend to do their research on who’s building them. Good reputations take years to develop and the people at Townline are using the company’s reputation for quality in their sales pitch for The Parker, a new 47-home development in the ever-popular Cambie corridor.

Townline is a local operation that has been building homes in Vancouver since 1981. Back then, it was single-family homes, but the company has since branched out to building multi-family homes, mixed-use buildings, rental apartments and non-market developments in Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island.

“Buyers in today’s market are increasingly choosing developments based on the reputation of the developers,” said Chris Colbeck, Townline’s vice-president of sales and marketing. “A big part of our sales pitch at The Parker is that we’re a local developer. We’re owned by a local guy by the name of Rick Ilich and we’ve been in the business for more than 35 years.”

“We’re a fully integrated company, meaning that we have in-house construction, development, finance, sales and marketing and customer service teams,” Colbeck added. “That means you know exactly who you’re dealing with every step of the way.”

The Parker will be a low-rise apartment building at the corner of West 41^st Avenue and Elizabeth Street. Residents will be within walking distance of Queen Elizabeth Park, a 130-acre horticultural jewel that includes the Bloedel Conservatory and fine dining at Seasons in the Park, as well as opportunities for lawn bowling, tennis and pitch and putt golf. Also within striking distance is the VanDusen Botanical Gardens, Langara Golf Course and Tisdall Park.

“What makes this development boutique is that it’s a smaller building with only 47 homes and what makes it so appealing is the location,” Colbeck said. “We’ve got a little bit of everything here: great schools, parks and amenities, as well as easy access to downtown and the airport. The Cambie corridor is, of course, a very popular place to be right now and we are just steps away from the Canada Line station and Oakridge Centre.”

The mall at Oakridge Centre has 574,000 square feet of retail space and features outlets such as Crate & Barrel, Apple, MaxMara, Hugo Boss, Harry Rosen, Stuart Weitzman, DKNY, LEGO, Michael Kors and Tiffany & Co. Services include the Vancouver Public Library, a children’s learning centre and a number of banking options.

The two- and three-bedroom homes at The Parker range in size from 1,008 to 1,334 square feet and are on sale now. Colbeck said there’s been no shortage of interest from buyers, both in terms of pre-registrations and at the display suite at 5844 Cambie Street.

“Most of the interest has come from people in the Metro Vancouver area and Vancouver specifically,” said Colbeck. “We’ve had a great response from buyers; nearly 2,000 registrations for 47 homes so there’s obviously a lot of demand in the Cambie corridor. The buyers are mainly second-time, move-up buyers as well as downsizers and the vast majority are going to be end users – the people who actually want to move in.”

When they do, they’ll be treated to engineered hardwood flooring, air conditioning in all homes, front-load washer and dryers and roller blinds. Kitchens include Gaggenau appliance packages, wood veneer cabinetry with brushed nickel hardware and under-cabinet LED lighting. There are square-edged quartz countertops with matching full-height backsplashes, kitchen organizer systems, pull-out recycling centres and stainless-steel sinks with chrome faucets.

Bathrooms have frameless mirrored medicine cabinets with recessed LED lighting, quartz vanity countertops, under-mounted rectangular basins with chrome faucets and full-height, large-format porcelain tiles on the walls. There are also recessed wall niches with marble mosaic accent tiles, frameless glass shower enclosures, in-floor heating systems and soaker tubs.

 “More than just the location and the luxury finishes, we’ve carefully considered the suite sizes at The Parker to make them larger than you would typically find in Vancouver,” Colbeck said. “With condos in the city trending smaller in terms of square footage, we’ve made sure we’re offering homes here with a little more living space.”

Although The Parker will include some one-bedroom homes, at the time of writing the developers had only released size and pricing information for the two- and three-bedroom suites. These start in the upper $1,000,000s for two bedrooms and a den and in the mid $1,600,000s for three bedrooms and a den. The six-storey concrete building, designed by ZGF Cotter, will include secure underground parking and an amenity room with a kitchenette and a lounge area. The developers are targeting LEED Gold certification upon completion.

“Customer service is a big part of our world here and we have very strict guidelines that we implement both in the construction of our homes and in how we work with our buyers,” Colbeck added. “We have our own internal auditing process where we review every home we build.”.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

The six-month trend for housing starts was higher in July, the 7th consecutive month of gains and rising to 217,550 from 215,175 in June.

“British Columbia and Alberta were the main contributors to the higher trend in housing starts, said Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist. “While BC’s construction coincides with near-record low completed and unsold units in the past few months, Alberta’s inventory of new unsold homes is ramping up, highlighting the need for managing inventories.”

The CMHC figures show that housing start were lower in Toronto with apartments and single-family homes mainly responsible while there were strong increases for semi-detached and town homes. This suggests a shift towards more affordable housing types.

Vancouver starts were up slightly, especially in Burnaby, New Westminster and Coquitlam and mostly driven by apartments and townhomes. Homes under construction in the region remain at record highs.

Calgary and Ottawa also saw increased starts and there were strong gains for Gatineau, London (reaching a new record for July) and Nova Scotia.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 222,324 units in July, up from 212,948 units in June.

Copyright © 2017 Key Media Pty Ltd

At Edgewood Gate, buyers have the opportunity to truly personalize their homes

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

Edgewood Gate

Where: 2113 166 Street, South Surrey

What: 96 four- and five-bedroom detached single-family homes, with detached, double-car garages in the back, plus one parking pad

Residence sizes and prices: Homes start at 2,360 square feet, from $1.1 million, including GST and finished basement

Developer and builder: Foxridge Homes

Hours: noon — 5 p.m., daily

Telephone: 778-294-9077

From flooring to cabinetry to the smallest detail and finish, what you see in a display home is more or less what you get as a homebuyer. But interior designer Shannon Haerdi knows that offering options gives buyers a sense of creative control — the opportunity to create a home that suits them perfectly.

Foxridge offers a range of options to buyers, who can choose everything from the colour of the carpets to the type of exterior stone to the design of the railing on the stairs. If Haerdi herself were to purchase a unit at Edgewood Gate, Foxridge’s community of single-family homes in South Surrey, she would choose features that evoke a sophisticated calm, and then adapt the look with details that reflect her specific tastes in contemporary design.

“I myself would choose a large-format marble-inspired porcelain tile and use it in all of my bathrooms and even on the fireplace, as I think it adds a clean, contemporary look to any space,” says Haerdi, principal of First Impression Design, the team that worked on the interiors at Edgewood Gate. “The soft natural colours on the walls and floor also add to this sense of serenity.”

Haerdi and her team brought their own love of soft neutrals to their work on one of the show homes at Edgewood Gate. The fact that this layout includes a brick wall makes it all the more appealing. “The colours are welcoming and attractive to most buyers and with the monochromatic scheme, you can always add an accent colour of your choice to add character to the space. Who, after all, would not love to have a brick wall in one of their sitting rooms?”

In one living and dining room, the emphasis is on a gentle nature motif — displayed in artwork,

a vase display of decorative branches and a wooden side table. Even the lamp and table settings on the dining room table bring in a vibe of natural calm that Haerdi, and Foxridge buyers prefer. “Subtle touches of nature are spread throughout the home and it engulfs you in a sense of tranquility. The varying textures of the fabrics on the sofa, the cushions and basket of throws, as well as the drapery finish off this look.”

Having been inspired by the concept of the kitchen as the core of social and family life, Foxridge used a layout similar to those at Edgewood Gate at another community. “This is a very open-concept floor plan that is appealing to many buyers as you can be working in your kitchen and see the great room and dining room from that one central spot,” Haerdi says.
“The kitchen is the heart of the home and with the rooms being so open and inviting this space feels seamless and inviting.”

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

Vancouver Housing Posts Biggest Price Gains Since 1990

Greg Quinn
Bloomberg

Just as Toronto’s housing market is beginning to slow down, Vancouver’s is roaring back to life.

New home prices in Canada’s most-expensive market jumped 1.5 percent in June, and have gained 5 percent since March, data released Thursday by Statistics Canada show. That’s the biggest three-month increase since 1990. Prices for existing homes are also on fire, gaining 11 percent in the five months through July, according to data released this month by Vancouver’s real estate board.

The rebound, following a short slump late last year, underscores just how difficult it is to control runaway prices in the face of historically low interest rates and purchasing by foreign investors. Vancouver has become a test lab for policy makers seeking to engineer a soft landing.

Canada tightened mortgage rules several times in recent years to discourage a buildup of record consumer debt and when that didn’t work the British Columbia government set a 15 percent foreign buyer tax last August. Toronto followed with a similar levy in April.

Statistics Canada doesn’t include condominiums in its new home price index.

©Copyright Channel Zero. Bloomberg

Steve Randall
REP

Rents in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are being driven up by a small number of investors who operate as landlords in the short-term rental market, according to a new study.

The report from Montreal’s McGill University is released Tuesday and lead author Professor David Wachsmuth told CBC’s Daybreak that “just 10 per cent of hosts account for a majority of the revenue and the nights booked on Airbnb consistently in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.”

These owners, the professor said, are making homes unaffordable in their quest to make money from short-term rentals.

Montreal’s appeal to tourists makes the city especially attractive and Wachsmuth told CBC that property management companies are cashing in, claiming that one firm manages 160 properties.

However, the claims are disputed by Airbnb which told the broadcaster that more than 80% of hosts in its site are renting out their primary residences.

“A very small percentage of the entire housing stock in Montreal is rented frequently enough to out-compete a long-term rental, undercutting the author’s baseless conclusions about housing units removed,” Airbnb’s statement said.

Copyright © 2017 Key Media Pty Ltd

other

An online tool that has been touted as the biggest shake-up of the real estate industry this century has launched in Perth.

The app is the first-of-its-kind in the world that takes pre-contracted buyers through a completely transparent sales process, allowing them to view competing bids in real-time.

Created by a team of Perth real estate experts with more than 50 years’ collective industry experience, Openn Negotiation is an online bidding platform that allows both buyers and sellers to see bids as they occur.

Mint Real Estate Director and Openn Negotiation Co-developer Peter Clements said the app came about following years of feedback from homebuyers and sellers and would bring a new level of transparency to the home sales process for both buyers and sellers.

“A house is the biggest purchase most people will make in their lives, but many are daunted and lack trust in the sales process,” he said.

“This app will bring back people’s comfort, as buyers know they are paying market value and can see what others are offering in real-time”

Since launching in June, hundreds of Western Australian agents have signed up to be trained and use the new sales process.

Mr Clements said unlike other digital real estate processes, Openn Negotiation involved agents rather than eliminating them.

“For sellers, Openn Negotiation allows them to know upfront they have committed, interested buyers,” he said.

“While for buyers, it eliminates guesswork by letting them know exactly what bids are being made, giving them the power to make clear decisions on price.”

Liz Mortimore from Dianella, who sold her home using Openn Negotiation, said the process got her the results she wanted.

“Upon putting my house on the market I was very disillusioned with the options I was presented by the agents I spoke to,” she said.

“I couldn’t understand why competing buyers were forced to guess what they needed to offer to secure a property, and they only had one chance to get it right.

“When approached to consider selling using Openn Negotiation, I took a leap of faith.

“My real estate agent was vital in the whole process. I knew good marketing would attract potential buyers to the property and the agent was diligent in ensuring these became registered bidders that presented with very similar terms and conditions – everyone was then on an even playing field.”

Conversely, Rebecca Eaton from Morley, who bought her new home using Openn Negotiation, said the process eliminated the pressure usually experienced by buyers in a live auction.

“We had the opportunity to think about price beforehand,” she said.

“We participated in the Openn Negotiation process from the comfort of our own home while being able to see other people’s bids in real time. It was user-friendly and made the whole process hassle-free and transparent.”

The Openn Negotiation app – Openn – can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

© The West Australian and Seven West Media (WA)

Homes at Delta Gardens proving to resonate with buyers

Laura Goldstein
The Vancouver Sun

Project: Delta Gardens

Project Location: 11501 84 Avenue, North Delta

Developer: Maple Leaf Homes Ltd.

Architect: Maciej Dembek, Barnett Dembek Architects

Interior Design: Donna Russell, The Collaborative Design Studio

Contact Name: Michelle Des Rosiers: 604-761-2997

Project Size: 122 one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums and 12 townhomes

Prices: $409,900 — $700,000

Unit Size: 587 — 1,368 square feet

Sales Centre: 11501 84 Avenue, North Delta

Centre Hours: noon — 5 p.m., Sat — Thurs

Sales Phone: 604-652-2282

Website: deltagardens.ca

Occupancy: Spring 2019

Eventual residents of Delta Gardens may well imagine how incredibly convenient it’s going to be to join a curling team, relax in the outdoor pool or take the grandkids skating without having to move the car from their condo’s secure underground parking.

After all, the North Delta Recreation Centre is just steps away.

And it’s not just Vancouverites looking for more affordable housing who are attracted to the area.

“You may be surprised to learn that it’s people who want to downsize, but already live in the community because they just love it here and don’t want to go anywhere else,” says Michelle Des Rosiers, senior project manager at Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing Ltd.

Of the 122 “Traditional” and “Grand Series” one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums built by Peak Construction for developer Maple Leaf Homes Ltd., all but 26 have been sold, including 12 townhomes. Construction begins this fall with move-in projected for the spring of  2019.

Delta Gardens is designed to reflect a West Coast contemporary feel with cedar soffits and gables offsetting the post-and-beam slanted rooflines.

 “The use of cement fibreboard and wood on the exterior of the two lower floors ties in directly with that used on The North Delta Recreation Centre addition to ensure continuity of the properties,” explains architect Maciej Dembeck of Barnett Dembeck Architects Inc. in Surrey. “We’re really excited about these spacious condominiums because there is just nothing comparable in the area for people who want to downsize and stay in their community. We’re hoping that it will spur on the city for more residential development of this kind,” Dembeck says.

A large private garden space with seating and landscaped meandering pathways provides an enclave for those walking through the Delta Gardens pavilion entrance. Gardening gurus can also cultivate their own piece of heaven using plots within the community garden.

“You know the consumer is always looking for interior design elements they may have enjoyed in a single-family home and still want in a multifamily development and I think we nailed it at Delta Gardens,” laughs Donna Russell, interior designer, The Collaborative Design Studio, based in Coquitlam.

“The first thing we wanted to ensure was that the floor plans were spacious and designed with entertaining in mind to incorporate conversational living spaces: the kitchen island for entertaining, an electric fireplace in the living room and functional outdoor spaces like 10-foot by 10-foot covered balconies and garden patios,” explains Russell.

Light streams through expansive windows in the open-concept kitchen/living room and Russell’s choice of a subdued colour palette – Silver Satin walls by Benjamin Moore — and choice of light wide-plank (or optional dark) laminate flooring, creates a seamless flow throughout the home. Kitchens feature reverse Shaker cabinetry accented with a flat panel, quartz countertops, including the island, and KitchenAid appliances with five-burner gas oven, french-door refrigerator and dishwasher. “Delta Gardens is really attuned to the environment and soon garburators will be a thing of the past, Russell says. “Instead, there’s an option for a customized odourless green waste container in the kitchen built right into the countertop beside the double stainless steel sink.”

The master bedroom can easily accommodate queen- and king-sized beds with walk-in closet and neutral plush carpeting throughout. A spacious ensuite includes a five-foot frameless glass shower, double vanities and in secondary bathrooms, a deep soaker tub.

“Maple Leaf didn’t skimp on finishes and storage,” affirms Russell, “with under-cabinet and recessed pot lighting and designer pendants throughout each condominium including the powder room. And, you step into the convenient in-condo laundry room that allows for the Whirlpool washer/dryer to be placed side by side with great overhead space for extra shelving and room to fold your laundry,” she adds.

The North Delta Recreation Centre just parallel to Delta Gardens is a major community hub and has attracted buyers who have access (for drop-in fees) to everything from the hockey arena, basketball, pottery and art studio, the pools and fitness centre and free Wi-Fi. “Residents are paying a fraction of what strata fees would cost here for all those amenities,” Des Rosiers says. A performing arts centre is already in the planning stages on the same grounds for which Maple Leaf Homes donated $1 million toward its construction.

 “It’s got everything,” agrees Joseph Pighin, who, with his wife, Marie Ann, recently purchased a 1,243-square-foot two-bedroom-plus-den Grand Series condo. “We’ve lived in North Delta in a large house for 20 years and felt it was time to downsize but didn’t want to leave the community or live in a cubicle-size condo,” he explains. “We were so impressed with how spacious the rooms will be and we all use the facilities at the recreation ventre,” says Pighin. “My wife also meets friends at the Kennedy Seniors Centre just five minutes away and several large shopping centres (Scott Road and Strawberry Hill,) with restaurants, Superstore – anything you need, are also nearby.”

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.

Immigration lawyer notes owners often obscure identities to avoid Canadian taxes

Douglas Todd
The Vancouver Sun

The phenomenal popularity of Canada’s new 10-year visas is a key factor behind the latest housing booms in Vancouver and Toronto, say immigration specialists.

“I often travel to China, where I see the great pride many take in investing their money in Canada” —­ particularly by taking advantage of 10-year visas to buy real estate, said George Lee, a Burnaby immigration lawyer.

In 2015, Canadian immigration officials issued 390,000 10-year, multiple-entry visas to residents of Mainland China, the largest cohort, with another 162,000 going to people from India.

The former Conservative government began offering the 10-year visas in February 2014. As a result, in that first year, the number of travel visas handed to Chinese nationals tripled to 337,000.

Lee says the visas, which allow people to travel freely to Canada each year and stay for at least six months at a time, have sparked an explosion in foreign travel and property speculation in Canada, particularly from China.

The multiple-entry visas have caused a migration “chain reaction,” Lee said, which often leads to international students becoming proxies for offshore real-estate investors.

“A multiple entry visa creates multiple effects,” said Lee.

“It’s one stone that kills many birds. And it impacts the real-estate market. The main purpose for a lot of this (interest in 10-year-visas) is to get a piece of Vancouver.”

In addition to providing foreign nationals with a way to enter Canada’s property market, Lee said multiple-entry visas pave the way for would-be immigrants to visit their offspring in Canada, many of whom are foreign students who work and eventually apply for permanent resident status.

Vancouver immigration lawyer Sam Hyman joins Lee in maintaining the 10-year visas have some advantages, such as increasing tourism.

The visas, Lee said, are a key reason that Canada this year jumped from 17th to third most popular destination for Mainland Chinese tourists (of which there were 122 million last year).

But the immigration lawyers agreed a downside of the popularity of 10-year visas is drastically inflated housing prices in Canada’s major cities.

The multiple-entry visas, said Hyman and Lee, have helped make Canada the world’s second most desired country for multimillionaire Mainland Chinese, according to the Hurun Report.

Metro Vancouver is the fifth most popular city in the world for wealthy Chinese investors, while Toronto is eighth.

Ten-year visas, in addition, provide greater opportunities for increased tax avoidance and evasion, which Hyman and other immigration specialists say is an ongoing problem in Canada’s real-estate industry, especially in B.C.

Hyman is particularly concerned about how a diverse range of real-estate speculators in B.C. use various means to obscure the legal ownership of property.

A multiple-entry visa offers “many people exactly what they want,” said Hyman.

“They want to be seen as tourists. They want to be off the radar of the Canada Revenue Agency,” including by being able to claim they’re not residents of Canada for income tax purposes.

The multiple-entry visa gives wealthy foreign nationals increasing opportunities to use their low-income-earning offspring and others as proxies, sometimes called “nominees,” to buy Canadian property on their behalf, according to Lee and Hyman.

Many wealthy foreign nationals employ their international-student children as channels for investing in real estate, they say, noting there are 130,000 foreign students in B.C., 51,000 of whom are from Mainland China.

“Some people are transferring their wealth to their dependents and then relinquishing their permanent resident status in Canada. They’re applying instead for 10-year visitors’ visas,” Hyman said.

He is particularly aware of foreign nationals, as well as domestic Canadians, using “bare trusts” and other loopholes to purchase properties and avoid paying taxes in B.C.

His worries echo a Transparency International report that says stronger tax enforcement is desperately needed in Canada and especially for Metro Vancouver, where governments can’t identify the owners of almost half the region’s 100 most valuable homes.

“B.C. is losing tens of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes related to property,” said Hyman.

Too many dubious ways exist — the immigration lawyer said — for real estate investors to obscure their identities and avoid paying Canadian income taxes, B.C.’s 15-per cent foreign buyers tax, B.C.’s property transfer tax or capital gains tax on real-estate profits.

To combat exploitation of Metro Vancouver’s housing market, Hyman said, one of the first things the new NDP government of B.C. should do is close the bare-trust loophole for owning properties.

Former B.C. Liberal finance minister Mike de Jong promised in 2016 to get rid of the loophole, said Hymen, but he reneged.

The Ontario government is far ahead of B.C. on this regulation, Hyman said. It closed the loophole in 1983.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.