Winnipeg’s tallest tower nears 42nd floor

WI Staff
Western Investor

— Construction photo at 300 Main Street on March 8, 2021.

Winnipeg is seeing completion of the tallest tower in the city as a $165 million, mixed-use mammoth building finishes construction near the intersection of Portage and Main.

It is also the largest multi-family rental build in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg-based Artis Real Estate Investment Trust(Artis REIT) had the concrete poured March 5 on the 41st floor of what will cap out at a 42-storey tower at 300 Main Street.

The Artis building is already, at just above 128 metres (419.9 feet), higher than the former TD Centre at 201 Portage, which has been Winnipeg’s tallest tower since it was built in 1990.

Once completed later this year, the Artis building will rise 142 metres above the pavement, anchoring the south end of Winnipeg Square.

The plan for the $165-million south tower was first unveiled in April 2016 by Artis REIT, a commercial real estate investment trust that owns Winnipeg Square and 360 Main, a 30-storey Class AAA office tower that comprises the north tower of the square.

The upper floors of 300 Main Street will be residential, with 400 luxury rental apartments. The lower levels will be taken by retail and office tenants.

Artis REIT is a diversified Canadian real estate investment trust investing primarily in industrial and office properties in select markets in Canada and the United States. Since 2004, Artis has built up a portfolio of commercial properties that has grown to approximately 23.8 million square feet of leasable space.

 

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor 

Condo developers perk up as buyers return to Metro Vancouver presale market

Jaonne Lee-Young
The Vancouver Sun

A conceptual photo from Centra, a project from the Everest Group of Companies in Surrey, which is getting back on track after pandemic delays. Photo by Everest Group of Companies /PNG

What a big difference a few months can make in the new condo presale market. There is renewed buyer interest and more projects are selling out as the impact of tight supply, surging prices in the resale market and low interest rates finally spills over from the detached-single home sector of the market

But the outcome for developers, buyers and real estate agents at two presale projects illustrates how tricky it has been navigating the pandemic and adapting to the very sharp, recent upturn in the presale market.

For much of 2019, sales had been frozen. For most of 2020, they stayed weak as other parts of the real estate market boomed.

In November, Denna Homes cancelled its Apex project of 276 condos and townhomes in a North Vancouver highrise. After sales fell off a cliff as COVID-19 cases started to rise, Denna returned down payments to buyers instead of holding onto them, said Dan Thomson, vice-president of marketing.

It didn’t look as if Denna would be able to sell enough presale contracts to get financing to proceed with construction, he said. The rising cost and tight supply of materials was another problem.

“We made a decision based on the information we had at the time,” said Thomson.

He recalled there were reports of more sales in the resale home market in November, but it wasn’t until “come January, all of a sudden, you’re hearing about single family homes that have 30 to 35 offers.

“That wasn’t the case at the time. People were still buying single-family homes at relatively ask(ing) prices.”

Meanwhile, some real estate agents who sold units at the Everest Group of Companies’ Centra condo tower project in Surrey, which sold mostly in 2019, had been wondering about commission fees that have been owed to them since last spring. The company only forwarded these payments to marketing firm Rennie last week.

Sales contracts set out that Centra would pay 50 per cent of the commissions owed to real estate agents 30 days after the company filed an amendment statement and received a building permit, which it did in February 2020. The remaining would be paid upon completion.

Real estate agent Becky Zhou, who sold five units at Centra, hasn’t heard directly from anyone at Everest or Rennie yet, but is glad to hear the commission cheques are en route.

Like other agents who had been wondering if they would be paid, she sees the payments as a sign the project will proceed rather than continue to stall or be cancelled. Her clients each paid deposits of 20 per cent of the full price.

The company said that shortly after it filed a disclosure and received a building permit, the province declared a public health emergency and Centra came to a standstill.

“We, like other developers, faced a reduction in the number of workers allowed on site, uncertainty surrounding the shipment of building materials, as well as other moving parts, all of which had a cascade effect, including a delay in paying realtors,” said Francisco Ignacio, vice-president of operations at Everest Development Group.

Now, he said, with low interest rates and shrinking options in the hot resale market, Everest is looking to relaunch presales and break ground on the Centra project this spring, with a new target of completing the project in about two years.

 

© 2021 Vancouver Sun

Real estate investment Part 2: condo pre-sales and LPs

Frank O’Brien
Western Investor

Vancouver real estate investor Ralph Case helped his son buy a pre-sale condominium in central Surrey in the summer of 2016, putting $30,000 down for a $200,000 apartment scheduled for completion in late 2018. In the summer of 2018, months before the project closed, his son sold the condo as an assignment for $330,000. Minus the down payment, the net profit was $120,0000, Case told the Jurock Land Rush conference March 6 in Vancouver.

In this second of a four-part Western Investor series on real estate investing, we outline how investments in pre-sale condominiums, or purchasing a share of a limited partnership in new condominium or multi-family rental projects can allow investors to get onto a real estate ladder that could carry them to their first home and beyond.

The advantages of buying pre-sale condominiums is that you are investing at today’s prices for a property that will complete in three years, when you expect the price to be higher. Also, a number of Metro Vancouver condo developers are currently offering discounts to move pre-sale units.

There is no guarantee, of course, and investors must be selective about what and where they will be buy. The overall benchmark price of a condominium apartment in Greater Vancouver is now actually 0.4 per cent lower than it was three years ago, but it increased 4.7 per cent in Surrey, 8.7 per cent in Maple Ridge and by 18 per cent in Mission over the same period.

For investors, the concept is not to move into the condo, but to sell it upon completion, or even earlier if assignments are allowed, or to place it on the rental market when the building is complete.

The following are current examples of pre-sale opportunities that are launching shortly, likely by April 2021, compiled with the assistance of Ryznar Media Inc.

• Era, by Swiss RealGroup Canada, is a 20-storey condo tower in Maple Ridge with about 200 units. The developer is offering selected pre-sale one-bedroom condos from $249,900.

• Belvedere, 275-unit condo concrete tower in Central Surrey at a SkyTrain station, by Square Nine Developments. One-bedroom units start in the high $300,000 range. More than 1,000 buyers have registered though it has not officially launched pre-sales yet.

• Telford on the Walk, in Burnaby’s Metrotown, by Intracorp, launched pre-sales in January 2021 and sold out 70 per cent of the 332 units in three weeks. The studio units pre-sell from $389,900 and the completion is set for 2024.

Limited partnerships

There are a number of limited partnerships involved in the real estate investment space, some of which allow income-producing property to be sheltered inside of a registered retirement savings fund. Most of these are targeted at accredited investors, who are those holding at least $5 million in assets (not counting a principal residence) and with incomes of $200,000 or more.

Nicola Wealth of Vancouver is one of the larger groups, with holdings in both commercial and residential and with three funds, including two which concentrate on long-term income and one, a capital fund, that focuses on buy-hold opportunities. According to the company, $1 million invested in Nicola Wealth in 2000 would now be worth $4.08 million. Nicola’s composite annual return is 6.9 per cent over the past 20 years.

One of the smaller limited partnership, and fairly typical of genre, is the Greater Victoria Property Group (GVPG), which concentrates on new multi-family rental apartments.

The latest GVPG offering is a 22-suite rental building in the Esquimalt area of Victoria, being developed as a joint venture with a general partner. The plan is to complete the building, rent the units and then sell the project within three years. Minimum investment is $50,000. The projection – not guaranteed – is for a net profit of $2.4 million, of which the limited partners would take a 40 per cent share, or about $966,958. The simple return on investment is projected at 48.3%, or 16.1 per cent per annum over the three-year horizon.

Developers can also act as partners for condo investors. An example is Mission Group, Kelowna’s largest residential developer, which pre-sells some new condos that are destined to put into a rental pool. An example is the Bertram building, which has 257 condos ranging from studios to two-bedroom suites, with prices starting in the mid-$200,000 range. It is close to the future University of British Columbia Okanagan downtown campus that was approved last summer. The Kelowna rental vacancy rate is 2.7 per cent and monthly rental averages $1,345 for a one-bedroom, but is higher for new projects.

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

Abbotsford townhome project holds presale lottery

Jaonne Lee-Young
The Province

Cinema District townhouses in Abbotsford by Diverse Properties. Photo by Diverse Properties

Home sales and prices have rocketed during the COVID-19 real estate boom. Now, that heat is spilling into the townhome and condo market, where sales had been hammered by government policies in 2019 and then languished for most of 2020.

“Interest in the presale market always follows big rises in the market” for existing homes, said Vancouver real estate agent Mike Stewart.

He named several presale townhome projects — Forester in Coquitlam, Founders Block in North Vancouver and Five Road in Richmond — where developers recently said they had sold out.

This weekend, Diverse Properties was collecting forms for a lottery draw at its Cinema District, a project in Abbotsford,” so it can “determine the priority of buyers to make it fair for everyone interested in purchasing” one of seven 3-bedroom townhomes, starting at $770,999.

It is aiming to complete construction by January 2022, but the lottery will also lineup potential buyers for one larger show home unit it is also selling.

“There’s just been such high demand for these because they have legal rental suites. They were releasing their last phase and we just decided to be organized instead of dealing with all the craziness of multiple offers,” said real estate agent Wendy Tyson.

Interested buyers have until Monday at noon to submit a form. Entrants will receive a price list on Tuesday and then get details for a Zoom call on Wednesday at 6 p.m., during which there will be a live draw “for transparency.”

Michael Ferreira of Urban Analytics, which tracks presale trends, said buyers have been “lining up” again for townhome presales.

This clamouring to buy townhomes, however, hasn’t yet hit presales of highrise or low rise condo units, where there are more projects on the market. But even in those markets, buyer interest has perked up.

It comes as analysts and economists are debating where the housing market will go as low interest rates and tight supply fuel price surges, and there is a return of investors and speculators. Sales of existing detached homes and condos have been selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars over their asking price

The shift in a matter of months is hitting a market where timelines can last for years from the launch of presales to the completion of a project.

“For most of 2019 and 2020, it was difficult to generate the level of buyer interest and urgency needed” for developers to proceed, said Ferreira. “Sales reps were making literally thousands of calls to realtors and prospective buyers to try and generate sufficient interest.”

He added that highrise projects are “seeing significantly higher interest levels, particularly among investors, that will allow most projects to” move forward. Ferreira, however, said “the interest is nowhere close to the … frenzy we saw in 2016-18” when there were double-digit price increases for presale contracts.

 

© 2021 The Province

Metro municipalities retain industrial land control

Graeme Wood
Western Investor

— New industrial development in South Vancouver.| PC Urban

An attempt by Metro Vancouver to strengthen industrial land protection at the regional level, at the expense of municipal autonomy over land use has hit a brick wall.

A recommendation from Metro Vancouver’s regional planning committee to increase the voting threshold for minor industrial land use changes was rejected by two-thirds of the Metro Vancouver board, in a weighted vote on March 5.

The proposal to move from a 50 per cent -plus-one vote to a two-thirds majority for minor changes to industrial and mixed-employment zoned land was rejected mostly by board members from cities with the most industrial land, including Vancouver and Surrey.

The proposal came from the regional planning committee chaired by New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Cote, who wanted the higher threshold.

Cote noted the threshold recommendation came from an industrial land task force that sought ways to protect industrial land from being converted to commercial or residential zoning – a process that was popular among the region’s city councils over the past two decades.

Cote said the higher threshold would make it harder for municipal councils to convert industrial land. As it stands now, a council can approve rezoning but it still needs Metro’s board approval with a 50 per cent-plus-one vote.

“I think it definitely takes one of the strongest tools the region has to protect industrial land out of the toolbox,” Cote told Glacier Media.

Surrey councillors on the regional government’s board were united in their opposition.

Surrey councillor Laurie Guerra cited autonomy for her city and said, at the committee level, that industrial land inventory has increased in recent years.

That is true for developed industrial land, although the total inventory has dipped by a sliver from 11,430 hectares (28,244 acres) in 2010 to 11,331 in 2015. Surrey accounts for 2,584 hectares.

Although Surrey councillor Linda Annis said she opposes any removal of industrial land in Surrey, she voted against the proposal.

Langley mayor Jack Froese said, “if it’s not broken why fix it?”

Surrey Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman told Glacier Media the higher threshold would mean more red tape for minor amendments that could be for “creative uses of industrial land to instigate job creation or business attraction.” 

Richmond councillor Harold Steves voted for the stricter measures, which would align industrial changes to that of removing land from the agricultural land reserve.

“I think these issues are so strong they are largely a regional issue, not a local issue,” said Steves.

According to the Regional Industrial Lands Strategy: “The Metro Vancouver region is experiencing a critical shortage of industrial land.”

Industrial lands comprise 4 per cent of the region’s land base, and accommodate 27 per cent of the region’s jobs, states Metro Vancouver. And to meet the demand forecast to 2050, an additional 800 to 1,600 hectares are needed.

Since 2014 to 2019, industrial land values have more than doubled and rents have increased 50 per cent on average, according to Metro Vancouver.

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

$1 million barrier smashed in Toronto

Ari Altstedter
Mortgage Broker News

 by Ari Altstedter

The average price of a home sold in Toronto breached CA$1 million for the first time in February, with gains accelerating in the suburbs around Canada’s largest city.

Prices in the Toronto region shot up 14.9% from the year before to CA$1.05 million as bidding wars broke out on properties that came up for sale, according to a release today from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. It’s the second Canadian city to join the million-dollar club after Vancouver.

“It’s clear that the historic demand for housing experienced in the second half of last year has carried forward,” Lisa Patel, president of the Toronto real estate board, said in a statement accompanying the report. “The supply of listings is not keeping up with demand, which could present an even larger problem once population growth picks up following widespread vaccinations later this year.”

The Covid-19 pandemic caused an unexpected boom in demand for housing, with the ubiquity of remote work spurring demand for larger homes even as record low mortgage rates increased people’s ability to pay for them.

In Toronto, a stay-at-home order is still in effect and demand for upgraded living space appears to be growing. Ground-level homes in the suburbs were the drivers of February’s price gains. Detached homes in the 905 area code, which surrounds the city of Toronto, rose 27.8% to CA$1.3 million.

But the market is getting so frenzied it’s even bringing life to the downtown condo market that has been hardest hit by the flight to bigger homes. Though average condo prices were still down in February, that segment led the way in sales growth, with transactions surging 64% as bargain hunters piled in, the data show.

“In the absence of a marked uptick in inventory, the current relationship between demand and supply supports continued double-digit average home price growth this year,” the real estate board’s chief market analyst, Jason Mercer, commented in the report.

“If we continue to see growth in condo sales outstrip growth in new condo listings in Toronto, renewed price growth in this market segment is a distinct possibility in the second half of the year.”

 

Copyright © 2021 Key Media

Amendments to improve oversight for real estate, financial services

Victoria
other

People buying or selling a home will benefit from a real estate industry with more efficient and co-ordinated oversight from BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA).

The Province is making legislative amendments to pave the way for BCFSA to become the single regulator for real estate in B.C. later in 2021.

“Whether it’s buying a home or remortgaging an existing property, British Columbians should be at ease knowing one of the biggest purchases of their lives is conducted safely and securely,” said Selina Robinson, Minister of Finance. “These changes will help protect consumers and better co-ordinate oversight of B.C.’s financial services sector, including the real estate market. Moving to a single regulator is a significant step to help BCFSA continue to address fraudulent activities and build protections against money laundering.”

In 2019, the Province announced that B.C. would be moving to a single regulator of financial services and real estate by bringing the responsibilities of the Real Estate Council of British Columbia and the Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate under BCFSA. The amendments will help create a single authority responsible for regulating real estate in B.C. to ensure a more co-ordinated approach to all segments of the financial services sector.

Creating a single regulator for real estate was a key recommendation from the Real Estate Regulatory Structure Review in 2018, as well as the Expert Panel on Money Laundering in BC Real Estate in 2019.

BCFSA currently regulates B.C.’s financial services market, including credit unions, trust companies, registered pension plans, insurance companies and mortgage brokers. The amendments introduced to the Real Estate Services Act will give BCFSA authority with respect to:

• education and licensing for real estate professionals;
• establishing rules governing the conduct for real estate professionals; and
• investigation and discipline for licensed and unlicensed individuals.

In addition, amendments to financial institutions legislation were introduced to empower the superintendent of financial institutions with most regulatory decision-making functions. This will enable BCFSA to operate more effectively as it acquires a new major set of responsibilities around real estate.

These legislative changes will enable BCFSA to become the fully integrated financial services sector regulator later in 2021.

Quotes:

Blair Morrison, CEO, BC Financial Services Authority –

“Bringing the regulation of financial services and real estate under one roof will allow BCFSA to become a modern, efficient and effective regulator for B.C.’s entire financial services sector. By integrating and enhancing its investigative, compliance and enforcement capacity and approach, BCFSA will provide strengthened consumer protection and foster increased public confidence.”

Stanley Hamilton, chair, BCFSA’s board of directors –

“BCFSA’s board of directors welcomes the evolution of B.C.’s regulatory regime with the introduction of these legislative amendments. The board of directors takes its accountabilities relating to approving BCFSA’s strategy and providing operational oversight seriously. We look forward to working closely with the CEO to deliver BCFSA’s mandate as we move forward.”

Micheal Noseworthy, head of the Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate –

“By centralizing our expertise under BCFSA, we will be building on our strengths and streamlining our work to better protect consumers in British Columbia. As the financial services and real estate markets are rapidly changing, we will focus on innovation and continuous improvement, bringing a single lens to the oversight of financial services and real estate with enhanced information sharing.”

Erin Seeley, CEO, Real Estate Council of British Columbia –

“Today’s changes will help modernize and strengthen our regulatory system, while keeping the focus on protecting consumers. Public protection continues to be our priority as we move toward a single regulator and beyond.”

Learn More:

To read the Real Estate Regulatory Structure Review, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/Real_Estate_Regulatory_Structure_Review_Report_2018.pdf

To read the Expert Panel on Money Laundering in BC Real Estate report, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/Combatting_Money_Laundering_Report.pdf

To learn more about BC Financial Services Authority, visit: https://www.bcfsa.ca/

Copyright © 2021, Province of British Columbia.

Buyer competition heats up in Vancouver, home prices post 7% increase in February

Sean MacKay
Livabl

Photo: Chloe Evans / Unsplash

With spring just around the corner, home sales surged across the Vancouver region last month.

A total of 3,727 homes changed hands in February, up 73.3 percent from the same month in 2020, according to data published today by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). Buyers who purchased a home last month were faced with a fiercely competitive market as demand continued to outpace supply.

The intensity of the competition pushed home prices up by nearly seven percent annually and 2.6 percent compared to January.

Housing Market News Alerts

 

“Metro Vancouver’s housing market is experiencing seller’s market conditions. The supply of listings for sale isn’t keeping up with the demand we’re seeing. Competition amongst home buyers is causing upward pressure on home prices,” said REBGV Chair Colette Gerber.

“This is particularly true in the townhome market where demand is outstripping the available supply,” she added.

From a historical standpoint, it was also an exceptionally strong month for home sales. February’s transactions total was nearly 43 percent higher than the 10-year average for the month. It also represented a significant ramp up compared to the previous month. February 2021 beat out January’s sales total by more than 1,300 units.

Gerber pointed to low mortgage rates as the main driver for the strong activity, with first-time buyers and move-up buyers both jumping into the market.

Supply on the market couldn’t keep up with the surging buyer demand. While new listings increased in February by 26.1 percent annually, sales recorded an annual increase that was nearly three times that. The total number of homes listed for sale in the Vancouver region last month was more than 21 percent below the 10-year average for February.

As competition among buyers ratcheted up, the benchmark price for a single-detached home in the Vancouver region jumped 13.7 percent annually to $1,621,000. The region’s condo market recorded a relatively modest 2.5 percent increase in benchmark price to $697,500.

 

© 2020 BuzzBuzzHome Corp.

B.C. to extend rent freeze to end of 2021, increase protections against ‘renovictions’

CBC Staff
CBC Radio

 Tenants can disregard any notice of a rent increase they’ve received that would have taken effect before Jan. 1, 2022. Starting next year rent hikes will be capped at the rate of inflation. (Rafferty Baker/CBC)

The British Columbia government says it will introduce legislative changes to extend a rent freeze through to the end of this year to stop illegal “renovictions” and improve the dispute resolution process for tenants and landlords.

The province has already introduced and extended a rent freeze during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it says in a news release Monday that new legislative changes will keep it in place through Dec. 31.

It says tenants can disregard any notice of a rent increase they’ve received that would have taken effect before Jan. 1, 2022, and starting next year rent hikes will be capped at the rate of inflation.

The release says before the NDP government took power in 2017, the maximum allowable rent increase was as high as 4.3 per cent, well above inflation.

‘Progress’

“We know there’s more to do, but with these new changes, we’re continuing to make progress,” said Spencer Chandra Herbert, MLA for Vancouver West End.

The province also says the legislative changes mean tenants will no longer face so-called renovictions, or eviction notices for “phoney” renovations aimed at driving out long-term tenants and jacking up the rent.

Landlords will be required to apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch before they can end a tenancy agreement for renovations, and they will also not be able to evict tenants for renovations that are not substantial or do not require the unit to be vacant.

‘Not surprised’

Andrew Sakamoto, executive director of the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre, said as part of the release that it is common for landlords to illegally renovict tenants without the necessary permits required by law or for minor cosmetic improvements.

“Rather than forcing tenants to dispute these types of meritless eviction notices, we are pleased that landlords will now have to go through an application process before issuing such notices in the first place,” he said.

 

Spencer Chandra Herbert, MLA for Vancouver West End, holds a media briefing Monday on behalf of Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing David Eby. (CBC News)

 

David Hutniak, CEO of Landlord B.C., which supports landlords in the province, says the extended period of frozen rents was expected.

“We’re not surprised,” he said about Monday’s announcement.

He said that by the end of 2021, it will be close to two years since landlords have been able to raise rents to help cover property taxes, insurance, maintenance costs and increased costs due to the pandemic

“Which is very challenging … COVID-related expenses are going through the roof,” he said.

He says his members are looking forward to increasing rents in line with inflation in 2022.

The bill with the proposed changes comes on the first day that the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia resumed its 42nd parliamentary session.

The bill stems from 23 recommendations made by a B.C.’s rental housing task force in 2018, which focus on protecting tenants from situations where they are forced to move out by landlords who say they plan to renovate the property.

Monday’s bill includes expanding administrative penalties that can be levied as part of dispute resolution proceedings and grounds for the review of arbitrator decisions.

The bill also clarifies language in the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act to address conflicts between park rules and tenancy agreements.

With files from Canadian Press

 

©2021 CBC/Radio-Canada