Home sales and listings continue to follow historical averages

Home sales and listings continue to follow historical averages

Residential property sales in Greater Vancouver in Feb 2014 shows 40.8% increase compared to Feb 2013

VANCOUVER, B.C. – March 4, 2014 – In the first two months of 2014, the Greater Vancouver housing market has maintained the steady pace set throughout 2013.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver reached 2,530 on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in February 2014.

This represents a 40.8 per cent increase compared to the 1,797 sales recorded in February 2013, and a 43.8 per cent increase compared to the 1,760 sales in January 2014.

Last month’s sales total mirrors the 10-year sales average for February of 2,547, with just 17 sales separating the two figures.
The sales-to-active-listings ratio currently sits at 18.9 per cent in Greater Vancouver, a 4.9 percent increase from last month.

“Home buyer demand picked up in February, which is consistent with typical seasonal patterns in our housing market,” said Sandra Wyant, REBGV president. “We typically see home buyers become more active in and around the spring months.”

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 4,700 in February. This represents a 2.8 per cent decline compared to the 4,833 new listings reported in February 2013 and a 12.1 per cent decline from the 5,345 new listings in January. Last month’s new listing count was 0.5 per cent below the region’s 10-year new listing average for the month.

The total number of properties currently listed for sale on the Greater Vancouver MLS® is 13,412, a 9.3 per cent decline compared to February 2013 and a 6.4 per cent increase compared to January 2014.

“With the market continuing to perform at a steady, balanced pace, it’s important for home sellers to ensure their homes are priced correctly for today’s conditions,” Wyant said.

 

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is currently $609,100. This represents a 3.2 per cent increase compared to February 2013.

Sales of detached properties in February 2014 reached 1,032, an increase of 46.6 per cent from the 704 detached sales recorded in February 2013, and a 6.3 per cent decrease from the 1,101 units sold in February 2012. The benchmark price for detached properties increased 3.5 per cent from February 2013 to $932,900.

Sales of apartment properties reached 1,032 in February 2014, an increase of 35.8 per cent compared to the 760 sales in February 2013, and a 1.2 per cent increase compared to the 1,020 sales in February 2012. The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 3.6 per cent from February 2013 to $373,300.

Attached property sales in February 2014 totalled 466, an increase of 39.9 per cent compared to the 333 sales in February 2013, and a 9.9 per cent increase from the 424 attached properties sold in February 2012. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 0.6 per cent between February 2013 and 2014 to $458,300.

 

To download the full report please visit:

http://issuu.com/annaasi/docs/feb_2014_stats_release_for_media_fi

 

Cat: REBGV, Vancouver Real Estate, Market Update

Technorati Tags: Vancouver Real Estate Vancouver Housing REBGV Market Stats

City unveils $1-billion plan for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

City unveils $1-billion plan for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
Anti-poverty critic fears low-income community will be ‘demolished’

Vancouver’s troubled Downtown Eastside is about to get a facelift.

The City of Vancouver unveiled an ambitious, $1-billion, 30-year plan for the neighbourhood Thursday.

The complex, 183-page proposal would see 4,400 new or replacement social housing units built in the area. There would also be a dramatic increase in condos near Clark and Hastings, where buildings could be 12 to 15 storeys high.

The city said it hopes to revitalize Hastings as a retail street, yet retain the low-income character of much of the neighbourhood.

It projects that housing units in the area will rise from 15,300 to 19,850 in 10 years, and 27,950 in 30 years. The population would rise from about 18,000 today to 30,000 to 35,000 in 2044.

“The plan over the next 10 years will be an increase in the number of these mixed-use projects that we’re trying to achieve in the Downtown Eastside,” said Brian Jackson, Vancouver’s general manager of planning and development.

“It will include affordable housing, it will include a number of opportunities for market rental, and market condos. You’re going to see a mixture.”

The controversial part of the plan looks to be a condo-free zone that stretches along Hastings from Carrall Street in Gastown to Healey Avenue in Strathcona.

Any new structures in the rental-only area have to be at least 60 per cent social housing.

The no-condo zone extends to historic Japantown around Oppenheimer Park.

Jackson said the aim is ensure that low-income people in the Downtown Eastside won’t be displaced.

“The plan is attempting to achieve balance,” he said after a media briefing.

“We have to provide the assurance that through the plan we are making sure the people who want to continue to live in the Downtown Eastside have that opportunity. But it has to be in improved forms of housing.”

In the plan, the Downtown Eastside isn’t just the area around Hastings and Main; it includes surrounding neighbourhoods such as Gastown, Chinatown, Victory Square, Strathcona and Thornton Park.

It was put together during the past two years by city staff in tandem with a city-appointed committee that was mandated to have at least half of its members from the low-income community.

Asked where the money for such an ambitious plan will come from, Jackson said the city will “need partnerships in order to achieve it.”

“We need the other levels of government, we need the non-profits, we need the faith-based groups,” he said. “And we need the development community to help make this real.”

But getting the money to build the social housing called for in the plan may not be easy.

Rich Coleman is the provincial minister in charge of housing. Asked if the province has the money to build 4,400 social housing units in the Downtown Eastside, he said: “No, we don’t. And we don’t do housing that way anymore, either.”

Coleman said the province’s strategy is to “diversify” the way money is spent on low-income housing, such as providing rent assistance for about 10,000 families around the province.

 

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Cat: Vancouver Real Estate, Vancouver Downtown

Technorati Tags: Vancouver Real Estate Vancouver Housing

AMAZON VANCOUVER OFFICE TO OPEN AT NEW TELUS GARDEN WITH 1,000 EMPLOYEE

AMAZON VANCOUVER OFFICE TO OPEN AT NEW TELUS GARDEN WITH 1,000 EMPLOYEE

Worldwide electronic commerce giant Amazon.com will be opening a massive new office in downtown Vancouver.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Amazon will be opening a Vancouver office. However, instead of following the suburban office park model, it has taken the same route many other companies have increasingly taken by choosing downtown Vancouver – an highly urbanized location – as their new home.

According to Techvibes, Amazon plans to open a 91,000 square foot (possibly up to 156,000 square feet) office at the new TELUS Garden development. It will take up approximately 20 per cent of the space at the new 22-storey office building at the intersection of Richards and West Georgia Streets.

The building is currently under construction with completion expected in 2015. Close to 1,000 people could be employed at Amazon’s new Vancouver office.

The new office tower is built jointly by TELUS and local developer Westbank. It will serve as the new TELUS headquarters with the relocation of its thousands of employees from “the boot” office tower at Kingsway and Boundary Roads in Burnaby.

Bull Houser will also join TELUS and Amazon as one of the office tower’s major tenants. The 140-year old law firm has spent 40 years at Royal Centre and its move will bring 250 employees to 67,000 square feet of office space over three floors at TELUS Garden.

The office building is also part of a wider $750-million TELUS development project that will include a 44-storey residential tower with 420 units at the intersection of Robson and Richards on the other end of the city block. Each of the two buildings consists of approximately 500,000 square feet of space and will include public plazas, restaurants, retail spaces and pedestrianized laneways – a first for Vancouver.

The office tower component is targeted to be Canada’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certified building based on the new 2009 LEED standards.

TELUS Garden is one of the largest and most significant projects in Vancouver’s recent office tower building boom, which includes MNP Tower, the large floor plate office space above Nordstrom, The Exchange Tower, 745 Thurlow Street, 601 West Hastings and the office building at Marine Gateway in South Vancouver.

Amazon’s new Canadian office in Vancouver will bring this arm of the global giant conveniently close to the company’s headquarters in Seattle. The revelation of the new Vancouver office comes after the May 2013 announcement of Amazon’s new headquarters office development in downtown Seattle.

The company was founded at Seattle in 1994 and has 15,000 employees in the city and nearly 90,000 globally. Its new multi-tower office project in Seattle’s city centre holds a capacity for 12,000 employees.

Courtesy of http://www.vancitybuzz.com

REBGV Commercial Edge Report - Q3 2013‏

REBGV Commercial Edge Report - Q3 2013‏

Value of Lower Mainland commercial property transactions climbs in third quarter

 

While the number of commercial property transactions in the Lower Mainland continues to trend below recent years, the third quarter of 2013 saw an increase in the dollar value of properties sold, according to data from Commercial Edge, a commercial real estate system operated by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).

The total dollar value of commercial sales in the region reached $1.411 billion in the third quarter (Q3) of 2013. This represents a 16.6 per cent increase from Q3 2012 and a 35.7 per cent increase from Q2 2013.

There were 393 commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland in Q3 2013, according to Commercial Edge. This is a 17.4 per cent decline compared to the 476 sales recorded in Q3 2012, a 20.6 per cent decline from the 495 sales recorded in Q3 2011, and a 2 per cent decline from the 401 sales recorded over the same period in 2010.

“The total dollar value of commercial sales increased in the Lower Mainland last quarter thanks in large part to activity in the office and retail sector,” Sandra Wyant, REBGV president said. “The total number of commercial sales in the region this year continues to trend behind what we saw between 2010 and 2012.”

The Commercial Edge system includes all commercial real estate transactions in the Lower Mainland, excluding Pitt Meadows and Chilliwack, that have been registered with the Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA) of British Columbia since 2009.

Q3 2013 activity by category:

• Land: There were 131 commercial land sales registered with LTSA in the Lower Mainland in Q3 2013, down 10.9 per cent from the 147 land sales in Q3 2012. The dollar value of land sales in Q3 2013 was $479 million, down 16.5 per cent from $573 million in Q3 2012.
• Office and Retail: There were 141 office and retail sales in the Lower Mainland in Q3 2013, a 15.1 per cent decline from the 166 office and retail sales in Q3 2012. The dollar value of office and retail sales in Q3 2013 was $575 million, a 95.6 per cent increase from $294 million in Q3 2012.
• Industrial: There were 92 industrial land sales in the Lower Mainland in Q3 2013, down 30.8 per cent from the 133 industrial land sales in Q3 2012. The dollar value of industrial sales in Q3 2013 was $226 million, a 5.3 per cent decrease from $239 million in Q3 2012.
• Multi-Family: There were 29 multi-family sales in the Lower Mainland in Q3 2013, which is virtually unchanged from the 30 sales in Q3 2012. The dollar value of multi-family sales in Q3 2013 was $131 million, a 26 per cent increase from $104 million in Q2 2012.

 

Full Report:

www.issuu.com/annaasi/docs/commercial_edge_release_q.3_2013?e=1402552/5865590

 

Balanced conditions continue in the Greater Vancouver housing market

 

Balanced conditions continue in the Greater Vancouver housing market

Home buyer and seller activity continues to mirror historical averages in the Greater Vancouver housing market. These trends have helped keep the region in a balanced state for the last nine months.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver reached 2,661 on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in October 2013. This is a 37.8 per cent increase compared to the 1,931 sales recorded in October 2012, and a 7.2 per cent increase from the 2,483 sales recorded in September 2013.

New listings for attached, detached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totaled 4,315 in October 2013. This represents a 0.2 per cent decline from the 4,323 new listings reported in October 2012, and a decrease of 14.2 per cent compared to the 5,030 new listings reported in September of this year.

Last month’s sales were 2.8 per cent above the 10-year sales average for the month, while new listings for the month were 1.9 per cent below the 10-year average.

“We continue to see fairly typical activity when it comes to monthly home sale and listing totals,” Sandra Wyant, REBGV president said. “Today’s activity is helping to keep us in balanced market territory, which means that prices tend to experience minimal fluctuation.”

The total number of properties currently listed for sale on the MLS® in Greater Vancouver is 15,257, a decline of 12.2 per cent compared to this time last year, and a decline of 5.3 per cent compared to September 2013.

 

 

The sales-to-active-listings ratio is currently at 17.4 per cent in Greater Vancouver.

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver is $600,700. This represents a 0.5 per cent decline compared to this time last year.

Sales of detached properties reached 1,067 in October 2013, an increase of 35.1 per cent from the 790 detached sales recorded in October 2012 and a 9.5 per cent increase from the 974 units sold in October 2011. The benchmark price for detached properties decreased 0.5 per cent from October 2012 to $922,600.

Sales of apartment properties reached 1,098 in October 2013, an increase of 36.7 per cent compared to the 803 apartment sales recorded in October 2012, and an increase of 14.6 per cent compared to the 958 sales in October 2011. The benchmark price of an apartment property decreased 0.9 per cent from October 2012 to $365,600.

Attached property sales totaled 496, an increase of 46.7 per cent compared to the 338 attached property sales recorded in 2012 and a 29.8 per cent increase compared to the 382 attached property sales recorded in October 2011. The benchmark price of an attached property is $458,000, which is virtually unchanged from October 2012.

Complete Report:    http://issuu.com/annaasi/docs/rebgv_stats_package__october_2013

 

Cat: REBGV Report October 2013

Job growth to sustain Vancouver housing market in 2014

Job growth to sustain Vancouver housing market in 2014

A pick up in B.C.’s economy next year and the associated increases in jobs will bolster B.C.’s residential real estate market in 2014.

According to the latest housing market outlook released October 31 by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), existing home sales are expected to rise 8% next year with the average price on the Multiple Listing Service forecast to edge up 1% in 2014.

In its report, the CMHC said demand for homes next year is “expected to ride the momentum of a rebounding market and post some positive gains.”

The improving market will be based on improved economic prospects for the province next year stemming from increased demand for B.C. goods from the province’s key export markets.

That is expected to bolster B.C.’s job market which is forecast to see a 1.5% increase in employment next year after marginal growth in 2013. After flat migration growth this year, an increase in the number of people migrating to B.C. should also boost demand for homes next year.

Housing starts, however, aren’t expected to rise substantially in 2014. The CMHC is forecasting 18,200 of new housing units this year and 18,400 units in 2014.

The relative glut of new, unoccupied homes is the main reason for the muted increase in activity over the next year. As of the end of September, there were 3,961 new housing units yet to be occupied, a 28% increase from the amount available a year ago.

Mortgage rates are expected to rise marginally next year, but CMHC suggested lending rates will remain “supportive” for the housing market given rates remain low by historical standards.

By the end of 2014, CMHC is forecasting the one-year posted mortgage rate to rise 0.25% from 2013 levels to between 3.25% and 3.75%, and the five-year posted mortgage rate to rise to between 5.25% to 6% from between 5% and 5.50% in 2013.

Courtesy of Business Vancouver

Vancouver’s house prices still climbing

Vancouver’s house prices still climbing

Prices for single-family houses in Vancouver are on the rise again as the affordability gap widens between detached homes and multifamily units.

On Vancouver’s West Side neighbourhood, the benchmark price index last month for detached homes reached $2,086,800, up 1.2 per cent from October, 2012. On the city’s East Side, prices rose 1 per cent to $850,500.

Over the past five years, prices for West Side detached properties have surged 45.3 per cent while they have jumped 35.2 per cent on the East Side, according to statistics released Monday by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

For Greater Vancouver as a whole, including suburbs such as Burnaby and Richmond, single-family detached prices climbed 24.4 per cent to $922,600 over the past five years. By contrast, prices for townhouses rose 7.8 per cent to $458,000 while condo prices increased 4.5 per cent to $365,600.

The Vancouver region’s single-family detached homes are on track to get ever-more expensive in the long term, while price hikes for townhouses and condos are forecast to be restrained by increased supply for those multifamily developments, said Cameron Muir, chief economist at the B.C. Real Estate Association.

“In the long term, single-family detached homes are going to become an increasingly smaller proportion of the housing stock becau se we’re building 80 per cent of new homes that are townhouses or condominiums,” Mr. Muir said.

“Over time, the housing stock will be shifting toward multifamily. Single-family detached homes are going to be a smaller proportion of the total number of homes in the marketplace. As such, theory tells us that prices of those particular home types are going to get bid up relative to the other ones because they are an increasingly finite and scarce resource,” he said.

October sales for detached homes, townhouses and condos in Greater Vancouver climbed 37.8 per cent from the same month last year as the real estate market finds its balance. There were 2,661 resale properties that changed hands last month on the Multiple Listing Service, up from 1,931 sales in October, 2012.

The increased activity marks the sixth consecutive month that Greater Vancouver has experienced a year-over-year gain in monthly sales, following a 19-month slump in volume.

Hani Lamman, vice-president of development and acquisitions with Cressey Development Group, said the City of Vancouver is facing opposition from long-time residents in historic neighbourhoods as civic politicians seek to encourage builders to pack more housing units onto lots traditionally zoned single-family detached.

Land is precious within the City of Vancouver due to mountains to the north and the ocean to the west, Mr. Lamman said. While it will be a slow process, Cressey intends to build townhouses and condos in the East Side neighbourhood that includes Commercial Drive, assuming city hall officials are able to rezone the area to make it easier to construct townhouses, row houses and condos.

Housing sales over the past six months look rosy when comparing the figures with last year’s slump. In July, 2012, Ottawa reduced the maximum period on government-backed mortgages to 25 years from 30 years, a move that contributed to the slowdown in housing sales and drop in prices in the second half of 2012 and early 2013. On Vancouver’s West Side in March this year, for instance, single-family detached prices were down 9.1 per cent, compared with the same month in 2012.

The sales volume in Greater Vancouver last month was 2.8 per cent above the 10-year sales average for October, said board president Sandra Wyant. Greater Vancouver’s MLS home price index for single-family detached houses, townhouses and condos was $600,700 last month, or a 0.5-per-cent decline from the same period in 2012. There were a total of 15,257 active listings last month, down 12.2 per cent from a year earlier.

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Nov. 04 2013