Property sales dip in Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley, climb in rest of B.C.

February 22nd, 2012 by Chris No comments »

VANCOUVER — While home sales in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley dipped at the start of 2012, other regions across B.C. heated up, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association.

The number of houses sold in the Vancouver region through Multiple Listing Service was down 13.4 per cent in January from the same month last year, the industry group said Wednesday.

In addition, the average price of a Vancouver home declined slightly, from $762,562 in January 2011 to $752,380 this year — a difference of 1.3 per cent.

In the Fraser Valley, sales dipped by 3.1 per cent during the same time period. However, prices rose 6.4 per cent from an average of $441,544 last year to $469,635 in 2012.

Meanwhile, B.C.’s northwest and northeast regions, Kamloops and Victoria saw sales gains of more than 10 per cent.

The biggest jump occurred in B.C.’s northwest region, where the average house price increased 14.2 per cent — from $214,357 to $244,872 — in the 12 months from January 2011.

Powell River, with an average price of $209,636, recorded the least expensive homes in the province­ — a figure down 1.2 per cent ($212,078) over January 2011.

Cameron Muir, chief economist with the BCREA, said consumer demand driven by low mortgage interest rates saw modest improvements in January from a year ago, despite a decline in provincial sales activity.

Across Canada, home sales were down 4.5 per cent in January from the same month one year earlier, while the number of newly listed homes edged down 1.4 per cent.

“This marks the first monthly decline in national activity since August 2011 and the biggest monthly decline since July 2010,” the Canadian Real Estate Association stated.

“The monthly decline reversed a string of monthly increases over the closing months of last year, and returned national activity to where it stood at the end of the third quarter of 2011.

January’s sales declines were led by Greater Toronto and Montreal, as well as a softening in other major centres such as Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa.

Still, unadjusted sales last month were up four per cent from January 2011 and were even with the five- and 10-year averages for January sales, it said.

“The national housing market is stabilizing and remains well balanced,” said CREA president Gary Morse.

“That said, forecasts for economic and job growth going forward vary widely for different parts of the country, suggesting a possible continuation of a softening trend in some markets, as well as the potential that demand will pick up based on strong fundamentals in others.”

Source: The Vancouver Sun

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Posted in BC Real Estate, Fraser Valley Real Estate, Vancouver Real Estate

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B.C. population grows to 4.4 million with urban areas leading the way

February 16th, 2012 by Chris No comments »

British Columbia’s population continues to grow rapidly, with new residents preferring urban metropolitan areas rather than rural centres.

And while Metro Vancouver is still taking its share of the growth, Squamish and Chilliwack metropolitan areas saw the biggest gains in population between 2006 and 2011, according to Statistics Canada.

The latest Census figures show B.C.’s population increased by seven per cent between 2006-2011, pushing the population to 4.4 million, and making B.C. the second fastest growing province next to Alberta. The Western provinces welcomed 30.7 per cent of Canada’s population growth for the five-year period, for the first time surpassing that of the Atlantic provinces and Quebec combined (306 per cent).

Canada’s population grew by 5.9 per cent in the five-year period to 33.5 million. The growth credited to the rise to immigrants, is the highest of the G8 nations.

In B.C., the Squamish metropolitan area posted the strongest growth at 14. 6 per cent, followed by Chilliwack at 11.9 per cent and Kelowna at 10 per cent and Metro Vancouver at 9.6 per cent. On the other end of the scale, Prince Rupert and Williams Lake were among the cities with the biggest population declines.

Peter Liang, a spokesman for Statistics Canada, noted the populations are different for individual cities. Langford, near Victoria, for instance, posted the strongest population gain at 30.1 per cent, followed by Lake Country in Kelowna, Port Moody (19.9 per cent) and Surrey at 18.6 per cent. Pitt Meadows was at 13.5 per cent, while cities like New Westminster, Burnaby, Langley, Coquitlam and Maple Ridge saw a 10-12 per cent increase.

The city of Vancouver’s growth rate was at 4.4 per cent – with most of the new population settling downtown, Mt. Pleasant and Fairview.

Meanwhile, some areas of Surrey, Langley and Port Moody and Coquitlam posted population growth of more than 100 per cent between 2006 and 2011 , according to the results. In Surrey’s Clayton area, the population more than tripled from 4,132 to 14,034, while a section of Port Moody saw its population grow from 1,276 to 3,684 since 2006.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

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Posted in BC Real Estate

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Vancouver home prices to fizzle, not pop

February 13th, 2012 by Chris No comments »

VANCOUVER – Emily Yao admits to disappointment when her bid on a three-bedroom condominium in this desirable West Coast city was turned down last October.

But a month later the systems programmer, who moved to Vancouver from mainland China six years ago, snapped up the still-unsold condominium on Vancouver’s East Side for $550,000, a difference of $9,000 below the original price tag.

It’s a pattern being replicated across the Pacific port city, in a dramatic turnaround from the bidding wars, show day stampedes, and above-market offers that long dominated North America’s costliest property market.

“Since October, it was like someone turned off the tap. It became absolutely dead,” said long-time realtor Pam Allen.

What’s taking the sizzle out of Vancouver prices and putting the brakes on sales are expectations that rock-bottom Canadian mortgage rates will stay low, so there is no rush to buy.

At the same time, Chinese investors, who have long helped to underpin the city’s red-hot market, are holding back because property market curbs back home means they have less cash available.

But with immigrants still streaming in from China and elsewhere, and the city frequently rated one of the most livable on the planet, most experts see prices fizzling rather than imploding with a bang.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Hemmed in by mountains on one side, and the Pacific Ocean on the other, land-scarce Vancouver can’t build homes fast enough to cope with demand from locals, immigrants and Chinese investors, who see Canada as a perfect place to park their cash.

In a report published last month, Demographia, a consultancy on urban development, tagged Vancouver as the second most unaffordable of the housing markets it surveyed, with median house prices at 10.6 times income levels. No. 1 is Hong Kong at 12.6 times.

The average price for a residential property in Vancouver in December was $734,766, more than double the national average of $358,480, according to Canadian Real Estate Association data.

A single family home in Honolulu, the most expensive U.S. metropolitan market in data from the National Association of Realtors, fetched a median $597,000 US in the fourth quarter, while Detroit homes were worth a paltry $50,800 US.

Nearly one-fifth of Greater Vancouver’s 2.1 million people are ethnic Chinese, according to 2006 census data, by far the highest proportion for any city in Canada.

No official figures are available on the percentage of Vancouver home sales to investors from mainland China or Chinese immigrants. But local realtor Tom Gradecak says that in popular areas such as the West Side, a leafy block of land flanking the university, it could be 50 per cent, rising to up to 75 per cent for homes selling for more than $3 million.

“Chinese money is a big factor … today as it was in the period after 1986,” said David Ley, author of the book “Millionaire Migrants”, which examines the impact immigrants had on Vancouver’s housing market.

“House prices in greater Vancouver bear no relationship to the local labor market. Prices are kept high by offshore capital arriving from immigrants and from foreign investors.”

HOME FROM HOME

Money from Hong Kong investors, who were edgy ahead of the city’s handover to Chinese control in 1997, is credited with changing Vancouver’s skyline as immigrants streamed into Canada and funds poured into new condo towers that now dominate the waterfront.

The factors that tempted immigrants then remain today: the chance to learn English in a city that is a virtual “home from home” with Chinese eateries, TV channels and newspapers. Beijing is 11 hours away, versus 14 hours from Toronto or New York.

“I can see more and more people in the coming years going to Canada, and Vancouver is the No. 1 city they want to go to,” said Derek Lai, director of international property at real estate consultancy Colliers in Shanghai, who specializes in helping Chinese clients buy houses in Vancouver.

Despite a mid-recession dip around 2008, Canada’s housing market has remained resilient for the past decade, and the Vancouver market has outperformed the rest of the country for seven of the last 10 years.

Vancouver price rises peaked at a stunning 19.8 per cent in 2006, dipped in 2009, and came roaring back with double-digit growth in both 2010 and 2011.

A house bought for $500,000 in 2001 would have fetched about $1.2 million a decade later, based on average price changes.

But the latest month-to-month figures show Vancouver prices fell in five of seven months from last June to December, including drops of more than 5 per cent in November and December.

In the United States, the Case-Shiller index shows home prices are back at 2003 levels after a steep slump in 2008.

STEADY SLOWDOWN

There is always talk of bubbles, of course, but experts don’t see the Vancouver market crashing as the U.S. one did.

Mortgage rates are at near record lows just above 3 percent, but Canadian borrowing rules are tougher and the sub-prime market that downed the U.S. housing sector is tiny. With inflation muted and the economy recovering only slowly from recession, interest rates will likely stay low for years.

“I would anticipate Vancouver house prices falling further. We don’t know by how much,” said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at Bank of Montreal, co-author of a report entitled “Will Canada’s Housing Boom Forge On, Fizzle Out, or Flame Out?”.

“But that is one area that appears ripe for some sort of correction, though we are not anticipating a severe correction.

Chinese investment is still the wildcard. Reliable statistics are hard to find, but analysts expect Beijing’s moves to cool its own property market may hurt Vancouver.

Beijing has taken measures to rein in its property market – including raising mortgage rates and minimum downpayments – to ease public discontent with rocketing home prices. It has vowed to continue to thwart property speculation in 2012.

“In China, people put all their money into property. So with the market stagnant, their cash on hand is on hold and their investment all over the world is not as strong as it was last year or the year before,” said Collier’s Lai.

Realtor Tom Gradecak, who specializes in property in Vancouver’s pricey West Side, says it is too early to see any impact here, though he expects there will be some domino effect. In the business for the past 20 years, he remains sanguine about Vancouver’s real estate prospects.

“We will see ups and downs, but I think five years from now the prices will be higher than they are today,” he said.

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Posted in Vancouver Real Estate

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B.C. property assessments skyrocket but appeals drop off

January 31st, 2012 by Chris No comments »

Despite skyrocketing and sometimes uneven property assessments that will mean property tax increases for some homeowners, appeals are down in key areas compared to this time last year, according to BC Assessment.

With 10 days to go before the Jan. 31 deadline, appeals have fallen 15 per cent in the Vancouver-Sea to Sky region and 18 per cent in the Richmond-Delta region, two areas that saw assessments in some areas jump by as much as one-third, said Grant McDonald, deputy assessor for BC Assessment’s Vancouver Sea to Sky region.

The average assessment increase in Vancouver was 16.4, 15.9 in West Vancouver and 16.5 in Richmond.

Some assessments went up much more than the average increase, such as a two-storey house built in 1972 on a 60-by-120-foot lot on Riverdale Avenue in the Thompson area of Richmond that went up $300,000 from $780,200 last year to $1,083,500 this year, said Richmond realtor Shafik Ladha.

McDonald gave an example of a house on the west side of Vancouver on a 50-foot lot that went from $1,189,000 last year to $1,645,000 this year, an increase of $456,000. Both of these examples are up 38 per cent, more than double the average increase in their cities.

People who saw their property go up more than the average will likely see a bigger-than-usual increase in their tax bill, although the amount of that increase will depend on the assessed value of their home and how much the city’s budget is increased.

Vancouver Councillor Raymond Louie, who chairs the city’s finance and services committee, said it’s not automatic that the city will get more money when people’s property assessments go up.

“When your property value goes up, the city takes that assessed value and divides that into what it takes to run our city,” Louie said. “The amount it takes to run our city generally stays about the same. The city does not get additional revenue just because your property value goes up.”

Former Vancouver city councillor Gordon Price said it’s fair that taxes are linked to a property’s assessed value, but that it’s important to remember there isn’t a one-to-one relationship between property assessments going up and property taxes going up.

“Whatever your percentage increase is above the average, you can expect that you will be paying a greater percentage of the city’s property tax,” said Price, who is director of the City Program at SFU. “It would be very difficult to come up with anything else that would be more fair.”

In Vancouver, assessed values are averaged over three years to mitigate the effect of large single-year value increases, Louie said. He and Price also noted that property taxes do not all go to the city, a portion goes to school taxes, TransLink and other levies.

This year certain neighbourhoods went up more than others, something McDonald said is simply based on what actual sales reveal. Both Vancouver realtor Tom Gradecak and Ladha said good schools made a big difference in an area’s popularity.

Sometimes that will mean that houses on one side of the street sell for much more than those on the other side, if the school boundary is drawn down the middle, Gradecak said.

Gradecak said assessments are traditionally lower than market value, but that they’re moving closer.

“Some of the assessments are now quite close to the market value, but most are still a little bit low,” Gradecak said. “If it’s an older home, some of the assessments can be fairly close [to market value] because they’re looking mostly at the land value. For the newer homes, the assessments could be a bit low because they don’t always take into account all of the improvements.”

Assessments are a snapshot of market value on July 1 of the previous year. By the time homeowners receive them in early January, they are already six months out of date.

One reason appeals are down may be the amount of information now available online. Assessed values are all online (http://evaluebc.bcassessment.ca/) and people can compare homes by address and by comparable sales.

Fewer than two per cent of homeowners usually appeal an assessment in any given year, McDonald said.

People who want to ask questions about their assessment, or the appeal process, can call BC Assessment at the number listed on their assessment.

“We’ve got a team of professional appraisers you can call and they will know your neighbourhood, they may even know your house, but they can certainly call it up on the computer, and talk to you about the specifics of your property,” McDonald said.

“If at the end of that process [you are not satisfied], there is the last resort of filing an appeal.”

Source: The Vancouver Sun

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Posted in BC Real Estate, Richmond Real Estate, Vancouver Real Estate

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Form K not negotiable

January 28th, 2012 by Chris No comments »

Dear Condo Smarts: I purchased a unit for investment purposes in 2007 with the intent that someday my wife and l would retire to Victoria.

Since our purchase, our daughter has resided in the unit as a family member with no incident. She has also served on council for one term, with the thanks of the owners in the building.

The newly elected strata council sent us a notice that we have to provide a Form K under the rental bylaw, and if we fail to provide the Form K, we are subject to the $500 fine of the rental bylaw.

We responded to the council that she has been a resident for more than four years, we are not in violation of the rental bylaw and have no intention of completing a form. The council has now imposed a $500 fine on us for failing to provide the form.

How can a strata council impose a fine for a bylaw that we are exempt from?

Evan Dyer

Dear Evan: The Form K (notice of tenant’s responsibilities) is a requirement

under the Strata Property Act for any landlord-tenant relationship in a strata.

There is no exemption from a Form K requirement.

The real impact and risks of not providing the Form K, however, rest with the landlord, not the strata corporation or the tenant.

The landlord must give the prospective tenant the current bylaws and rules, and a copy of the Form K. Within two weeks of renting, the landlord then has to provide a copy of the signed notice to the strata corporation.

If the landlord fails to comply, the tenant is still bound by the bylaws and rules, and may within 90 days of learning of the landlord’s failure to comply, end the tenancy without penalty by giving notice to the landlord.

Under these terms, the landlord must also pay the tenant’s reasonable moving expenses to a maximum of one month’s rent.

Here’s where a bylaw for a Form K is a bit tricky.

If the rules and bylaws still apply, and the landlord is subject to incurred penalties by the tenant, why would the strata corporation care about the tenant?

Under Section 35 of the act, the strata must maintain a list of names of owners and tenants. The recordkeeping is also essential for emergency and safety purposes.

As a result, many strata corporations include the providing of a Form K as part of the bylaws, but what fine is the strata permitted to impose, and at what frequency?

The strata corporation may only restrict the rental of a strata lot by a bylaw that limits the number or percentage of units that may be rented, or the period of time units may be rented. The limitation in the act does not include a Form K as part of a rental bylaw.

The only provision for a $500 fine is if the landlord is renting in contravention of a bylaw that limits or prohibits rentals.

As a family member, your daughter is exempt from the rental restriction bylaw, but you must still provide a Form K.

The maximum amount for any fine permitted by the regulations, for bylaws other than rentals, is $200, and it’s arguable as to whether this particular fine is permissible at all.

We know one recurring problem about bylaws in strata corporations that many strata councils and owners forget. You can adopt almost any type of bylaw, but is it enforceable? And if not, what will be the cost to the strata corporation?

Disputing the enforceability of bylaws after the fact is a costly venture for strata corporations and owners. Before you adopt a new bylaw, legal advice is necessary to ensure your new bylaws comply with the Strata Property Act, the regulations, the B.C. Human Rights Code and any other enactment of law.

Source: The Victoria Times Colonist

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Posted in Strata Real Estate

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Strata’s tree prohibition neither rule nor bylaw

January 27th, 2012 by Chris No comments »

Dear Condo Smarts: Over the last weekend we purchased a Christmas tree to decorate our condo. The strata corporation has a tree in the lobby and we saw several owners bringing trees into their units.

On Monday morning we received a notice from the strata that we were in violation of the building regulations regarding live cut trees. The notice specifically indicated that live cut Christmas trees are prohibited, so we contacted the president of council who told us that these were always the regulations, and that our tree had to go and we were going to be responsible for the cost of the clean-up of needles and carpet cleaning.

We are very concerned that we are good neighbours, so we proceeded to remove our tree. Being a bit of a stickler for the rules, l decided to contact our property manager who advised the regulations were available on our website, and yes live trees were prohibited. When we printed off the list, we found nothing that prohibited live Christmas trees.

No one seems to know where this regulation came from or where we can obtain a copy for our records. Are we missing a document that we should have received when we purchased in the fall of 2010?

Sarah M., Richmond

Dear Sarah: The short answer is No, there is no such rule at your strata.

But first, let me explain the basic meaning of the terms rules, regulations and bylaws.

Many strata council members have been heard to quote “rules and regulations” for their strata as part of the strata governance.

The Strata Property Act permits only bylaws, which are passed by a three-quarters vote at an annual or special general meeting, and which are filed in the Land Title Survey Authority registry, or, the “rules” of the strata corporation, which are passed at a council meeting and then later ratified by the owners at a general meeting by majority vote, and not filed anywhere other than in the minutes and records of the strata corporation.

Regulations cannot be created by a strata corporation because they are part of the legislation created as part of the Act by provincial cabinet.

Bylaws apply to every part of strata property, including a strata lot.

Rules apply only to the use and enjoyment of common property or a common asset. A rule that prohibits live cut Christmas trees in a strata lot (condo) is unenforceable because rules cannot apply to strata lots. But a rule may prohibit the transfer of a live cut tree in an elevator that is common property of the corporation, and it may be used to regulate the disposal of trees on common property.

Many strata corporations pass bylaws that prohibit live cut trees because of the fire safety risks and janitorial problems that are associated.

Rules must be included with a copy of a Form B information certificate, when requested by an owner or their agent, including an authorized purchaser’s agent. The Form B itself does not physically include an item that stipulates the inclusion of rules, so strata corporations frequently forget to include the rules. This is a common complaint of new owners.

I was curious about the application of the rules in Sarah’s strata, and did a bylaw check of Sarah’s bylaws since the first bylaws were filed in 1997. There is nothing that limits or prohibits live trees in strata lots. Her strata property manager was just as interested, so provided us with copies of all of the minutes of meetings, and there is nothing in either the minutes of council or general meetings that ever showed any rules about Christmas trees.

It turns out the Christmas tree prohibition is a bit of a myth in Sarah’s strata, as well as their “rules and regulations,” which appear to be referred to in council minutes, but don’t seem to officially exist.

There is a simple solution to prevent this confusion in any strata corporation. Many of us have served on boards for associations, and we always receive a governance binder that is our tool box about the association business and governance. Strata councils need the same tools. Because strata council members are responsible for the enforcement and application of the bylaws and rules of the corporation, every council member should always have a complete copy of the current rules and bylaws of your strata.

Source: The Victoria Times Colonist

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Posted in Strata Real Estate

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Time delays help with Form B amendments

January 26th, 2012 by Chris No comments »

Dear Condo Smarts: Our strata corporation received a request for a Form B Information Certificate over the holidays. We provided the copy within three days and the agent for the owner is advising that the form is incomplete.

We have been advised that as of Dec. 13, we must use the new form that includes parking stalls and storage lockers. While we do have specifically assigned storage lockers, that is easy information to provide; however, our development is only three years old and we don’t have the parking allocations that were issued by the owner developer, so we cannot at this time provide that information.

Obviously we can only provide information that we have, so what do we do when we cannot provide the information allocated in the new requirements?

The Strata Council of Devon Court

Dear Strata Council

Members: The Regulations that were passed by an Order in Council on Dec. 13, 2011, did include amendments to the Form B Information Certificate but there are two amendments that have time delays.

The first amendment is for the requirement of providing the most recent depreciation report, if any, that has been obtained by the strata corporation. The requirement to provide a copy of the depreciation report comes into effect on March 1.

While many strata corporations are now affected by the requirement to commission a depreciation report, they have a two-year window until Dec. 13, 2013, to meet the requirement if they are not exempted. Until they have met the requirement of a depreciation report or have been exempted, strata corporations will have an obligation to disclose the status of the depreciation report on the Form B as of March 1, this year.

The second part of the Form B amendment relates to the disclosure of the allocation and use of parking stalls and storage lockers. This part of the Regulations on Schedule 3, does not come into effect until Jan. 1, 2014. At this time, there is no requirement for the disclosure on a Form B of the allocation of a parking stall(s) or storage locker(s); however, this requirement will be mandatory within two years, and this is a good opportunity for strata corporations to create their parking and storage locker plans in preparation.

Because of the variety of parking stall licences and agreements that have been created by developers this may not be a simple task for many strata councils. The parking and storage allocations are not registered on the Land Title Registry unless they are a strata lot, form part of a strata lot, or they are designated as registered limited common property.

As a result, it is going to involve some considerable research for many strata corporations trying to establish who is legally allocated what parking and storage. A good example of this is a recent highrise strata in Burnaby involved in a research study on parking allocations. Through their investigation, they discovered one owner with five parking spaces, although there is no evidence to verify these were ever properly allocated, and several owners claiming use of specific parking spaces where no such allocations existed.

A good starting place for many strata corporations is to look at the transfer documents provided by the owner-developer at the first AGM. Any parking allocations including any assignments or licenses must be provided to the strata corporation at the first AGM. There may be some valuable information in these documents if the owner-developer provided this information.

You may also want to canvass your owners for their recent knowledge and try to establish if the strata corporation retained any historic parking or storage plans. It is important for buyers to understand that just because a vendor lists a specific parking or storage space in the sales agreement, does not necessarily mean that these are your allocated parking spaces.

In any event, we have two years for strata communities to organize their parking plans and storage allocations.

Source: The Vancouver Province

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Posted in Strata Real Estate

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Surrey woman ordered to sell condo over strata complaints

January 26th, 2012 by Chris No comments »

In what’s believed to be a first for B.C., a judge has ordered a condominium owner to sell her suite because of an avalanche of complaints from other owners.

The strata council for a condo complex on Guildford Drive in Surrey took an owner to court after hundreds of complaints had been made about her and her 20-year-old son.

The concerns about Rose Jordison and her son Jordy included excessive noise, abusive language, the uttering of threats and harassment that took place over several years.

Jordison, who moved into her suite in 2006, was fined $20,000 by the strata council over several years but failed to pay up or change her behaviour, so the council took her to court.

In a ruling released Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Richard Blair said it was a “draconian” measure to order Jordison to sell, but necessary.

“The Jordisons’ actions amount to an assault upon those residents,” said the judge.

“I specifically conclude from the evidence that the Jordisons’ conduct, including their obscene language and gestures, their interference with the activities of others, their spitting at other residents, the unacceptable loud and unnecessary noise they in their unit created, have unreasonably interfered with the rights of others who are entitled to enjoy in peace the common property, the common assets and their own strata lots.”

Affidavits filed with the court include complaints about loud banging, pounding on the floor, doors slamming and screaming and yelling coming from the Jordison unit. Among the incidents described, two pictures were dislodged from the walls of a neighbouring unit, nails started to loosen in one ceiling and some water leaked from the unit.

One neighbour complained the son was making sounds like a pig, which she concluded were directed at her, and another reported that she’d been called a “fat cow” and given the finger.

Another resident said she was called a “f—–g b—h,” a whore, a “ho for a show” and another profane word for a woman. The resident reported that water was thrown at her as she was passing the Jordisons’ suite. Police were called but were reluctant to become involved in the dispute, according to the ruling.

“In some ways this was the death of a thousand cuts, because they’re individually just juvenile,” said Philip Dougan, a lawyer for the strata council. “But over the course of time, [there have been] hundreds and hundreds of times where you’ve been intimidated or sworn at . . . We just couldn’t believe what we were hearing.

“So we wanted to be sure that this wasn’t a couple of people who had it in for Rose.”

The Jordisons, in their responses to the strata council over the years, denied the complaints and called the fines illegal, threatening legal action.

Last year, Jordison filed a complaint with B.C.’s human rights tribunal, alleging discrimination based on a disability because, she said, the objectionable activities were caused by her son’s autism. But she withdrew the complaint without providing any evidence.

Dougan said he believes it’s the first time in B.C. a strata owner has been ordered to sell their unit over complaints of bylaw infractions.

“There are so many situations just like this one. In our office we call them the strata nazis, the troublemaker in any given building who is just making life miserable for everyone,” said Dougan.

“We think this could be a tremendous precedent for stratas to be able to deal with that type of person,” he said.

Tony Gioventu, a strata advocate who writes the weekly Condo Smarts column in the Sunday Province, said he’s aware of other situations where the strata council effectively forced the owners to move by banning them from the property.

“Collectively, these rulings do send the message that strata councils have the authority to protect the right of the owners to the quiet enjoyment of their homes,” he said.

But, he noted, such legal action is prohibitively expensive — Supreme Court cases cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The judge ordered Jordison, who did not appear in court to defend herself against the legal action, to list her unit for sale within 30 days and sell it within 90 days after that, or the strata council can sell it for her.

She could not be reached for comment Friday.

One resident of the building told The Province people living in it were relieved, but said she preferred not to comment further or to be named while Jordison was still living in the building.

Phone messages left with other residents named as complainants weren’t returned.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

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Posted in Vancouver Real Estate

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Vancouver displaces Sydney as second most-expensive housing market on well-known survey

January 24th, 2012 by Chris No comments »

Vancouver displaced Sydney as the least-affordable housing market after Hong Kong among large English-speaking cities, as home prices rose faster than incomes, a study of 325 metropolitan areas worldwide showed.

 Vancouver’s median home price of $678,000 in the third quarter was 10.6 times its median pretax household income of $63,800, making the city “severely unaffordable,” Demographia said in a report today. A ratio of 3 or less is considered “affordable,” according to the public-policy firm’s survey of markets in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the U.K., the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong.

 Sydney’s ratio of median home price to income was 9.2, while Hong Kong’s was 12.6, a record for the eight-year-old survey, surpassing the previous high of 11.5 for Los Angeles in 2007. Home prices in Hong Kong, Vancouver and Sydney haven’t plunged as they have elsewhere, such as in Ireland, now the second most-affordable country, after the U.S., the study said.

 “Housing affordability generally improved in the surveyed nations, though the most unaffordable markets, Hong Kong and Vancouver, became even more unaffordable,” wrote Wendell Cox, principal of Belleville, Illinois-based Demographia, and Hugh Pavletich, managing director of Pavletich Properties Ltd., a commercial developer and investment company in Christchurch, New Zealand.

 Policies limiting lots available for construction drove up land prices, putting homes out of reach for middle-class buyers and younger workers in cities such as Vancouver and Sydney, the researchers said. The median price of a detached house in metropolitan Vancouver reached a record $900,000 in April 2011, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

 ‘Massively Deteriorating’

“The causes of massively deteriorating housing affordability are not a mystery,” Cox and Pavletich said. “They inevitably result from more restrictive land-use regulations adopted by governments with insufficient attention to economic fundamentals.”

 The study focuses on the home-affordability ratio, not absolute prices. It doesn’t take into account such influences as falling interest rates, an influx of foreign buyers or the attractions of climate and coastal location.

 “There’s no question if you want to live in Manhattan or in a nice, close-in suburb, it’s going to cost you more,” Cox said in a telephone interview. “Demand doesn’t drive up prices. Demand drives up prices if there are constraints in supply, and the cause here is regulation.”

 Bubble Bursting

Home prices in the eight capitals of Australia’s states and territories fell 3.7 per cent in 2011 through November and were on pace for the biggest annual decline in at least 12 years on concerns that Europe’s debt crisis may damp the nation’s economic growth, according to figures released Dec. 30 by RP Data, a real estate researcher.

 “The bubble is bursting in Australia,” said Pavletich, who operates PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org, a website on urban public-policy issues.

 In New Zealand, Christchurch is “severely unaffordable,” with a ratio of 6.3, according to the study. The city is rebuilding after a series of earthquakes that started in 2010.

 “There’s huge pressure on the government to open up land supply and get affordable new lots,” said Pavletich, who is an advocate for the effort.

 From the end of World War II through the late 1980s, homes in the countries surveyed generally cost two to three times median income, according to Demographia. Today, only the U.S. is affordable by the study’s measure, with Ireland and Canada “moderately unaffordable,” at 3.3 and 3.5 times median income, respectively.

 U.S. Cities

 San Jose, California, and San Francisco were the least affordable among U.S. housing markets with populations of at least 1 million, according to the survey. Detroit was the most affordable market in that group, with a median multiple of 1.4 times income, according to the study. Atlanta followed with 1.9, and Phoenix with 2.2.

 Honolulu, with a smaller population, was the least affordable U.S. city, with a median multiple of 8.7.

 Outside the U.S., Dublin, with a median multiple of 3.4, and Edmonton, Alberta, at 3.5, were the most affordable cities.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

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Posted in BC Real Estate, USA Real Estate, Vancouver Real Estate

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37.2-million Point Grey palace linked to yoga-royalty Lululemon named most expensive home

January 18th, 2012 by Chris No comments »

A palatial mansion in Point Grey with views of the Strait of Georgia and Bowen Island was predicted in 2009 to be Vancouver’s most expensive home when it was completed.

But despite being valued at about $31.6 million this year, the home, built on a 1.7-acre property once owned by Nelson Skalbania at 4707 Belmont Ave., ranks only as the second highest assessed single-family home in Metro Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler.

The most expensive home in the region is at 3085 Point Grey Rd., which is assessed at $37.2 million, according to BC Assessment rolls.

Not much is known about the mansion, which is registered to a numbered company in Vancouver with Dennis James Wilson listed as the sole director.

Wilson, who is also the company’s president and secretary, is founder of Vancouver’s Lululemon Athletica Inc.

Meanwhile, a house a few blocks away, at 2815 Point Grey Rd., was the third most expensive home in the region, with an assessed value of $25.6 million, followed by a property at 5695 Newton Wynd ($25.3 million), and two more homes on Belmont — at 4719 and 4857 — valued at about $24.2 million each.

The Hollies, a southern-style mansion built in 1913 for railway mogul George MacDonald at 1388 The Crescent in Shaughnessy came in seventh at $23.8 million.

The six-bedroom mansion, once Vancouver’s most expensive home with an asking price of $15 million, has an indoor pool with a retractable roof designed by architect Arthur Erickson, five fireplaces, eight bathrooms and finished living space of almost 8,000 square feet.

Other amenities include a golf pitching area and putting green, tennis court, tree house, playground and coach house.

Close on the Hollies’ heels is a one-acre property at 3489 Osler, valued at $21.9 million. The Osler Street property was the priciest house sold in Vancouver in 2010, at just over $17.5 million dollars.

It was described in 1995 as featuring more than 10,000 square feet of living space, an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, tennis courts, a gymnasium and a sauna. It also has a separate 2,000-square-foot maid’s residence.

Two homes in West Vancouver — at 3330 Radcliffe Ave. ($21.8 million) and 1690 Marlowe Pl. ($20.3 million) — wrapped up the top 10. The value of the Radcliffe home, however, is down from 2008 when it was assessed at $23.9 million.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

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Posted in Vancouver Real Estate

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