There’s a recession? Nobody told us

Douglas Cowell
Sun

OCEANSIDE VILLAGE RESORT

Project location: Parksville.

Project size: 140 cottages

Residence size: 865 sq. ft. – 1,100 sq. ft.

Prices: from $249,000

Telephone: 250-248-6766

E-mail: [email protected] [email protected],

Web: osvr.ca www.osvr.ca

Developer: Shorewater Estates Ltd.

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A recession is raging around the world, huge corporations are crashing, banks are being propped up and governments are diving into deep pools of debt.

But Mike Hill and his family, owners of Oceanside Village Resort in Parksville on the east coast of Vancouver Island, can’t complain.

“We’re very happy,” he reports. “In fact, we’re ecstatic with how we’ve survived the downturn. Last year was a good one for us, but the market has not been great over the last 12 months. We’ve continued to have sales, however, and over the last month or six weeks we’ve really seen it pick up.”

Situated a short walk from the beach, Oceanside Village is a quiet enclave of detached cottages set in the forest.

“We wanted to make it easier for people to be more sociable so we built the cottages on crawl spaces. That raises them up so people feel comfortable to sit out on their deck,” Hill explains.

To further foster sociability, the family has built a cafe, art gallery, spa and salon and indoor swimming pool.

It certainly seems to have worked. On a stroll through one recent summer morning children were playing together, women sat out front of the little coffee shop sipping their lattes and chatting. Three men were doing likewise on the patio of one of the cottages. Life was peaceful.

Mike and brother Rob Hill started construction four years ago. Eventually they intend to build 140 cabins, with five floor plans ranging in size from 865 square feet to 1,100 square feet. They’re either two-bedroom layouts or one bedroom and a loft. They are anything but rustic.

They all have large windows and vaulted pine ceilings, carefully chosen carpets, ceramic tile bathrooms and kitchen, multiple televisions and electric fireplaces. The kitchens have the full complement of quality appliances and are large enough to host family celebrations and supper with the neighbours. One of the most-loved features, whether you’ve just spent a summer’s day on the sand flats or a chilly day on the slopes at Mount Washington is the washer and dryer stack in each cottage.

The area is zoned by the City of Parksville as a tourist resort area and thus no one can live in any of residences for more than 180 days a year. Although it’s completely up to each owner what they do with their home, rentals are a big part of what goes on.

Kathy Fraser, the resort manager, explains that of the 70 current owners, 20 never rent out their cottages. Some she’s never seen; they bought to rent out. Some come only in winter or the shoulder seasons and rent all summer long.

“Winters are getting really busy,” she says. “More and more retirees are coming for two to even four or five months. They settle in each year and set up networks and groups of friends that reconnect every year.”

Fraser explains that the economic downturn has definitely had an impact on the rental bookings. “Yeah, we’re going to have a busier summer this year than last. People started booking a month earlier. Because of the economy, the kids aren’t going to get to Disneyland this year. They’re coming here.”

It’s not surprising that people might choose to take their kids to cottage in the summer, but there are more people showing up than just families with children. Some of the reasons for booking aren’t what would first come to mind.

“A lot of people seem to travel with their pets, and there’s very few places in this area that allow pets,” Fraser reports. ”It’s entirely up to the owner of each unit whether they want to allow pets, but quite a number do.”

Another customer base is Europeans who tour Western Canada in larger family groups. They often rent two or three cottages at a time.

Another similar type of booking is apt to show up any time of year. That’s family reunion groups. Word seems to be getting out that Oceanside Village is a great place to hold a reunion. So far, Fraser has rented up to five units at a time for reunions.

The money available to owners from such rentals plays an important role for many of them in being able to afford to own a cottage.

Each owner is different. Most spend a few weeks in summer and several weekends over the year in their holiday homes and many also loan them out to family and friends. Typically, the rest of the time their units are available to rent.

A few keep winter homes in the U.S. and come to Parksville for the summer.

Every winter the snowbirds arrive. Retired couples, mostly from the prairie provinces keep the place busy in what for many resorts is the off-season. Mostly they stay for at least a couple of months. Some as long as five months.

“Some of them don’t do much. They just come and relax,” Fraser reports. “Some are golfers, and with about half a dozen good golf courses around here, they can keep themselves entertained.”

Many of these people come back every year; they’ve developed a good circle of friends and so a sense of community automatically develops.

Two groups that have grown up in the off-season have surprised her a bit: card players and square dancers. “There’s quite an active square dance club in Parksville so some of our people are out dancing two or three times a week.”

So Mike Hill is hiding his pain without too much difficulty. “Lots of people buy real estate as an investment and here on Vancouver Island is probably as safe as anywhere. It looks like we’re going to keep doing pretty well for our investors here at Oceanside. Besides, it’s a fun place to be.”

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