Three phases to Plaza of Nations redevelopment

Naoibh O’Connor
Western Investor

Canadian Metropolitan Properties’ plans to redevelop the North East False Creek Plaza of Nations site at 750 Pacific Boulevard are set to go before the Urban Design Panel this week

James KM Cheng Architects filed a development permit application for the project, which includes terraced buildings up to 30 storeys, commercial space on lower floors and market and non-market residential uses on upper floors. The development also features a civic centre that includes a community centre, an ice rink, a music venue and a 69-space childcare facility. A new community plaza and seawall are planned as well.

The ice rink will serve as a practice facility for the Vancouver Canucks and it will also be for public use.

The former Vision-led council unanimously approved rezoning for the 10.28-acre site in July 2018.

At that time, staff valued the Community Amenity Contribution (CAC) package at $325 million.

The 2.2 million-square-foot development will be built in three phases. Daisen Gee-Wing, a senior vice-president at Canadian Metropolitan Properties Corp., said the timeline for the project is uncertain as approvals are still needed and market conditions will also be a factor, but the best case scenario is construction could take five to six years.

The music venue, ice rink, community centre and childcare facility will be built in phase two.

Canadian Metropolitan Properties Corp. will own the music venue, although the city has the option to buy it for $10 million. The rink will be owned by the city.

“The city and the residents wanted to be able to see BC Place through our development so there’s a plaza that allows people from the south side to see right to BC Place,” Gee-Wing said. “That plaza will be used for public events — and it’s a linear one.”

Some roof-top decks will be open to the public, although others won’t. For security reasons, for instance, the outdoor space allocated to the childcare facility will be private.

Gee-Wing said 1,605,000 million square feet of housing is planned, of which 321,000 square feet will be non-market housing.

Fifty-two per cent of the non-market housing will be built in phase one.

Gee-Wing added that the design for the project went out to stakeholders, including to those in the neighbourhood.

“We had about three or four designs, and everybody sort of picked this one, which is a terraced design — not the podium, tower type. They want to see a new Vancouver typology, [which] is what the city asked for,” he said.

“For us, it’s not as efficient. It’s a difficult development but we wanted to move ahead so we tried to fit within what the city asked for and it’s turned out quite nicely.”

James KM Cheng worked on the design with the assistance of a partner, Bruce Kuwabara of Toronto-based firm KPMB Architects.

The development application goes before the UDP on Wednesday February 5 and is currently scheduled to go before the Development Permit Board March 16.

Copyright © Western Investor

The Real Estate Council of Ontario says Purplebricks staff wrote reviews

Mario Toneguzzi
REM

The Real Estate Council of Ontario says it is looking into allegations that real estate brokerage Purplebricks Canada used staff to write online reviews about the company.

In a statement to REM, Joseph Richer, RECO’s registrar, says: “We are aware of the allegations regarding the soliciting of online reviews at Purplebricks, and we have received numerous inquiries about it as well. We are currently looking into the matter to gather more information, in order to determine whether this would constitute a violation of the legislation.”

A recent article at Forbes.com said Purplebricks Canada offered employees paid days off in exchange for made-up positive reviews on Facebook and Google.

The article said it had obtained an email sent by Purplebricks Canada’s marketing department to the company’s staff. The article reported that the email said: “No need to fabricate stories, just an ‘I think Purplebricks is great’ or ‘Purplebricks is the future of real estate’ would be fantastic,” read the email, which was sent by one of the company’s marketing directors in March 2019.

An email to REM from the public relations firm Casacom, which manages Purplebricks Canada’s media relations, says, “This is the only statement Purplebricks is issuing. No interviews will be granted.”

The statement says, “The email did not ask for fake reviews. It was sent in good faith and was a complete one-off and an error of judgment. We only offered this incentive once, in March 2019, and it generated only a handful of reviews. It followed the name change from ComFree to Purplebricks and the refusal of Google and Facebook to transfer the reviews that were already on their sites; it will never happen again. Purplebricks Canada recognizes that it’s vital for all reviews to be genuine and authentic – and we work hard to earn positive feedback from our customers through our expertise and great service.”

Purplebricks is an online real estate brokerage. It officially launched its operations in Canada in January 2019, but the company acquired the DuProprio/ComFree Network from Yellow Pages Digital & Media Solutions Limited in June 2018.

In a story in REM last June, Purplebricks Canada CEO and general manager Lukas Lhotsky said the company is a registered real estate brokerage that helps people buy and sell their home for a single fixed fee, offering the same expertise consumers would expect from a traditional real estate brokerage.

The company’s website currently advertises an up-front listing fee of $499 and a $2,499 fee payable when the home successfully sells, plus taxes. Buyer agent commission is not included.

The site says the brokerage currently has more than 80 Realtors.

Purplebricks’ parent company is based in London, England. It first expanded to North America in September 2017, operating in Los Angeles. But in July 2019 it announced it was shuttering its business in the U.S.

Romana King, director of content at Zolo Realty, said the online review issue is in a grey zone for real estate boards and for ethics committees.

“It’s unfortunate,” says King, adding issues of this nature hurt anyone who is involved in the real estate business.

“It’s not like real estate agents and brokerages have a stellar reputation in the marketplace right now as it is. Really, it’s terrible timing. You’ve got an industry that’s really desperately trying to clean itself up and the bad press it’s received in the last four or five years with all the less than reputable practices . . . This is not isolated to the real estate business but it hurts the real estate business in Canada because people aren’t just going to see Purplebricks, they’re going to see any company that’s not on the up and up.”

She said some of the long-established real estate firms in the country might get away from the public scrutiny a little easier, but the newer brokerages that are pushing the industry into the technological age might hurt a little bit more.

“We have to do it right,” says King. “We have to do it right from the start and that means being honest members of the business industry. And you can’t do that if you’re trying to game your reviews.”

Online reviews can be powerful, she says. Studies have shown that 90 per cent of consumers will look at those online reviews before they make a purchasing decision.

“That’s a huge chunk of people . . . I think consumers need to be better educated on how to actually review online reviews and see whether or not they’re legitimate,” says King.

One way to do that is to look and see if there are many similar reviews and if they are skewed in either a good or bad direction. Check out when the reviews are posted and the names used for the reviews.

© 1989-2020 REM Real Estate Magazine

Home sales in January 2020 were 42.4 per cent higher than one year previously, reports board, while inventory remains low

Joannah Connolly
Western Investor

The Metro Vancouver residential real estate market has had a fairly strong start to the year, relative to the poor performance of one year previously, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported February 4.

There were 1,571 home sales on the MLS in January, which is a 42.4 per cent increase over January 2019.

Traditionally the slowest month of the year for real estate sale registrations (see graph below), because there is so little home-hunting activity in December, January’s sales were a 22.1 per cent decrease from the 2,016 homes sold in December 2019.

Last month’s sales were still slightly under long-term typical activity for the month, as the very active markets of 2015 through 2017 pushed up the 10-year sales averages. January’s total was 7.3 per cent below the 10-year January sales average.

“We’ve begun 2020 with steady home buyer demand that tracks close to the region’s long-term average,” Ashley Smith, REBGV president said. “Looking at supply, we’re seeing fewer homes listed for sale than is typical for this time of year. As we approach the traditionally more active spring market, we’ll keep a close eye on supply to see if the number of homes being listed is keeping pace with demand.”

There were 3,872 homes newly listed for sale in January, which is 20.1 per cent lower than the 4,848 homes listed in January 2019, although it’s more than double the number of homes that were listed in December 2019.

This takes the total number of homes listed for sale in Metro Vancouver, as of January 31, to 8,617, which is a 20.3 per cent decrease from January 2019 and only a 0.2 per cent higher than December 2019. The current figure is also 13.7 per cent below the 10-year January average number of active listings.

The increase in demand coupled with a relatively low supply of homes for sale is inevitably keeping home prices on the slow upward trajectory they have been seeing since summer 2019 (see graph to the right).

The composite benchmark price for all home types in Metro Vancouver is currently $1,008,700. This is a 1.4 per cent rise in the past six months, and 0.8 per cent higher than December, although still 1.2 per cent less than in January 2019.

Sales and prices by property type and area

At 439 transactions in January, Metro Vancouver’s single-family detached home sales were up 29.5 per cent year over year. However, it’s also a 26.7 per cent decline over December’s relatively strong sales, which is bringing the sector back towards buyer’s market territory.

Nevertheless, the typical price of a detached home in the region rose 0.5 per cent month over month to $1,431,200, which is a one-per-cent recovery over the past six months, but 1.7 per cent lower than January 2019.

Region-wide figures only tell half the story, however. Seven of the board’s 20 areas saw detached prices in January higher those of one year previously, led by Whistler (up 4.8 per cent) and Squamish (up 4.7 per cent). Annual declines in region’s overall detached benchmark price were led by the Sunshine Coast, (down 5.9 per cent) and Bowen Island (down 5.3 per cent). The double-digit benchmark price declines seen in areas such as West Vancouver and Vancouver West have now subdued to two to three per cent annual price drops.

In the attached-home sector, such as townhomes and duplexes, sales across Metro Vancouver rose 55.1 per cent year over year to 318 transactions. This is 12.6 per cent below December 2019’s attached home sales.

Townhomes have seen the biggest benchmark price recovery since last summer, with the typical price of an attached unit now at $782,500. This is a 1.6 per cent increase over the past six months, a 0.5 per cent increase from December 2019 and only 0.7 per cent lower than in January 2019.

Four MLS areas saw higher attached-home benchmark prices than one year previously. Like in the detached sector, Whistler and Squamish saw townhome prices increase the most, up 9.4 and 7.7 per cent respectively. Ladner (down 6.7 per cent) and Tsawwassen (down 6.5 per cent) continued to lead the annual price declines for this sector, with new townhome construction in those areas apparently exceeding local demand.

Some 814 condos traded in Metro Vancouver last month, which was a 45.6 jump year over year, and a 22.7 per cent drop compared with December.

The benchmark price of a condo in the region has risen one per cent over a month to $663,200, which is a 1.5 per cent increase over the past six months, but a drop of one per cent over the year since January 2019.

Looking at condo markets in the different areas, five MLS areas saw values hold their own from one year previously, with prices up 1.8 per cent in Port Moody and 1.2 per cent in Coquitlam. Like townhomes, the biggest annual price declines in the condo sub-markets were seen in Ladner (down 7.1 per cent) and Tsawwassen (down 8.1 per cent).

Home prices vary widely in different areas throughout the region. To get a good idea of home prices in a specific Metro Vancouver location and by property type, check the detailed MLS® Home Price Index in the full REBGV stats package.

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

Federal program so far used by only 29 home buyers in Metro Vancouver

Frank O’Brien
Western Investor

The federal First Time Buyer Incentive (FTHBI), introduced in September 2019, has so far been used by only 29 buyers in Metro Vancouver and fewer than 3,000 first buyers across Canada.

Calling the program “a flop,” Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Dominion Lending Centres, noted that total funding of $55 million was “less than a stellar start” given the FTHBI’s $1.25 billion three-year target.

Cooper added the incentive has been introduced while the federal mortgage stress, which requires all homebuyers to qualify for mortgage interest rates higher than what is actually available, is in effect.

The incentive’s price ceiling also makes it hard for buyers to qualify in some big cities, she added. The FTHBI currently caps household income at $120,000, making the maximum eligible mortgage value approximately $480,000, a price that is rare in Metro Vancouver, even for condominiums.

The shared-equity incentive provides a no-payment loan equal to five per cent of the purchase price on a resale home, or 10 per cent on a new-build home, for up to 25 years, or when the home is sold. When the agreement ends, the buyer pays the government back the same percentage, based on the then-current value of the home – not the amount of the incentive received.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) data released to Western Investor on January 31 shows that in Metro Vancouver the program received 45 applications for the program but only 29 were approved, with an average loan of $18,000, representing a home price of approximately $350,000. Only four applicants were approved in Victoria and just 84 in the rest of the province. This is the lowest level for any province east of the Atlantic region during the last four months of 2019.

Sharing in a home’s appreciation could be a disincentive for Vancouver-area buyers. For example, if a $350,000 condo increased by the same amount – 67 per cent – in the next five years as it did in the last five years in Metro Vancouver, and the owner sold, they would have to pay back $29,225, not the $18,000 borrowed.

CMHC figures show the largest take-up for the FTHBI was in Montreal, where 557 out of 654 applications were approved with an average incentive loan of $16,000.

