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Development fees to rise 37% to pay for more social amenities

2007-05-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

Downtown South area grew faster than anyone had expected
Derrick Penner
Sun
Thursday, May, 17, 2007

VANCOUVER - Vancouver city council has approved a 37-per-cent hike in development fees to raise $58 million for public amenities in the downtown south neighbourhood, which has transformed more rapidly than expected.

Some 15,000 people now live in an area that city planners thought would only be home to 11,000 by 2016, with a lot more children than expected.

And with further development expected to increase that population another 10,000 by 2021, the city has revised its official public amenities strategy to provide more childcare spaces, more social housing and some of the park spaces it wanted carved out of downtown's concrete jungle when it first laid out the plan in 1992.

To pay for the plan, the city is increasing development cost levies on downtown residential development almost 37 per cent, to $13 per square foot from $9.50.

The new fees, which will take effect in November 2008, are expected to generate $58 million.
That's 71 per cent of the $81 million the city needs to complete the planned new package of public amenities by 2021. The balance of the money would come from city capital funds.
City planner David Ramslie said the 1992 public amenities plan called for development fees to account for 40 per cent of the amenities' cost, with the balance to come from provincial or federal governments.

"Just because of the speed of development [in downtown south], and the fact we're only covering 40 per cent of costs, we realized that we need to rejig this plan to make sure we're supplying some amenities here and readjust our rates to make sure we're going to deliver everything," Ramslie said.

On a map, downtown south looks like a series of overlapping rectangles within the area between Pacific Boulevard and Robson Street, and Homer Street to Burrard.

The city hasn't completed the initial list of amenities it envisioned in the 1992 plan, but Ramslie said progress has been made on some of them, and "in the next 10 years, you'll probably see delivery of pretty substantial amenities in the area."

Under the new plan, the amenities will include:
- 1.54 hectares of parks. The first part of Emery Barnes Park (.36 hectares) at Davie and Richards and a small .17-hectare park at the Nelson and Mainland have been created. Another .53 hectares have been acquired to complete Emery Barnes.

However, this is short of the 2.8 hectares the city wanted to create when the plan was first drawn up in 1992. Rapid inflation of land prices and the rapid pace of development have made it difficult for the city to secure park sites. Cost of the park plan to the city is $25.4 million.

- 1,238 units of social housing. The city has created 533 units of the 688 units that the 1992 plan envisioned would be needed to replace single-room-occupancy units lost. Cost to the city of the housing plan is $39.8 million.

- 323 childcare spaces. Some 74 spaces of the 189 that the 1992 plan called for have either been secured or funded. However, with census data showing that five per cent of downtown residents are children, more are needed. Cost to the city is $9.84 million.

- A greenway along Helmcken street and improvements to transit. The greenway is intended to partially mitigate the shortfall in park creation. Cost to the city is $6.12 million.

10 buildings downtown to call home: A chronicler's favourites

2007-05-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

Enchanting, calming structure, and grounds, are critical, photographer writes
Mike Chadwick
Sun
Saturday, May, 12, 2007

Mike Chadwick is the author of Vancouver In Focus: The City's Built Form, a photographic survey of downtown Vancouver buildings and landmarks. The West End resident and North Shore forest ranger here shares, with Westcoast Homes readers, in pictures and text, his favourite residential buildings downtown.

Among the sea of buildings in any downtown, a select few catch the eye. Why? What makes one stand out? The obvious answer is unique architecture, but there is more to it.

When you are around a particular building, do you feel you want to spend more time around it? Is it a welcoming structure? Is it a calming presence, perhaps because its design includes features such as reflecting pools or gardens? Is it a right-for-the-site structure? Does it complement its surroundings?

Of the many residential buildings -- mostly towers -- in downtown Vancouver, only a handful are truly unique, in opinion. I have compiled a list of 10 significant residential buildings in the downtown core, using the following criteria:

The building has to be primarily residential.
The building has to demonstrate unique design and architecture.
It must integrate well into its environment
It must be historically, socially, culturally or technically significant.

Qube
Built in 1969 and known as the Westcoast Transmission Building for 31 years, this Vancouver icon was converted to residential use in 2005 and renamed Qube.
It is technically unique because it was built from the top down. It is culturally significiant because it was designed and constructed when the Cold War race for space supremacy inserted space-age considerations into architecture and interior design.
The central pillar was the first component of the building constructed. The floors were then hung from the top, using suspension-bridge technology -- the goal a building that could withstand an earthquake. Only half-a-dozen buildings in North America utilize this suspended design.
The Qube has aged very well. During conversion, each side of the building was removed, exposing the floors and the building's innards. The windows were replaced, but retained the dark look of the originals.
The modern, minimalist style of the building is reflected in the concrete aggregate plaza under the suspended portion of the tower. (The passerby can walk under the majority of the building -- suspended above his or her head. Definitely a unique experience!)
In the front, there is almost no landscaping and there are no benches. The building itself is the focus, because it is so unique. A modest garden with shade-tolerant species can be found on the north side.
Even the lobby is stark, serving only as an entry point and waiting area for the elevators.
Address: 1383 West Georgia
Completed: 1969
Architect: Rhone & Iredale
Floors: 13
Height: 82 metres (269 feet)

The Pointe
Fins of aluminum are The Pointe's defining exterior feature. They act as solar controls and align the building -- rotated to provide maximum views -- with the street. There is no other building in the city with this feature.
The tower, on the corner of Georgia and Jervis, is set back from Jervis, allowing an extra-wide, divided sidewalk. The passerby has a choice: Walk the sidewalk street's edge or walk the stairs at the property's edge. A row of trees and plants separates the two and a gentle waterfall nearby follows the grade of the street, adding to the singularity.
On West Georgia, the entrance is surrounded by a ring of concrete pillars which aid in supporting the main structure of the building, five metres above. Looking up at the tinted green glass, the unusual geometric shadows caused by the fins are noticeable.
The Pointe was one of the city's first residential towers designed and outfitted to support home-based businesses -- a forward-thinking feature anticipating Mayor Sam Sullivan's ''ecodensity'' initiative.
Address: 1331 West Georgia
Completed: 1999
Architect: Bing Thom Architects
Floors: 29
Height: 84 metres (275 feet)

Residences On Georgia
The design of the four towers that make up the Residences is not as significant as the treatment of the site. By employing restraint, the result is an urban oasis which features a large open greenspace that serves as a transition between the forests of Stanley Park and the dense towers of the downtown core.
A large duck pond, public art and a continuation of the seawall are components of the space.
The towers have generous spacing between them, allowing ample public spaces and preserving the treasured view corridors to the mountains of the North Shore. The development won a lieutenant-governor's gold award in 1998 and helped to set the standards of urban design in downtown Vancouver.
Address: 1200 West Georgia - 1288 West Georgia
Completed: 1998
Architect: James KM Cheng
Floors: 36
Height: 108 metres (354 feet)

Eugenia Place
The most significant feature of this modern tower is found on the Beach Avenue facade, an approximation, or suggestion, of a giant syringe, with a large tree atop the "plunger" and the entrance to the structure at the pointed base.
Henriquez Partners, the firm responsible for Eugenia Place, brought a surreal concept to reality in a way that works very well.
The design pays tribute to the area's natural history: The building's height is the same as the original Douglas firs that occupied the site; the oak tree on the ''plunger'' is a reference to natural continuity; the concrete stumps at ground level, to cultural continuity. The "syringe" and the tree on top may be interpreted as injecting mother earth back into the environment.
Address: 1919 Beach
Completed: 1991
Architect: Henriquez Partners
Floors: 19
Height: 58 metres (189 feet)

