Donald Trump's Vancouver visit next week confirms speculation about tower -
Donald Trump is coming to Vancouver next week, confirming speculation that the Holborn Group will be bringing a Trump International tower to the city.
Asking price slashed in half for Bachelor Canada mansion on Vancouver Island -
The luxury mansion built for Bear Mountain developer Len Barrie is back on the market at less than half of last year’s asking price.
Analysis: New CMHC head leads focus on financial industry, risk management -
OTTAWA — Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp., which insures $563 billion of mortgages, named former Bank of New York Mellon Corp. CEO Robert Kelly chairman last month amid government pressure to upgrade management. He joins a board that includes a partner in a plumbing company and the former solicitor of a town in rural Nova Scotia.
Rise in building permits reflects sense of optimism, builders say -
As housing starts continue their ho-hum-but-steady pace through 2013, a surge in the number of building permits shows stronger numbers might be around the corner. The six-month trend for housing starts in Metro was nearly identical in May, at 16,324 units started, compared with April, at 16,370 units started, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported Monday.
First-quarter drop for Vancouver commercial real estate sales -
The value of commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland dropped 40 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 from the same time last year, and was the lowest seen since the first quarter of 2009, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported Thursday. There were 384 commercial real estate sales worth $886 million conducted in the first quarter of this year. Last year’s first quarter, the highest in five years, saw 480 sales.
Canadian housing sector faces downside risk: Scotiabank real-estate report -
Housing prices in Canada have been relatively flat so far this year but there's a "downside risk" going forward, particularly in the country's largest city, according to a Scotiabank report issued Friday.
Vancouver's priciest condo sells for record-breaking $25 million -
The most expensive condo in Vancouver has been sold for $25 million.
Vancouver home sales for May up one per cent from a year ago, board says -
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says sales for May were up one per cent from a year ago.
Boomers will finance kids' housing purchases, Vancouver's condo king says -
Vancouver’s real estate market in the next 15 years will actually be two separate markets financed by one chequebook, real estate marketer and “condo king” Bob Rennie told an Urban Development Institute audience in Vancouver Thursday.
Flaherty discounts fears over housing market, calls slowdown a ‘healthy’ development -
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is dismissing fears about Canada’s housing market, saying the current slowdown is welcome news and that there is no need for further government intervention.
U.S. bill would give Canadian snowbirds more time to spend in the sun -
OTTAWA - Canadian snowbirds may soon be able to spend an extra two months nesting in their favourite sunshine state each year.
Expensive housing a riddle for British Columbia parties -
It’s old news that it’s expensive to live in Vancouver, where splashy headlines about terrible housing affordability are the norm. With a provincial election approaching, The Vancouver Sun surveyed experts for ideas about what a new government could do to make housing more affordable. The Sun also asked political parties what they would do if elected.
City fees add to Metro Vancouver's housing-cost disparity -
The high costs of development could be helping to drive up housing prices in the city of Vancouver, figures provided to The Vancouver Sun by the Urban Development Institute show. Various city development fees, community amenity charges and sustainability requirements add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of building a condominium unit in the city of Vancouver. Vancouver charges far more than Burnaby and Surrey, the figures show.
One of Vancouver's two remaining 'Hobbit Houses' for sale -
It’s in no danger from the dark lord Sauron’s minions, but one of Vancouver’s two “Hobbit Houses” is up for sale with the realtor hyping the potential to tear it down and build a bigger and newer home.
Renting your home can be lucrative, but are you ready for tenants from hell? -
Even years after her first tenants moved out, Donna Grimshaw still remembers the damage the they did to her townhouse.
New housing prices rose 0.1 per cent in March: StatsCan -
OTTAWA - Statistics Canada says its price index for new houses rose 0.1 per cent in March, after a 0.2 per cent increase in February.
Don Cayo: Contradictory tax rulings puzzle Vancouver laneway home builders -
Families building laneway homes adjacent to their main residence may be eligible for HST or GST rebates, depending on which tax was in force at the time of construction. But, as at least three Vancouver homeowners are finding out the hard way, don’t bet the farm.
West Vancouver considers allowing coach houses -
West Vancouver is exploring whether to allow coach houses on single family lots to improve housing affordability and to increase the variety of housing available. Stephen Mikicich, a West Vancouver community planner, said this “gentler form of densification” could add options to an area that has many single family homes and a few apartments, but very little in between.
Quebecor slams Bell-Astral deal as unfair and says it would create a ‘monster’ -
MONTREAL — Quebecor’s new president and CEO blasted the proposed Bell-Astral merger on Thursday, saying it would create a “monster” that would have an unfair competitive advantage.
RioCan reports 'record' results as operating FFO rises 20% to $124M -
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says net earnings attributed to unitholders declined in its most recent quarter to $163 million from $343 million.
Vancouver property management company’s green program saves money, increases tenant loyalty -
An environmental program started by employees in 2006 has reduced energy consumption, water use and waste sent to the landfill at Cadillac Fairview’s Vancouver properties, the property management firm said Monday. Cadillac Fairview’s Green At Work program began in 2006 at the company’s Waterfront Properties in downtown Vancouver. The program measures the company’s environmental impact and sets benchmarks to improve performance. Today it operates nationally, including at all of the Vancouver office properties managed by Cadillac Fairview (The Vancouver Sun is a tenant in Cadillac-Fairview-managed 200 Granville Street).
43-storey condo tower proposed for Yaletown -
Vancouver city council will begin considering a major development proposal on Tuesday that, if eventually approved, would see a 43-storey condo tower built in Yaletown, with community amenity contributions from the project used to create up to 81 new units of below-market housing close by. Wall Financial Corp. is seeking to rezone its property at 1320 Richards St., near Drake, to allow for the construction of the 420-foot-high residential tower with commercial uses at street level.
Shelley Fralic: Finding “Balance” in the quest for affordable housing -
It has been said that if you build it they will come, and if a baseball diamond in the middle of a corn field isn’t quite what Charan Sethi had in mind when he set about to gentrify a once-sketchy corner of Surrey, his interpretation is serving to achieve the same result. On Saturday, they came, by the dozens, those who had arranged for pre-grand opening appointments and many more who showed up just out of curiosity to see what all the fuss has been about.
Plazacorp poised to acquire KEYreit after Huntingdon bows out of bidding -
Huntingdon Capital Corp. has bowed out of the contest to acquire KEYreit and says it wishes its New Brunswick-based rival well.
Credit union predicts housing sales will pick up in B.C. but at a snail pace -
The Central 1 Credit Union is predicting that the British Columbia housing market slump will pick up later this year but economists caution not to expect a swift recovery.
In its annual forecast released Wednesday, the credit union predicts home sales in the province will gather a bit of strength this fall and hold steady for the rest of the year, but notes a return to better days will be slow and weak.
Plan a private haven in the U.S.? Do your homework when buying real estate -
In 2012, Canadians purchased a whopping $9.4 billion of U.S. real estate, according to the National Association of Realtors. At 24 per cent, Canadians represent the largest segment of international buyers investing in the U.S. real estate market.
Canada's residential real-estate market cools further in February -
There's more evidence that Canada's real estate market is continuing to cool.
Canada’s new home prices rose 0.1 per cent in January: StatsCan -
Statistics Canada says its price index for new homes rose 0.1 per cent in January, following a 0.2 per cent increase in December.
Data show Vancouver’s real estate market echoes Chinese economy’s ups and downs -
Vancouver’s housing market fortunes closely mirror trends in the Chinese economy, according to an analysis by an economist with the Conference Board of Canada. Robin Wiebe says his number crunching has found that there are strong links between home sales, price growth and housing starts in Vancouver and the overall health of the economy in China.
Metro Vancouver housing construction slows in February on lower condo starts -
Metro Vancouver saw a sharp drop in housing starts in February, both in total numbers and the overall pace of construction, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported Friday. The decline was largely due to lower condominium and townhouse starts, which came in at 833 in February compared with 1,675 starts in the same month a year ago.
Planned Vancouver rental buildings change hands long before they are built -
Two planned rental apartment buildings that are part of Intracorp’s MC2 project at Marine and Cambie in Vancouver have sold for $27 million to a prominent, private local group with significant rental and commercial holdings, said Mark Goodman, who sold the property with his father David Goodman. This is the first pre-sale purpose-built rental apartment sale in recent times, said Goodman, commercial realtor, co-founder of HQ Real Estate Services and co-publisher of the Goodman Report. Intracorp is still responsible for building the buildings, Goodman said, and they should be completed in 2015 or early 2016.
Photos: B.C. homes selling for under $100,000 -
Fourteen detached homes outside the Lower Mainland now listed at bargain prices
Looming shortage of construction trades-people means higher home prices -
There's a looming shortage of qualified construction trades-people in Canada, and while that's a good thing for the skilled trades, it's less so for everyone else from homebuyers to residential and commercial builders.
Photos: Vancouver luxury-home sellers bide their time -
Here are six multi-million dollar homes on the city’s west side that have been sitting on the market unsold for six months or longer. Click through the gallery to find out the price reductions.
B.C. home sales above $3-million fell by a third in 2012 -
Sales of high-end homes fell by more than one-third in 2012 from the year before, but the number of homes that sold for more than $3 million was still second only to 2011, a new Macdonald Realty report shows. There were 439 sales of homes for more than $3 million in 2012 in B.C. Forty-four of those were townhomes or condos and 107 sold for more than $5 million, the Macdonald Realty report shows. The most expensive home sold in B.C. in 2012 went for $19.8 million.
Pete McMartin: The high-water mark of Vancouver real estate? -
For the last three years, Andy Yan, a researcher and urban planner with Bing Thom Architects, has been mapping the assessed values of single-family residences in the city of Vancouver. You see his latest efforts here today.
Photos: Vancouver west-side vs. east-side real estate -
A look at the homes you can buy for about $1 million on the west side of the city compared to homes in the same price range on the east side. All examples taken from current real estate listings.
U.S. pending home sales figure rises to highest level in 2½ years -
WASHINGTON — A measure of the number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes rose in January from December to the highest level in more than 2½ years. The increase suggests sales of previously occupied homes will continue rising in the coming months.
Planners, developers hope for neighbourhood revival along East Hastings -
John Atkin has a soft spot for East Hastings Street as it was in the 1970s. “The Downtown Eastside, that was my kind of neighbourhood,” the Vancouver historian said, recalling the magazine stores with their highbrow offerings and comfortable coffee shops that once dotted the road where east meets west.
City council rezones waterfront complex -
Vancouver city council has approved the rezoning of a prime waterfront apartment complex that will add 133 rental units to the West End. Tuesday's decision on the infill development, located at 1600 Beach Ave. and 1651 Harwood St., had been delayed twice. The rental prices in the development will range from 18 to 27 per cent higher than average rental prices for similar-sized units in the West End.