In Greater Toronto, 109 out of 145 applicants were approved for an average loan of $20,000. The city of Edmonton had the second-highest first-time homebuyer applications approved, with 375 buyers receiving an average loan of $24,000.

In an emailed statement, a CMHC spokesman defended the program.

“The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive has been available for only four months, during the fall and winter seasons, which are slow for homebuyers. As the busier spring and summer seasons approach, we expect the number of homebuyers who can access the incentive to increase significantly,” stated Leonard Catling, senior officer, media relations with CMHC.

In 2019, the percentage of Canadian first-time homebuyers fell to 47 per cent of all buyers, down from 51.5 per cent a year earlier, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, which blames the decrease on the effect of the national mortgage stress test.

Copyright © Western Investor

BC Homes Sales Carry Momentum into 2020

BCREA

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2020 First Quarter Housing Forecast Update today.

Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential sales in the province are forecast to increase 10.3 per cent to 85,290 units this year, after recording 77,349 residential sales in 2019. MLS® residential sales are forecast to increase 6.3 per cent to 90,700 units in 2021.

The outlook for home sales in 2020 is considerably brighter than the past two years. A strong recovery that began in the middle of last year helped to offset an uncommonly languid spring, and sales closed out 2019 essentially unchanged from the year before. Momentum carried through to 2020 will put the housing market on more solid footing, aided by low interest rates and an improving economy. We forecast 2020 MLS® unit sales will normalize around their long-run average of about 85,000 units before rising to 90,700 units in 2021. The BC economy has slowed over the past two years, hindered by heightened uncertainty in global trade and a faltering housing market. Weaker home sales and a more stringent consumer credit environment dragged household consumption to a second straight year of sub-par growth, as evidenced by sputtering retail sales. However, strong wage growth and an expected rise in home prices should translate to higher consumption spending as consumer confidence brightens. With major investment projects also ramping up – LNG Canada being most prominent – we expect to see a modest uptick in provincial economic growth from an estimated 2 per cent in 2019 to 2.4 per cent in 2020.

While demand is recovering, the supply of homes for sale has not managed to keep pace. New listings activity did not materially increase during the downturn in home sales, and total inventory did not accumulate to the same extent as in prior slowdowns. New home construction hit a record high for BC in 2019, adding to the already historically high number of units under construction. However, much of that new supply is still years from reaching the market. As a result, market conditions around the province are tightening and home prices will likely face upward pressure as demand continues to firm. In 2020, we expect the MLS® average price will rise 4.8 per cent to $734,000.

The deadline for homeowners in Vancouver to file their Empty Homes Tax declaration is almost here

Steve Randall
Mortgage Broker News

The deadline for homeowners in Vancouver to file their Empty Homes Tax declaration is almost here.

Owners have until February 4 to tell the City or face a $250 fine – or dispute the ticket – before they can file late.

Those homes that are subject to EHT are those that are declared vacant by the property owner without qualifying for one of the eight exemptions. Principal residences and those homes that are rented out for at least 6 months of the year in blocks of at least 30 days.

If no declaration is made by the deadline, the City will assume the property is subject to EHT and bill the owner accordingly. However, this will be cancelled is a late declaration shows that no tax is due.

The City of Vancouver says that 84% of owners had made a declaration as of January 27.

For those that do need to pay the tax, the deadline for payment is April 16, 2020, otherwise an additional 5% will be added.

Declarations can be made online, in person, or by phone.

Copyright © 2020 Key Media

Two-acre land parcel in prime development location fetches $400K under its $3.2M asking price

Jag Cheema Royal LePage Harpreet Singh Cushman & Wakefield
Western Investor

Breakdown:

Type of property: Industrial land on waterfront

Size of land: Two acres (in two parcels)

Location: 7150 Bank Street and 33356 Timberwood Avenue, Mission

Zoning: Industrial (ING)

Asking price: $3.2 million

Sale price: $2.8 million

Date of sale: January 25, 2020

Brokerage: Royal LePage Wheeler Cheam Realty, Vancouver

Brokers: Jag Cheema, Royal LePage; listing agent Harpreet Singh PREC, Cushman & Wakefield

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor