Close to nature, parks and trails, Polygon’s Kentwell takes its place atop Coquitlam?s Burke Mountain

Simon Briault
The Vancouver Sun

Kentwell

Project location: 3500 Burke Village Promenade, Coquitlam

Project size: 124 four-bedroom townhomes ranging in size from 1,496 to 2,239 square feet, with prices starting from $828,900

Developer: Polygon Kentwell Homes Ltd.

Architect: RLA Architects

Interior designer: Polygon Interior Design Ltd.

Sales centre: 3500 Burke Village Promenade, Coquitlam

Hours: noon — 6 pm., Sat — Thurs

Sales phone: 604-260-8446

Website: polyhomes.com/community/kentwell

You only have to look at the numbers to see that Polygon is a huge player in residential development in British Columbia: the company has built more than 27,000 homes in the Lower Mainland. That kind of experience is likely to earn you a loyal following and Goldie Alam, Polygon’s senior vice-president of marketing, said this is particularly true of Kentwell, the company’s latest townhome development in Coquitlam.

“We’ve built more than 4,700 homes in Coquitlam already and a lot of the buyers at Kentwell are repeat customers from our other Coquitlam communities,” Alam said. “They’ve bought with us before, they know that our customer service is great and they like the new plans. It doesn’t hurt that their initial investments did well too. All of that means they’re confident buying with us again.”

Kentwell is a collection of 124 four-bedroom townhomes in the Smiling Creek neighbourhood atop Burke Mountain. Designed by RLA Architects, Kentwell homes feature Tudor-inspired architecture, picket fencing and individual entry gates. But the big selling point for the development, Alam said, is its proximity to nature, parks and an extensive network of 21 trails suitable for hiking and mountain biking.

“The great thing about Burke Mountain is, of course, that it provides such great access to green space, but the other thing is that it’s so new,” she said. “The City of Coquitlam is still putting in a lot of amenities there, which people really love. There are new schools opening and new parks going in, including one right across the street from Kentwell. There’s also a huge trail network that they maintain really well.”

Access to the great outdoors played an important part in Nicole Wang’s decision to buy a home at Kentwell. A recent arrival from Montreal, Wang will take possession of her new home before the end of the year.

“The idea was for us to move here first and rent somewhere until we decide where exactly we want to live,” Wang said. “I really love Coquitlam because it feels like a brand new city and the environment is so beautiful here.

“We didn’t plan to go to this particular development,” Wang added. “We were just driving past and it looked so beautiful from the outside, so we decided to go into the show room. I really like that it’s a new home with clean, modern designs. The whole community is brand new and it has great access to nature – there’s going to be a new park right in front of my home.”

Kentwell homes feature private double-car garages, custom entry plaques with integrated lighting, wood laminate flooring and main floor powder rooms. All homes are wired for technology with multiple pre-wired connections for high-speed cable. There are hard-wired smoke detectors, hose bibs both front and back and laundry closets with rough-ins for side-by-side washers and dryers.

Kitchens come with flat-panel cabinetry in dark wood, light wood, or high gloss. Cabinets and drawers feature soft-close hardware and chrome pulls and there are expansive kitchen islands, engineered stone countertops and full-height linear mosaic marble tile backsplashes. The stainless-steel appliance packages are by KitchenAid and there are roll-out recycling bins under the kitchen sinks as well as halogen track lighting.

Master ensuite bathrooms feature spa-inspired showers with benches, built-in niches and frameless doors. Vanities include engineered stone counters, dual rectangular porcelain sinks and oversized mirrors. Main bathrooms feature bathtubs with ceramic tile surrounds, rectangular porcelain sinks, porcelain tile flooring, engineered stone countertops and vanity lighting. All bathrooms feature faucets by Grohe, custom flat-panel cabinetry matched with chrome pulls, porcelain tile flooring and dual-flush toilets.

The Kentwell development also includes a private 1,100-square-foot health club with a fully equipped fitness studio, weights area and yoga room. There are two central green spaces, a children’s play area and pedestrian walkways throughout the site that provide interconnected routes to green spaces and trails in the surrounding areas.

“These homes are huge,” Alam said. “We’ve built four-bedroom townhomes before, but it’s not that common that we do a whole community of them. It’s mostly families or downsizers who are buying these homes so it works for both of those markets.”

Prices start at $828,900 for Kentwell’s phase-one homes, with only a few homes left as of late last week. Polygon will release phase two of the project on Sept. 15.

“With the launch of phase two, people will have a lot more choice of plans and locations within the site,” Alam said. “We have some homes right now that have some very quick completions – you could be moving in as early as this fall – but our next phase has longer completion times stretching into next spring and summer. So, for people who need time to save up or sell an existing home, there’s plenty of options too.”

© 2018 Postmedia Network Inc.

Buyer beware: How purchasing property from a non-resident of Canada could leave you with a hefty tax bill

Jamie Golombek
The Vancouver Sun

If you’re buying a house or condo and you suspect that the current owner from whom you are purchasing the property is a non-resident of Canada, you could be personally liable for the vendor’s Canadian capital gains tax if you don’t take certain precautions.

Indeed, this is precisely what happened in a recent tax case decided this summer. But, to properly understand the case and thus ensure you don’t find yourself in a similar situation, a brief review of how Canada taxes residents and non-residents is in order.

If you’re a resident in Canada, then you have to pay tax in Canada on your worldwide income. Non-residents of Canada generally don’t have to pay Canadian tax unless they earn Canadian-source income. Some types of income, such as dividends and rental income, are subject to non-resident withholding tax while other types of income that a non-resident earns in Canada must be reported on a Canadian tax return. These types of income include Canadian employment income, business income earned from a business carried on in Canada and capital gains from disposing of Canadian real estate.

So, for example, if a New York state resident sells her Muskoka, Ont., cottage property, any gain she realizes on that sale will be subject to Canadian tax.

Of course collecting the Canadian tax owing from someone living abroad, whether in the U.S. or overseas, could be practically complex, if not totally impossible. That’s why the Canadian tax system, like other tax systems around the globe, has a special rule that states that if there is a gain from the sale of domestic real estate by a non-resident vendor, the purchaser of the property may be responsible for the capital gains tax.

To this end, our Income Tax Act imposes an obligation on the purchaser to withhold 25 per cent of the purchase price from a non-resident unless the vendor has obtained a clearance certificate from the Canada Revenue Agency indicating that the non-resident has made appropriate arrangements to pay the tax. To get this certificate, the vendor needs to file Form T2062, “Request by a Non-Resident of Canada for a Certificate of Compliance Related to the Disposition of Taxable Canadian Property” within ten days of the planned sale, accompanied by a payment of 25 per cent of the expected capital gain on the sale.

If the non-resident doesn’t get a certificate, the Canadian resident purchaser is responsible for the 25 per cent tax owing on behalf of the non-resident unless, “after reasonable inquiry the purchaser had no reason to believe that the non-resident person was not resident in Canada.” 

In 2017, the CRA was asked whether this “reasonable inquiry standard” can be satisfied if the purchaser obtains a statutory declaration from the vendor that the vendor is not and will not, at the time of closing, be a non-resident of Canada.

The CRA’s response was that “the purchaser must take prudent measures to confirm the vendor’s residence status. Each case will be reviewed on an individual basis…. Obtaining such declaration would not, however, provide a due diligence defence if there are facts and circumstances present suggesting that the purchaser should have made further inquiries. Such facts could include, for example, a known mailing address outside of Canada or any other indication of the vendor’s residence being outside Canada in the transaction documentation.”

In the recent tax case, it was a foreign address combined with a questionable declaration that proved problematic for the purchaser.

In June 2011, the taxpayer purchased a Toronto condominium unit from an “apparent non-resident of Canada.” The transaction was completed without a clearance certificate and without the taxpayer having deducted and withheld 25 per cent of the purchase price. The taxpayer thus found himself in Tax Court liable for $92,000 of tax, being 25 per cent of the $368,000 purchase price of the condo.

The taxpayer was aware from a prior visit to the condo that the vendor did not live there and that it was an investment property for him. The taxpayer retained a lawyer who established through searches and other preparation work for the closing of the transaction that the vendor had purchased this property in 2009 and his then address for service was in Danville, California. This was the same address for service as the vendor had given for his now sale of the property. As well, the taxpayer’s lawyer was informed that vendor would be signing the closing documents in California.

Just prior to closing, the vendor signed a one sentence unsworn statement before a California notary public in Danville, Calif., stating, “I am not a non-resident of Canada within the meaning of … the Income Tax Act (Canada) and nor will I be a non-resident of Canada at the time of closing.”

The judge found it curious that the notary stated only that this statement had been “DECLARED before me.” There was no reference to the statement being either a “sworn” or “solemn” declaration or that the statement had been declared under penalty of perjury. This contrasted with another declaration given the same day, before the same California notary public, regarding certain “HST matters” in which the vendor indeed did make a solemn declaration.

The issue before the court was whether the taxpayer, through his lawyer, had “after reasonable inquiry … no reason to believe that the (Vendor) was not resident in Canada.”

The judge felt that there were simply too many red flags to accept the unsworn declaration as evidence that the vendor was truly not a non-resident. The taxpayer could have asked “(s)imple questions such as what was the Vendor’s permanent address … (as well asking for) a copy of the Vendor’s driver’s license.”

In finding the taxpayer liable for the tax, the judge concluded: “(The law) calls for and deserves more than a brief, baldly stated affidavit or solemn declaration when there are factual red-flags potentially suggestive of non-residency. The matter should then be pursued, to give due effect to the fiscal concern that Parliament sought to address in its drafting of” the purchaser withholding tax requirement.

© 2018 Financial Post

Bank of Canada spoke about its decision to keep interest rates on hold

Steve Randall
REP

Canada’s economy is adjusting well to higher borrowing rates and tighter mortgage lending restriction.

That was one of the key messages from the Bank of Canada’s senior deputy governor Carolyn Wilkins in a speech to the Saskatchewan Trade & Export Partnership on Thursday.

She spoke about the BoC’s decision this week to keep interest rates on hold but made it clear that higher rates are coming, albeit in small steps.

Inflation remains the main reason for the rate rise and she reinforced the bank’s assessment that the economy, both domestic and global, is positive.

Ms. Wilkins said that interest rates remain low compared to what would be considered a ‘neutral rate’, which the bank has clarified is in the 2.5-3.5% range.

Economy on target but volatile

The Canadian economy should operate near potential over the next couple of years, she added, but said that the quarterly GDP profile would remain volatile for the rest of 2018.

With a spike in exports in Q2 likely to ease and outages in the oil sector also expected to weigh on growth, Q3 data may be weaker; but the BoC is still expecting growth of around 2%.

She said that recent GDP data supported the bank’s decision to increase rates in July and she noted that household consumption and home renovations data showed that Canadians are generally adjusting well to the higher rates.

Housing market stabilizing

Ms. Wilkins spoke about the housing market, noting that there have been impacts of policy decisions on the resale market.

This has been prominent in the Toronto and Vancouver markets but there are signs of improvement, especially in Toronto, but also other urban areas such as Regina and Saskatoon. Vancouver activity and price growth remain subdued.

Overall though, the signs are that borrowers and mortgage lenders are coping with higher rates and tighter mortgage rules.

There is also an improvement in household credit growth and in the quality of new uninsured mortgages.

In conclusion, Wilkins said: “Recent data reinforce Governing Council’s assessment that higher interest rates will be warranted to achieve the inflation target. We will continue to take a gradual approach, guided by incoming data.”

She added that the BoC will continue to assess the impact of higher rates and how that might be changed by NAFTA and other trade policy developments.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

Sub-areas under review by Okanagan real estate board

Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

The latest investigation by Global News has a crucial warning for hopeful home buyers in the Okanagan: multiple listings in the area have been falsely listed as being located in the highly desirable Lower Mission market.

The Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board has promised to root out the practice.

“We have taken steps to rectify these listings,” Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board CEO Lynette Keyowski said. “There are listings that have been placed in the wrong sub-area, so thank you for bringing that to our attention.

A mis-listed home actually situated in the Springfield/Spall area has already been sold over a year ago, while another listing currently under construction is actually located at KLO Road near Benvoulin.

“We have notified all of the people — the realtors who have listed in the inappropriate places,” Keyowski added. “As a matter of fact, again based on [Global’s] phone calls, many of them have called us and asked ‘What can we do to fix this? We didn’t even realize that it was wrong, can you please give us a hand?’ So we’ve worked with them and rectified the issue.”

Earlier this year, Okanagan developers warned that newly implemented measures could negatively affect the construction and sales of recreational and second homes for people outside of the province.

Industry players in the region have repeatedly expressed anxiety that the B.C. government’s decision to hike the foreign home buyer’s tax and introduce a speculation tax will steer the market wrong.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

Shell companies and legal trusts used in real estate laundering

Neil Sharma
REP

Canadian real estate is being exploited by international money launderers, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute.

The report’s author Denis Meunier, a former deputy director with Canada’s anti-money laundering agency—estimates between $5bln and $100bln is laundered through the country every year. The laundered money is the proceeds of crime involving drugs, smuggling, tax evasion and corruption.

The money has made its way into Canadian real estate and businesses because shell companies’ and legal trusts’ owners aren’t required to be identified.

Meunier notes that European countries have made registries public, thereby revealing asset owners, but Canada has dated transparency laws. In fact, he says the loopholes are so conspicuous that comparatively trifling forms of registration ask for more identification.

Canadians “Must provide a government approved photo identification to obtain a bank account, library card or official documents, such as a passport and driver’s licence,” says Meunier’s report. “No such scrutiny is placed on the beneficial owners of corporations or parties to a trust.”

Earlier this year, British Columbia was the subject of intense scrutiny over links between the fentanyl trade, casinos and real estate, and Meunier points to the fact that the provincial government is on the record as promising reforms. In its 2018 budget, the government assured that a publicly accessible registry will identify the real owners of real estate in the province.

Meunier also censured Ontario’s provincial and Toronto’s municipal governments for being passive about identifying beneficial owners of corporations and trusts involved in real estate. Moreover, he says the consequences of money laundering and tax evasion are assumed by taxpayers.

To rectify the problem, the report recommends reforming corporate registries and forcing corporations, trusts and reporting entities, like realty brokerages, to fully disclose beneficial ownership information. An additional measure recommended by Meunier’s report is adopting the European model of beneficial ownership transparency, which would then put Canada on par with international standards.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

Marquise showcases sleek, yet practical design

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

Marquise

Project size: 58 homes in total (seven townhomes, 51 condos) with one, two and three bedrooms, from 620 to 1,360 square feet

Where: 495 West King Edward Avenue

Developer and builder: Blairmore Development Group

Residence sizes and prices: One-bedrooms from $795,900; two-bedrooms from $1,289,900; three-bedroom townhomes from $1,949,900. Penthouses on request

Sales centre: 4033 Cambie Street

Sales centre hours: Noon to 5 p.m., Sat — Thurs

Jamie Judd and Portico Design create unexpected touches of beauty in the interiors at Marquise, Blairmore Development Group’s community of townhomes and condos planned for the Cambie corridor.

The display space shows plenty of storage integrated into a sleek, minimalistic design. In the living room, Portico used a warm monochromatic palette as a canvas for the attention-getter: a wall unit with a lower half stretching from one end of the room to the other in a continuous horizontal line.

“I wanted to create a cohesive space by bringing the clean lines from the kitchen into the living room,” says Judd, a designer and member of the Portico team. “Using a warm, tonal palette allows for the space to feel inviting and open.”

While visitors may be accustomed to a symmetrical placement of furnishings,

Judd bucks convention by placing open shelving — the main feature of the living room millwork — on a far side of the wall.

“My approach to designing this millwork was to create something simplistic, while still retaining practicality,” Judd says.

“Utilizing narrow open shelving allows for minimal décor and an overall clean esthetic. Having the open shelving on one side of the millwork allowed for an interesting counterbalance.”

Homebuyers have the choice of two colour palettes. ‘Clarity’, seen in the show suite at 4033 Cambie Street, features light oak engineered hardwood floors, while the ‘Colour’ option has darker floors and cabinetry.

In that same living room, she paired plush chairs with pillows and thick throws, only to contrast the softness with a sleek glass coffee table. The large table is one of Judd’s favourite pieces in the room. “It’s such a beautiful piece, simple but intricate at the same time.”

In the kitchen, Judd and Portico Design gave a similar feel to the living room, allowing the visitor’s eye to follow the horizontal lines. As the shades, tints and tones stay in the same colour group, it gives a sense of architecture and great size to the space.

“Being able to visually follow the horizontal lines creates a sense of balance in the space,” says Judd. “Utilizing the warm tonal palette allows for the space to open up and feel brighter, while still creating a bit of contrast.”

The Portico designers blend beauty and practicality, particularly in the choice of finishes. For instance, Judd considered matte tile as a classy touch for the washroom style, while ensuring homeowners’ safety.

“Certainly, there is a balance between the esthetic and functionality,” she notes.

“Those matte finished floor tiles were selected for the washrooms to provide an anti-slip quality, while still providing an esthetic balance with a polished wall tile.”

© 2018 Postmedia Network Inc.

Approximately 28% of GTA properties listed for sale through Toronto?s MLS are empty

Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

A recent slackening in the rate of price growth among Toronto’s residential properties might have led to greater vacancy rates in the city’s home listings, Realosophy Realty Inc. president John Pasalis said.

Numbers from the Altus Group showed that the benchmark price of new single-family homes in the GTA stood at $1,142,574 as of July, representing an almost flat 0.85% increase from June and 13.2% up from July 2017.

Meanwhile, the benchmark price of new condominium apartments was $774,759, virtually unchanged from June but up 16.5% from July last year.

As of this week, approximately 28% of GTA properties listed for sale through Toronto’s MLS are empty, up 17% from last year.

Pasalis warned that this fraction might only grow larger in the future, especially since the actual number of vacant homes is almost certainly higher. Much of these listings are low-rises in the 905 region.

Many sellers are hoping for prices to go back up to the levels they were at in 2017, and Pasalis noted that this likely played a major role in the increased vacancy.

“When house prices fell last year, it caught a lot of owners off guard,” he told CBC News. “A lot of them are really just trying to hold out for sort of those peak prices.”

Pasalis is not expecting price growth to pick up its pace even during the historically active fall season, however.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

Using passive income to free time

Neil Sharma
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Many real estate investors begin with dreams of using passive income to free time and enjoy their lives, but few realize that outcome.

That isn’t the case for Nam Ratna, co-founder of Go Get It Real Estate in Winnipeg. With medical school nearly concluded, Ratna learned an invaluable lesson that transformed his life and set him upon a new trajectory from which he’s never looked back.

“Our goal was to quit our day jobs,” said Ratna, alluding to his partners, Tayler Fehr and his brother Saran Ratna. “I came from the medical industry where I was going to be a doctor, and in my fourth year I decided that once I graduate I won’t practice. Instead, I decided to start a real estate company because for us, real estate is about passive income so that we’re not exchanging time for money and we can spend more time on our passions, with our family and with our friends.”

Ratna was largely impelled by the unhappy faces surrounding him.

“I fast-forwarded 10, 15 years and couldn’t imagine living like that,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine my daughter wanting to hang out and having to say, ‘No, I have to go to work.’”

The founders of Go Get It Real Estate buy, fix and sell properties, or rent them out. After finding discounted properties and raising capital, they put deals together. As Ratna tells it, every step of the process is systematic.

Go Get It Real Estate started a mentorship division last year, and these lessons are available to investors who have always dreamed about exiting the rat race but also living comfortably.

“The reason my students have success is because of the foundational mindset we lay. The first is ‘why.’ You have to have strong purpose. I did it to take control of my time so that I’m not exchanging time for money. I get to spend time with my family. You have to have strong purpose.”

Consistency is another build block the Go Get It team impart. One must learn and improve consistently, year after year after year, says Ratna.

“We’ve met evert single week, the three of us, for the last five years and a half years when we started the company, hitting our weekly goals. Consistency is one of our biggest differentiating factors.”

The predication of Go Get It Real Estate’s is Five Pillars of Zero Money Down, which helps with everything from identifying and acquiring discounted properties before they hit the MLS and general market to networking, negotiating prices, and managing contractors.

The Five Pillars of Zero Money Down uses intricate playbooks for each step of the process from identifying properties and then raising capital, to finding the right tenants.

“We also show how to analyze deals,” said Ratna. “When we get a phone call, what are the questions we ask so we can determine on the phone whether we’re checking out the property or not? When we get there, we use a repair sheet. I know that if it’s 1,000 square foot home and 1,000 square foot roof, it costs me $4.50 per square foot on repairs. We use repair sheet on the spot so that we can make an offer on the spot, that’s why we find deals and close them right there.

“We touch about 40 realtors a week. We have a script we use and let them know we’re looking for certain types of deals before they hit the market.”

Go Get It Real Estate’s mentorship program has proven wildly popular in the local market, and the company prides itself on teaching mindset. It offers everything from one-on-one coaching to online courses and videos with over 30 hours of content.

“We train people on how to do what we do. We teach the mindset you need to succeed in our business, or any business, for that matter, and how to market. I made the decision once to look elsewhere, so I did my research and found out real estate was the way. I knew it would be real estate I went into.”

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd