UBCO pushes for 46-storey Kelowna tower

Wayne Moore
Western Investor

University wants to increase height 12 floors on downtown campus and residential high rise

If approved, Kelowna university tower would be the highest building between Metro Vancouver and Calgary. | University of British Columbia Okanagan

The University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) hopes to take the phrase “higher learning” to a whole new level.

In a new filing with the city June 13, the university is seeking to amend the height of its downtown campus and residential tower on Doyle Avenue from 34 storeys to 46.

It’s part of an application seeking an amendment for a comprehensively planned campus.

If ultimately approved by council, it would become the tallest building in the city, outdistancing the 42-storey Eli building, part of the Water Street by the Lake project.

The previous application for a 34-storey building was submitted to the city’s planning department in December, but has yet to reach the council table.

The latest iteration would include a “full range of academic, research and other supporting land uses essential to a leading-edge university program and campus,” the application notes.

Residential and education services would be primary uses within the building with childcare, culture, health, liquor primary establishment, offices, professional services, religious assemblies and retail as secondary uses.

The top 34 floors would be dedicated to 503 residential units. Those would include 335 studio units, 68 one-bedroom and 100 two-bedroom.

Kelowna’s planning director Ryan Smith said a year ago 46 storeys may be pushing the limits of what the planning department may be able to support.

In that case, he was speaking of a 46-storey proposal from New Town Architecture on Bertram Street near Bernard.

That proposal has since been taken off the table.

In discussing that particular project and height in general, Smith said it was his belief the city has reached the pinnacle in terms of height, specifically talking about the 42-storey Eli project.

“Leon was sort of a special case. From a staff perspective, we don’t see the need to support much beyond what we already have, if at all,” he said at the time.

“40 [storeys] may be pushing it.”

© 2022 Western Investor

Rennie reports it’s now a buyer’s market for detached homes in Vancouver West Side and West Vancouver

Carlito Pablo
The Georgia Straight

Change has come to the two most expensive places for detached homes in Metro Vancouver.
The West Side of Vancouver and West Vancouver are now a buyer’s market.
The shift in market conditions for single-family homes in these areas was noted in the June 2022 edition of the monthly rennie review.
Rennie is a major real-estate marketing company, which regularly comes up with market reports and analyses.
On June 6, the Straight reported that the market for detached homes in areas covered by the Greater Vancouver real-estate board has statistically become balanced.
The real-estate board reported that the sales-to-active-listings ratio for single-family homes in May 2022 shifted to 18.3 percent.
To explain, a market is balanced when the sales-to-listings ratio is between 12 percent and 20 percent.
Sellers and buyers are on an even field when the ratio sits at that range.
It is a seller’s market when the ratio goes over 20 percent, which means prices tend to go up.
It becomes a buyer’s market when the ratio comes below 12 percent, which generally leads prices to drop.
Well, rennie reported that the sales-to-listings ratio for detached homes in the West Side of Vancouver in May 2022 was down to 11 percent.
Rennie also reported that sales of single-family residences in this part of the city fell month-over-month in May by 14 percent, and were 32 percent below May 2021.
The median price in May was $3.6 million, down four percent from April and 0.6 percent above the same month last year.
Based on the market report by the Greater Vancouver real-estate board, the typical price of a detached home in the West Side of Vancouver in May 2022 was $3,490,600.
Over in West Vancouver, rennie reported that the sales-to-listings ratio for detached residences in May was 10 percent, reflecting a buyer’s market.
Also, sales fell month-over-month by 20 percent, and were 28 percent below May 2021.
The median price for detached homes in West Vancouver in May was $3.3 million, a three percent increase from April and six percent over May last year.
The Greater Vancouver real-estate board has reported that the benchmark price for single-family homes in this North Shore municipality in May was $3,475,600.
The June 2022 edition of rennie review noted that sales-to-listings ratio for detached homes in the combined markets of Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley in May 2022 was 16 percent.
This means that market conditions for single-family homes in these jurisdictions as a whole are now balanced.
It may be recalled that the Straight reported on May 11 about the edition in that month of the rennie review.
That publication suggested that the real-estate market as a whole may find itself in a balanced condition by summer.
“Maybe—just maybe—we’ll find ourselves with balanced market conditions just in time for summer,” rennie stated.
In its June 2022 edition, the rennie review suggested that what’s happening in the detached home market could extend to other segments in the market: townhomes and condos.
Rennie stated, “If the market inertia —of expanding inventory and blunted sales—that has ensconced itself in 2022 continues as we transition through the month of June (or should we say, Juneuary) and into summer, don’t be surprised if the balanced conditions currently reserved for describing the detached segment become more contagious.”

© 2022 VANCOUVER FREE PRESS.

How bad is B.C.’s housing crisis? This Sunshine Coast realtor can’t find a rental

Denise Ryan
The Vancouver Sun

A longtime resident of the Sunshine Coast faces leaving the area as housing prices and rental rates soar

 For nearly 30 years, Lori Pratt has lived on the Sunshine Coast. It’s where she raised her three daughters, volunteered for the Rotary club, and built a life.

The realtor and elected director with the Sunshine Coast Regional District spent 10 years as a school trustee in the area, and serves on the region’s homelessness advisory committee.

Now she faces the possibility that she may have to leave the region because of the affordable housing crisis and a lack of rental options.

Pratt has rented a home with a view of the water in Halfmoon Bay for over 10 years, but her landlords recently informed her that they needed the house back for family members.

She has been scouring Craigslist, Facebook and submitting applications for an affordable rental that would be suitable for herself, her dog and her 20-year-old daughter, but has had no luck yet. And if and when she does find a place, chances are she might not be able to afford it.

 

The Canadian Rental Housing Index rates the Sunshine Coast as extremely unaffordable, and the number of people spending more than half their income on rent is 40 per cent higher on the Sunshine Coast than the B.C. average.

“Most of what is available are $2,200 to $2,600 for a small two-bedroom, and no one is accepting pets,” said Pratt, who was priced out of the real estate market after a divorce.

Elske, her four-year old Great Pyrenees, Norwegian elkhound, German shepherd cross, is who she walks the beaches and trails with every day — and she has a cat. “Especially as my children have gone and are doing their own thing, my pets are my family,” said Pratt.

Now Pratt hopes to use her situation to shed a light on the lack of affordable housing on the Sunshine Coast.

 

“We need more purpose-built rental housing and that is about aligning developers with official community plans and finding the best places for them to be built,” said Pratt.

“I’m sharing my story because it’s really key to create more rental housing. So many others don’t have this same level of support, networks, or their stories are not being told.”

The Sunshine Coast has long been popular vacation and retirement community and many people have second homes and investment properties in the area. “We’ve seen an increase in short-term rentals, or they are sitting empty,” said Pratt.

Pratt said she may have to move to Alberta, where her parents have a farm.

“I do have a place to go, but I’ve spent my entire adult life here, I’ve raised three children here, I have deep roots in the community,” said Pratt.

It wouldn’t be easy to leave. “It’s heartbreaking. I’ve cried a lot,” she said.

“We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I love to give back, I love to try and make things better, and I want to make it more sustainable for future generations.”

[email protected]

 

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© 2022 Vancouver Sun

B.C. home sales drop 35% as rising mortgage rates bite

Stephanie Hughes
The Vancouver Sun

The housing correction has started’

 B.C. home sales were down 35 per cent in May from a year ago. Photo by Postmedia

Higher borrowing costs are continuing to weigh on British Columbia’s housing market as sales and home values slid in May over the previous month.

 

While the province’s average home price climbed more than nine per cent year-over-year to just over $1 million according to data from the British Columbia Real Estate Association, it was down six per cent from the $1.065 million recorded in April.

The association noted that sales slid as well, with 8,214 residential homes exchanging hands last month, down approximately 35 per cent from last May and eight per cent from April.

“Canadian mortgage rates continue to climb,” said BCREA chief economist Brendon Ogmundson in a press release accompanying the data. “The average five-year fixed mortgage rate reached 4.49 per cent in June. That is the highest mortgage rates have been since 2009.”

B.C. is not alone in seeing a slowing housing market. Other provinces have seen activity cool as well, led by major cities such as Toronto (which saw home prices drop for the third straight month in May), Montreal and Calgary.

 

Vancouver home sales slipped nearly 10 per cent from April to 2,918 units in May, also hitting a 32 per cent drop year-over-year in sales, according to data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. The price of a home in B.C.’s most populous city remained relatively flat in May at $1.26 million.

The Bank of Canada’s hiking path has so far taken the overnight rate up to 1.5 per cent and signals that the Bank may have to get even tougher on inflation could put upward pressure on mortgage rates. Higher rates are keeping more would-be buyers on the sidelines.

 

Steve Saretsky, Vancouver realtor and real estate specialist at Saretsky Group, told Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn in a May 24 interview that the housing correction has already started.

“I don’t think it’s as pronounced as what I’m hearing from Ontario, but I definitely think we’re going through the start of a housing correction here,” Saretsky said, adding that the beginning of the correction is most concentrated in the suburbs. “(The suburbs are) the markets that I think went through the most froth where a lot of them were driven by pandemic people relocating, working from home. So, those markets are definitely seeing sales slow down. Inventory is slowly starting to build and we are seeing a modest decline in home prices there.”

Saretsky said a confluence of factors are behind the decline, including the correction of the pandemic’s housing bull market and higher mortgage rates.

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: StephHughes95

© 2022 Vancouver Sun

Canada ranked among top 10 for migrating millionaires

Graeme Wood
Western Investor

Canada is seen as a favoured destination for millionaires on the move. Many of them are coming from countries in strife, according to a new report

Vancouver, B.C. is among the popular destinations for millionaires on the move. | Chung Chow
Canada is among the top 10 countries expected to see a positive inflow of millionaire migrants this year, according to the latest Henley Global Citizens Report.
Canada should see a positive inflow of about 1,000 high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) who are mostly expected to come from Russia (-15,000), China (-10,000), India (-8,000), Hong Kong (-3,000) and Ukraine (-2,800), according to immigration advisors Henley and Partners in their second quarterly migration report of 2022.
Canada ranks ninth as a favoured destination, while the top three destinations are: United Arab Emirates (4,000), Australia (3,500) and Singapore (2,800).
Henley describes a “tsunami” of private capital leaving Russia and Ukraine, while Hong Kong emigration remains high amid an authoritarian crackdown by Beijing proxies — although it has dropped 29 per cent compared to 2019. Meanwhile, China’s COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns are causing a spike in emigration.
Globally, the wealthy have been increasingly on the move, according to Henley, and 2023 is expected to break records. In 2013, about 51,000 HNWIs moved countries and that figure jumped to 110,000 in 2019. Migration fell to 12,000 in 2020 due to pandemic restrictions until ratcheting back up to a forecast of 88,000 this year and an expected record 125,000 in 2023.
Over the next decade, Canada is forecast to see a 30 per cent increase in its overall HNWI population, the report states. This ranks fourth among the top 10 wealthiest countries (average net worth), after India (80 per cent), Australia (60 per cent) and China (50 per cent).
Canada’s major cities — Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver — are the most popular destinations for these immigrants, according to Henley.
“Many affluent individuals who saw their movements highly constrained during the pandemic are realizing the importance of diversifying their wealth and investments and enhancing their lifestyle options. Increasingly, they are looking for greater flexibility and want to better manage risks in the event of a future pandemic, geopolitical crisis, or other situation that might affect them and their country of primary residence,” states Henley.
The report notes this continued inflow will happen despite the Canadian government looking at new ways to tax wealth and luxury goods to pay off pandemic-related debt.
A significant factor for the continued rise is Canada’s augmented interest in raising immigration numbers, the report states.
The federal government has planned for 431,645 new permanent residents in 2022, 447,055 in 2023, and 451,000 in 2024, with nearly 60 per cent of admissions in the “economic class.”
Henley says the upmost wealthy may target the country’s start-up visa program.
Canada no longer has its immigrant investor program; under the program, migrant investors were able to obtain citizenship for an $800,000 five-year loan to the government but not required to establish a certain income level. The government found it provided “little economic benefit” and nixed it in 2014.
These investor immigrants, who own residential property, now report a total median family income of $50,000, as opposed to federal skilled workers at $105,000 and refugees at $85,000, according to Statistics Canada.
A similar provincial program in Quebec has been paused until at least April 2023.
In order to make its report estimations, Henley states it tracks 150,000 anonymized wealthy individuals in a database covering 62 countries and bases its estimations on their movements and spending habits as well as government immigration data, real estate transactions and financial analysis.

© 2022 Western Investor

Investors, homebuyers see value in manufactured homes

Frank O’Brien
Western Investor

While prices have increased, manufactured homes offer a low-price point, and their parks provide investors with steady returns and, lately, startling appreciation

Manufactured homes in are selling quickly and for all-time high prices in Metro Vancouver and across B.C. this year but remain the most affordable detached houses on the market.
The action is not being lost on investors, who snapped up 69 home parks during 2020-21, including five in the Lower Mainland.
According to data from Royal LePage Westside Klein Group, most of the sales are taking place in the B.C. Interior and Vancouver Island, which accounted for 30 of the 41 manufactured home parks sold in B.C. last year.
The reason, aside from a wider selection than in the Lower Mainland, is higher capitalization rates, according to agents, despite the jaw-dropping prices being seen for manufactured homes this year in Metro Vancouver.
In March, for example, a 36-year-old manufactured home on a rented pad at the Millcreek Village park in central Coquitlam sold for $70,000 over asking after six days on the market. The double wide, two-bedroom home sold for $520,000, or about four times the price of typical manufactured home sold in the province.
Al Kemp executive director of the Manufactured (Mobile) Park Owners’ Alliance of BC. said the price is reflective of activity in the southwestern B.C. housing market, where people are looking for space and privacy at an affordable price.
“It [higher prices for manufactured homes) is becoming more common, I’ll put it that way,” said Kemp, whose organization represents 50 per cent of B.C.’s 900 manufactured home parks.
Prices for manufactured homes have steadily risen in the last two years, said Kemp, who speculated that the pandemic and the ability to work from home helped spark interest in purchasing these types of homes.
Kemp said manufactured homes can be an affordable option, providing the space of a single-family house without the $1.5 million price tag.
In fact, he said, the $520,000 price paid for this manufactured home is about the same as a condo but has the advantage in that there are “no shared walls.”‘
He acknowledged that owners pay pad rental fees, which can range from $700 to $1,100 a month in the Lower Mainland, but condo owners must pay strata fees and sometimes an additional levy for major repairs.
And unlike condos in tall towers where socializing is limited to a few households on a single floor, people in manufactured homes enjoy a sense of community, where they know their neighbours, Kemp said.
“Residents look out for each other. They supply social events and they take much greater interest in the property because they own the home,” Kemp said.
Over the years the stigma attached to living in a “mobile home” has eased as newer homes are built to national standards, which makes them more like a wood-frame house with drywall, weatherproofing and a 25-year roof, he said.
And with greater respect has come recognition by banks: You can now get a 25-year mortgage to purchase a manufactured home, and refinance if you need to build a shed or a new roof, Kemp noted.
“They’re not trailers anymore. They are not mobile homes anymore. They don’t come with wheels. They don’t come with hitches,” said Kemp.
Many manufactured home park sites in Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria have been developed into multi-family housing over the years, but manufactured home parks remain popular and plentiful in more rural areas of B.C.
And they can prove a good investment, capable of generating 6 per cent to 7.5 per cent cap rates, according to Vadim Kobasew of Re/Max Penticton Realty in Penticton, B.C.
“Smaller markets offer opportunities to attain higher cap rates than larger centres,” Kobasew noted.
There is also the appreciation factor.
Last year Kobasew sold a 12-pad site with seven additional rental cabins on 3.3 acres in Oliver, B.C.  Assessed at $890,000, it sold for $1.52 million, 71 per cent above the assessed value. The capitalization rate is 6.2 per cent.
This May he sold a 48-pad manufactured home park, on city services in Castlegar, B.C., for $100,000 over list price and $600,000 above its BC Assessment value, at $3.6 million.
Klein Group’s date provides insight into how park values have increased provincewide.
In pre-pandemic 2018, 40 manufactured home parks sold in B.C. at a total volume of $46.0 million, or $1.15 million per park. Last year, 41 parks sold for a total of $71.5 million, or $1.73 million per park.

© 2022 Western Investor

Newest homebuyers could pay the price for Canada’s financial stability

Don Pittis
CBC Radio

People who purchased a home during the pandemic, when prices soared 50 per cent, could be vulnerable as the Bank of Canada moves to fight inflation with higher interest rates. (Don Pittis/CBC)
As in previous years, reading the Bank of Canada’s annual Financial System Review can be enough to send your pulse racing, and not in a good way.
On the bright side, this time around, those most likely to suffer from the bank’s warnings will be young enough to withstand the health effects of heart palpitations.
The main reason why the Financial System Review can be worrying — just as it was last year, when it warned of the dangers of rising mortgage debt when few thought high inflation would be a problem — is that the Bank of Canada’s main aim is to tell us all what could go wrong, to offer solutions and to help us prepare.
Unexpected but worrying
Again this time, as Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem and his chief deputy, Carolyn Rogers, laid out their most ominous scenarios at Thursday’s news conference, they added a proviso.
“This is not what we expect to happen,” Macklem assured reporters after laying out a chilling series of potential events that could seriously damage the fortunes of those who poured their savings into a home during the pandemic as prices soared 50 per cent and interest rates plunged.
For those people, many of them young buyers hoping to get a first foot on what they expected would be a “property ladder,” the dire warnings may sound louder than the reassurances.
Macklem and Rogers insisted that since the vast majority of Canadians had paid off their mortgages or had manageable debt, the wider financial system was in little danger. But due to the absolute necessity of fighting inflation with rising interest rates, people who got in at the peak may be in trouble, especially if they lose their jobs. With jobs numbers on Friday predicted to remain strong, that seems far away, but things can change in a period of rising rates.

“If the economy slowed sharply and unemployment rose considerably, the combination of more highly indebted Canadians and high house prices could amplify the downturn,” Macklem said.
The central bankers reminded us that, in theory, the most recent buyers had a financial pad since “stress test” rules required buyers to have the financial capacity to pay a lot more than mortgage lenders were asking. But that did not mean young buyers had set aside the cash in an emergency account. Nothing prevented them from spending it on the inevitable necessities that come with a new home.
“If those highly indebted households lose their jobs, they would likely need to reduce their spending sharply to continue servicing their mortgage,” Macklem added, though where highly indebted and newly unemployed people would get the cash to do that is far from obvious.
Moderation or default?
Neither questioners nor central bankers uttered the word “default,” but if conditions really were to get as bad as the bleak scenario above, the number of mortgage defaults would likely rise.
Similarly, while the central bankers repeatedly talked about a necessary “moderation” in the housing market, there was no mention of the kind of serious decline in prices that some analysts are predicting.
Just as in last week’s news conference with deputy governor Paul Beaudry, reporters asked Macklem to respond to calls by Conservative leadership front-runner Pierre Poilievre for the bank governor to resign, saying he let inflation get out of hand.
Although Macklem tried his best to deflect the questions, it is hard to see critics being mollified if a surge in interest rates helps spur defaults among young and vulnerable recent homebuyers.

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has slammed the central bank, saying governor Tiff Macklem let inflation get out of hand. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)
Part of the logic for offering such a bleak forecast might be as a warning to the many Canadians who are still borrowing to buy houses at levels they may regret.
Figures released last week by TransUnion, a company that monitors household debt, shows despite the threat of rising rates, Canadian borrowing in the first three months of this year — including mortgages and lines of credit — was up more than nine per cent from the same period in 2021.
It seems everyone has a take on inflation and its consequences.
The World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have warned of the dangers of stagflation. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified to the U.S. Senate that high inflation would persist. Even rapper Cardi B and billionaire Elon Musk have weighed in with predictions of a recession, Canadian Business reports.
WATCH | Bank of Canada governor on threat to fire him over high inflation:

 Bank of Canada governor on Pierre Poilievre’s threat to fire him

Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, said he will leave politics to the politicians when asked about Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre’s campaign promise to fire him.

According to Macklem, the situation remains “delicate,” a term he used more than once.

After what he called the biggest economic shock he hoped we would ever face, including “two years of a pandemic and unprecedented economic and social upheaval,” the governor implied he would reluctantly accept recession as the price of getting inflation under control.

The clear implication is that for financial stability, inflation is now a more important problem than a weakening housing market and that some of those who ignored last year’s warning that surging mortgage borrowing was an accident waiting to happen may be sacrificed for the greater good.

“The housing market, it’s an important part of the economy,” Macklem said. “We are watching it closely, but our focus ultimately is on the whole economy and in getting inflation back to target.”

 

©2022 CBC/Radio-Canada. All rights reserved.

Canada housing affordability is at its worst in a generation National Bank

Micah Guiao
other

Burnaby council rezones Willingdon Lands; new homes coming

REBGV Staff
REBGV

At a glance (2 minute read)
Burnaby city council approved rezoning of the Willingdon Lands, adding 5,239 residential units.
Of these units, 4,366 will be leasehold strata, 554 will be market rental, 101 moderate rental, and 218 affordable rental.
The development will also include commercial, studio, and cultural space.
On May 31, 2022, Burnaby council approved bylaw amendments to rezone the Willingdon Lands, a 40-acre parcel at 3405 Willingdon Avenue at the corner of Willingdon Avenue and Canada Way.
The Willingdon Lands are owned by the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, who will develop the property with Aquilini Development Group.
The parcel is less than one kilometre east of Vancouver and two kilometres south of Burrard Inlet and between Brentwood Town Centre and Metrotown.
The amendments were to the Burnaby Zoning Bylaw 1965, Amendment Bylaw No. 12, 2022 – Bylaw No. 14446.
Burnaby council redesignated the site as an Urban Village through an Official Community Plan amendment which will include multi-family developments outside of town centres, with commercial service and additional public uses through CD zoning comprised of RM5/RM5r, C2 and B2 zones.

©’REBGV’ is a registered trademark.

‘Saskaboom’ reflected in commercial real estate

Peter Mitham
Western Investor

Only Sakatoon’s core offices are posting higher vacancies as suburban offices, industrial and multi-family properties share in Canada’s fastest-growing provincial economy
The relocation of tenants to two new office towers at River Landing in Saskatoon has raised vacancies in the city’s core.| Submitted
A surge in industrial investment and new incentives could be just the thing to boost the fortunes of the downtown office market in the city New York bankers are calling ‘Saskaboom”
The label may be prophetic, but it is understandable. Saskatoon is the largest city in a province that RBC economist forecast will lead Canada in economic growth this year, at a sizzling 6 per cent.
“I think industrial is going to drive the office sector,” said Brent Hass, a broker with Re/Max Bridge City Realty in Saskatoon. “We’ve got no more room for these office tenants to go to.”
Development in the industrial area north of the South Saskatchewan River that bisects the city has left very little suburban office space available for lease. But in the core, double-digit vacancies are creating opportunities.Colliers International reports that vacancies averaged 17 per cent in the city in the first quarter, versus 2.5 per cent for industrial space. In the core, office vacancies averaged 22.9 per cent – twice the suburban rate. A significant portion has been driven by the relocation of tenants to two new towers at Triovest’s River Landing development.
To revitalize the core, the city has introduced incentives to encourage the use of vacant buildings or the development of underutilized sites.
Created in 2011, the city’s Vacant Lot & Adaptive Reuse Incentive Program was adjusted in 2018 and 2019 to facilitate projects in the downtown core. It offers a tax abatement linked to the change in value as an incentive for developers to revitalize sites.
“Now with these great incentives to try and bring people downtown, I honestly think that sector will go,” Hass said. “Outside of downtown, there is very little office space available.”
Hass said the strength of the industrial market and the prospects for improvement in the office market support the confidence of out-of-province investors and observers. According to the annual Re/Max Commercial report on commercial real estate, released May 30, analysts at Chase-Manhattan billed the province “Saskaboom” as the province’s resource sector enters a seven-year boom. While this hasn’t yet translated into office jobs, Hass expects those to follow.
“When you’re looking at the return on investment in Saskatchewan, the risk isn’t as great as it was two years ago,” Hass said. “The attitudes are a lot different than they were two years ago.”
Multi-family strength
Demand in the multifamily market highlights the confidence.
Two years ago, purpose-built rental properties were commanding $65,000 to $70,000 a door. Today, properties are selling for $110,000 to $130,000 a door.
“[It] tells me that people are paying a lot more than what the income is worth, which leads me to say that rents have to increase,” he said.
But for rents to increase, people have to have the means to pay, and that’s where the strong economy plays a role. Record capital investments by the province parallel growth in the forestry sector.
The agriculture sector is also strong, notwithstanding severe drought last year. Values are buoyed by commodity prices, which given shortages driven by weather and war in the Ukraine promise to hand producers strong returns this year if the harvest is good. 

© 2022 Western Investor