Electra
The former headquarters of BC Hydro is one of the first modernist buildings in Canada, completed in the 1950s. It was sensitively converted to residential use in 1995.
The triangular panels on the vertical fins (on the building's Georgia and Hornby facades) are illuminated at night and were recently restored to their original blue and green brilliance.
The steel and glass on the Nelson Street facade resemble a massive waterfall. In contrast, the side profiles are slim, with the vertical fins adding to the perception of height.
In all areas, there is attention to detail. Doors, lobby tiles and elevator motifs, for example, reflect the six-sided shape of the structure.
Truly the city's most elegant tower, the building was Vancouver's first postwar building to achieve heritage designation.
Address: 989 Nelson
Completed: 1957
Architect: Thompson Berwick Pratt
Floors: 22
Height: 89 metres (293 feet)

Carina-Callisto
As glass towers, this pair is, perhaps, the best around, because the design incorporates a unique shape which reflects the nautical nature of the site.
Their southern profiles are flat, to blend with the surrounding architecture. But their other profiles feature a three-dimensional curve which is meant to resemble a giant sail, complementing the sails of Canada Place. The effect is dramatic, with protruding balconies adding texture to the smooth glass surfaces.
Both towers feature the now-usual townhouses at the base. This urban planning directive helps to define the street edge and serves to prevent the feeling that the towers loom overhead.
Address: 1233 West Cordova
Completed: 2003
Architect: Hancock Bruckner
Eng + Wright
Floors: 27
Height: 79 metres (259 feet)

Le Guernesey
This West End heritage building was beautifully restored and renovated two years ago. The exterior features brand new iron fire escapes, windows, brickwork and paint; the interior, modern suites.
This is a rental building, which makes it quite significant. In a time when stratification is taking away rental stock, Le Guernesey's restoration team took a bold step by resisting stratification.
Address: 859 Thurlow
Floors: 5

Banff Apartments
The Banff Apartments, built in 1909, are among a small cluster of heritage apartment buildings located between Georgia and Melville streets, at Bute. It is truly surprising that the Banff Apartments have survived nearly a century of development and redevelopment, especially given its location in one of the downtown core's most prominent business areas. This is important in a city that is changing at such a rapid pace. Heritage buildings serve as an anchor to the past; a point of reference for the senior who was raised in Vancouver.
The Banff Apartments, finished in red and green, add colour, texture and form to the the modern urban landscape's glass and steel. Also notable is the fact that it has remained a rental building.

One Harbour Green
This new building is unlike any other in the downtown core. Its appearance is bold, yet sensible when viewed against the backdrop of the North Shore mountains.
The salmon marble panels (which appear red in direct sunlight) of One Harbour Green provide a vivid contrast to the blue waters of Coal Harbour and green forests of the North Shore mountains.
Architect James KM Cheng has done it again with this building, signalling how the next generation of Vancouver architecture might unfold. Building upon the success of the glass towers of the previous 20 years, the time has come to incorporate colour and different exterior materials into the mix.
Address: 1169 West Cordova
Completed: 2005
Architect: James KM Cheng Architects
Floors: 24
Height: 80 metres (263 feet)

The Melville
This tower, to be completed later this year, anticipates the future by incorporating sustainability features such as steam heat and rainwater retention for landscape irrigation.
Tall and slender, the Melville's striking features include a curved glass sail on the roof; recycled heavy timber facades at street level; copper cladding from ground level to the roof, cumulating in an offset triangle behind the glass sail.
Address: 1189 Melville
Completed: 2007
Architect: Hewitt + Kwasnicky Architects Inc.
Floors: 42
Height: 141 metres (464 feet)

Vancouver In Focus: The City's Built Form, by Mike Chadwick and with a foreward by James KM Cheng, is available at book stores, amazon.ca. and vancouverinfocus.com ($39.95 plus shipping).

Jacobsen- Southeast False Creek - fresh, youthful design gem

2007-05-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

NEAR OLYMPIC VILLAGE: False Creek neighbourhood being transformed; not as crowded as downtown
Jeani Read
Province
Sunday, May, 06, 2007

Jacobsen, the development, has been conceived as a contemporary Vancouver design gem. What else could it be? An iconic modernist design inspired it, was responsible for its name, and has been used to market it.

The famous "egg" chair by Arne Jacobsen, one of Denmark's foremost modernist designers, was the symbol. That egg (a red one) has been moved all around the southeast False Creek neighbourhood, photographed in all kinds of out-of-context places on the street, lots of juxtaposition between sleek chair and funky surroundings, a great promotion.

Now that the display suite is finished, the hard-working team can take a photo of the Jacobsen chair in its proper place in the Jacobsen living room, and call it, "Finally at home."

"Our vision was to create a true modernist flat or loft," says Intracorp's Don Forsgren. "It's young, fresh, with an urban edge -- but more fun than downtown Vancouver."

Jacobsen was a mid-20th-century designer synonymous with clean, modern design, says Forsgren. So Jacobsen the development has polished concrete floors, integrated appliances and sliding panels.

"We spent a lot of time in the planning," says Forsgren. "One side of [each] home has all the closets behind a seamless cabinet to create a clean line and the cabinets are gloss white with high reflectivity. It's light and bright. We want it to be a blank canvas for your own design." Even the computer station is built into this wall, to further smooth things over.

The big benefit of this effect, he says, is that the living spaces seem a lot bigger than they are, and can accommodate (as in the display suite) a huge sectional and dining for eight in a 695-square-foot home. The whole end of the suite is wall-to-wall glass, with nine-foot-two-inch ceilings. Those all-glass window walls make for maximum light.

The bedroom can be part of the living space if you open it up like a loft -- or private, if you close the translucent panels. The bathrooms have met with enthusiasm, says Forsgren. The six-foot shower with rain shower head, marble vanity, large backsplash, mirrored wall with integrated storage and -- yes! a full-length mirror -- is going over very well. The kitchen appliances are high-end, Euro-style and sleek, as befits the whole picture.

Also key to the allure will be the new neighbourhood, says Forsgren. "This is really part of the urbanization of southeast False Creek," he says. "It's being driven by the new Olympic Village, and it's going to be a very hot spot. I think there's going to be a larger transformation than people realize -- with public facilities like community centres and parks, and retail and a non-motorized marina. A lot is happening, and it will happen before the Olympic date."

Realtor Fred Chan is one of the insiders who really gets it about southeast False Creek. "Now you can still see a few old buildings and auto shops, but in a few years the whole area will be changed," says Chan, who's bought two large loft units for himself and his son Alex.

Chan likes the "unique" design of Jacobsen with its brightness and glass walls, and also Intracorp's good reputation, but location was the selling point for a variety of reasons.

"It's only two or three minutes to Terminal and the SkyTrain station, and a minute to Main and the bus line, so it's easy to get everywhere," says Chan. "And, I like the density. Downtown has become too densely populated," he says. "I like a little breathing space."

THE FACTS
WHAT: Jacobsen is 125 loft-style homes in a six-storey building on south-east False Creek
WHERE: At 2nd Avenue and Quebec Street
DEVELOPED BY: Intracorp
SIZES: 425-1,400 sq. ft.
PRICES: $229,000 - $998,000

Proposed Houses Vancouver's Lanes with small footprint ranging 250-450 sf

2007-05-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

Ashley Ford
Province
Sunday, May, 06, 2007

Small, in housing, can be beautiful, functional and affordable.

That message is not only being preached by Jake Fry and Aaron Rosensweet of Vancouver-based design and construction firm Smallworks -- they are also putting it into practice.

An example of their innovative small-housing design is now on display at the dv-Interior Design and Urban Living Expo this weekend at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The expo is the West Coast's premier design event and attracts great interest from many sectors of the architecture, design and construction industries, and Smallworks' simple structure hints at where affordable housing in Canada's most expensive residential real-estate market might be headed.

Fry and Rosensweet -- a builder and industrial designer -- firmly believe a major part of the solution to the city's housing problems can be found along the back lanes that lace thousands of city blocks.

Their company has already designed and built highly innovative smaller housing and other types of units, such as studios, that can fit by the lane where you live. Now, it wants to become mainstream.

"We must make better use of the existing land and opening up the lanes and alleys to more affordable and other types of structures," says Fry.

While he admits that huge debate surrounds the issue, he says it is only a matter of time before the Smallworks philosophy prevails: "There's no question about it. The model we have created will be followed by others, and city hall will eventually be there as well."

The pair believe that the challenges of providing adequate and affordable housing can be met in part by some forward thinking from officialdom and greater flexibility of urban thinking when it comes to housing.

And it can be done, they argue, without creating urban sprawl or destroying neighbourhoods.

"We can build a home ranging between 250 and 450 square feet at $200 a square foot compared with at least $325-plus per square foot for conventional housing, and we can have a house up within two months," he says.

The designs are based on a single or double-garage footprint that fits at the rear of existing properties. Large parts of the buildings are prefabricated at the company's riverfront shop in Southlands at the foot of Balaclava Street.

Fry says Vancouver is the perfect city for laneway development. He points out the city already has an infrastructure in place to make it work. Most services, such as sewer and power, are already in the alleys and lanes, so it would not require massive disruption to permit such development, he says.

Fry thinks there is a "will" at city hall to make it all possible: "In my discussion with city planners, there was a very positive response to allowing small residences on existing properties."

The city has already signalled it supports such innovative thinking. Mayor Sam Sullivan, for instance, has launched an eco-density strategy that wants more growth with a smaller footprint.

Various areas of the city, including Kitsilano, Strathcona and Mount Pleasant, are already seeing some laneway development, and the city has a new zoning designation that permits small-lot and laneway housing in certain areas.

Bob Rennie, the marketing face of many a high-rise, high-density condominium tower, is on side.
"I grew up in a lane in Vancouver, and they were the neighbourhood. Density can be green as well, and we must look at all progressive ideas for the better use of the existing land base we have," says Rennie.

"Of course there will be opposition -- there always is -- but we have to look beyond that. I think it is a good solution and we are already doing it in some areas of the city, with infill housing.

"We already have the designers and architects to get the design work done. What is needed is a city and planners who are receptive to progressive uses of land."

There are certainly two distinct camps. Those opposed see any increased density as a magnet for increased crime, traffic problems, questionable quality of construction and destruction of neighborhoods.

The progressives argue the city has really no option and has to do something new. They hold that density is not an enemy of neighbourhoods and in fact makes ecological sense, with fewer people using cars and water and power.

Small Footprints, Big Steps, a study of untapped housing potential in Vancouver, makes a strong case for laneway development.

The study was written by graduate planning students Lisa Brideau, Joaquin Karakas and Karen Trzaska while they interned with the Vancouver City Planning Commission.

Their central theme is: "If we are serious about living sustainably and reducing our ecological footprint, then we need to use our land more efficiently. We cannot keep sprawling our housing out over acres and acres of land."

Most tellingly, the trio point out that single-family residential neighbourhoods make up 70 per cent of Vancouver's total land area.

In a two-block section of the Hasting-Sunrise neighbourhood, the study shows, dwelling footprints take up only 20 per cent of the land, public rights of way and so on take up another 18 per cent, while ancillary buildings and undeveloped space, landscaped and sidewalk areas occupy a staggering 62 per cent of the area.

"It is simple math -- if the population is going to increase and we recognize sprawl as bad (environmentally, economically, socially and health wise), then we must intensify existing areas, the status quo cannot hold. That intensification can be done with care and style such that it becomes an asset, rather than a burden for the neighbourhood," the trio conclude.

To which Fry and Rosensweet and those supporting a new approach say "amen."

Paris Block sells out

2007-05-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

Sun
Saturday, May, 05, 2007

A Downtown Eastside restoration by the Salient Group sold out in less than three hours.
The 29 apartments in the Paris Block average 700 square feet in size and were priced from the high $200,000s.
The 100-year-old, six-storey brick building is located on Hastings Street a half block east of the Woodward's project.

Elyse has the amenities and the location

2007-05-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

Main Street: With 48 different layouts on nine storeys, buyers have plenty of options to choose from

Kerry Moore
Province
Sunday, April, 29, 2007

Elyse has it all: location, layouts and good looks.

What's not to like? It has 48 different layouts over nine storeys, quality finishings, floor-to-ceiling windows, big balconies and patios, and you can walk to Canucks games, Science World, and all the boutiques and coffee shops you could ever want.

"Elyse will be built in an open V shape on a slope beside a new Mount Pleasant Community Centre," says Vesna Troha of L & T Marketing and Dexter Associates. By the time Elyse opens in 2009, she says, "the centre will boast a daycare, library, gym, steam room, perhaps a climbing wall, and an outdoor running track. There is also talk of a car co-op there, too."

Troha is enthusiastic about what she terms "a hot area." Main Street is already a desirable area for its shops, art scene, restaurants and coffee shops, she notes. And stretch that scene a little further, and "imagine it in another few years: This will be the place to live," Troha predicts.

The selling points in the units include hardwood flooring in all the living areas, in-suite storage large enough to be a spare room, and some enclosed balconies.

"There is an enclosed balcony in a one-bed unit [floor plan 321] that some buyers intend as a baby room as it connects to the master bedroom. It would also be a good solarium or a den," she says.

This bright enclosed balcony leads directly to an outdoor balcony that's shared with the living room. This same layout also features an eating nook as well as a formal dining area. "For a one bedroom, it's very accommodating," Troha says.

Buyers will find some unusual standard features including etched tempered-glass counters and backsplashes in the kitchens. Visitors to the display suite are shown how food can be cut on this surface without leaving a scratch. "It's more durable than granite and easy to maintain." Granite or quartz counters are options, "and, ironically, cost us less."

As is common, there is a choice of two neutral colour schemes, one slightly lighter than the other. In this case, they can be matched to two similar choices in flooring and in cabinetry.
As part of the standard stainless GE appliance package, a retractable hood fan is included along with a refrigerator, dishwasher, gas self-cleaning oven, garburator and 24-inch microwave drawer -- "a really urban-savvy feature." An electric fireplace tucks into the living area.
Some advantages of the building will be hidden from street traffic.

"We'll have a wellness walkway with a pond on the south-east corner, and one of our two lounges will lead off the fifth floor to a common deck with bench seating, gazebos and landscaping."

Troha says an inaccessible green [planted] roof atop the seventh floor is intended as an environmental element.

Because the building is so close to urban biking routes, secure bicycle storage is included as well as a designated parking space per unit. An entry phone connects with video surveillance for personal security.

- - -
THE FACTS
Elyse
What: 119-condo, nine-storey development
Where: 7th and Scotia, one block east of Main Street, Vancouver
Developer: Eden Group
Sizes: 639 sq. ft. to 1,775 sq. ft. One bedroom, one bedroom and den, two bedroom and den, and on the ground floor, three-bedroom townhomes.
Prices: From $379,900

Hotel Georgia project attracts international celebrity-level interest

2007-05-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

Condos in the mixed hotel, office and residence development range up to $6 million
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Thursday, May, 03, 2007

Vancouver's latest high-end condo project has piqued the interest of real estate agents for celebrity clients like Jennifer Lopez, Shaquille O'Neal and the Saudi royal family.
About 25 Sotheby's International Realty agents are expected in the city June 7 for an exclusive preview of The Private Residences at Hotel Georgia, part of a $400-million project expected to open by the summer of 2010.

Prices at the upscale 48-storey development near Howe and Georgia will range from about $685,000 for a 600-square-foot studio to $6 million for a 6,000-square-foot penthouse.

The tower will house office space and 155 condos when it opens next to a renovated Hotel Georgia, which closed in January and is scheduled to reopen in late 2009.

The project is being developed by the Delta Group and marketed by Sotheby's International Realty Canada.

Sotheby's agents like Carlos Justo from Miami, who handles real estate for Lopez and O'Neal, and Lee Summers from New York, whose clients include the Saudi royal family, will scout the project in Vancouver. The units are expected to begin selling in September.
Justo's company profile says he's "the broker of choice for industry leaders, international royalty, sports figures, and celebrities, and is considered the Prince of Real Estate and Broker to the Stars."

Sotheby's International Realty Canada president Ross McCredie expects a lot of international buyers will be interested in the project, especially those from the U.S., the U.K and Asia.
"It doesn't matter where you go in Europe or Asia, everyone knows where Vancouver is and they still feel this is a very underpriced market," he said in an interview.

McCredie also feels many buyers will be attracted to the high-end shopping near the project, with retailers like Holt Renfrew, Tiffany & Co. and Hermes within easy walking distance.
The 80-year-old Hotel Georgia -- the historic Vancouver hotel of choice for celebrities of the day such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and Bob Hope -- will be completely renovated and will reopen with bigger rooms. The number of rooms will drop from 267 to about 200.

McCredie said the hotel will feature a 20,000-square-foot spa and is expected to compete with upscale boutique Vancouver hotels like the Opus and the Wedgewood.

He said the number of potential hotel operators has been narrowed down to a short list of three, and a decision is expected within weeks.

The 48-storey condo/office building, at 150 metres, will be the fourth-largest tower in the city -- behind the Wall Centre, Shaw Tower and Shangri-la (expected to open in 2009).

April housing sales pick up, listing activity swells Vancouver

2007-05-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

Raw package can be downloaded, as always, from ImHome.ca

April housing sales pick up, listing activity swells Vancouver, B.C.

May 2, 2007

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that total residential sales for detached, attached and apartment properties reached 3,387 units in April 2007, an increase of 1.3 percent when compared to the 3,345 units sold in April 2006 and a decrease of 16.2 per cent when compared to the 4,043 sales in April 2005.

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties increased by 25.3 per cent to 5,580 units compared to the 4,452 units listed in April 2006. The total number of active listings increased by 25.8 per cent to 11,347 units when compared to April 2006�??s 9,022 units.

�??So far, the constants our market has experienced over the past five years are holding strong in 2007. We�??re still in one of the best markets real estate has ever had in Greater Vancouver. Sales are higher than historical norms and homes are selling very quickly, usually with multiple-offers,�?? says REBGV president Brian Naphtali. �??Last month, the average days a property spent on market dropped again, down to 39 days, compared to 43 days in March, 49 days in February, and 56 days in January.

�??There were a couple of surprises in April�??s market, particularly in attached housing sales throughout Greater Vancouver. Consumers buying townhomes in Richmond and Burnaby are clearly finding great value for their dollar as sales activity in those two cities came within a few units of breaking records,�?? explains Naphtali. �??We also saw a significant increase in both new listings and active listings inventory. To get a better idea of what sort of properties are now available in your community, set up a meeting with your local REALTOR®.�??

According to Multiple Listings Service® (MLS®) data, sales of apartment properties decreased by 1.2 per cent to 1,350 sales in April 2007 compared to 1,366 sales in April 2006. The benchmark price of an apartment property in Greater Vancouver, calculated by the MLSLink® Housing Price Index, is $355,108, up 14.7 per cent from one year ago.

Sales of attached properties increased by 17.6 per cent in April 2007 to 634 sales, compared to 539 sales in April 2006. The benchmark price of an attached unit is $432,490, up 13.8 per cent from a year ago.

Sales of detached properties decreased by 2.6 per cent in April 2007 to 1,403 sales, compared to 1,440 sales in April 2006. The benchmark price of a detached unit is $695,069, up 11.9 per cent from last year.

Bright spots in Greater Vancouver in April 2007 compared to April 2006:
DETACHED:
Delta South up 25%................. (60 units sold, up from 4)
Port Moody/Belcarra up 44.4% (26 units sold, up from 1)

APARTMENTS:
Delta South up 31.3% .............. (21 units sold, up from 16)
Port Moody/Belcarra up 58.3% (38 units sold, up from 24)
Vancouver West up 9.1% ..... (479 units sold, up from 439)

ATTACHED:
Burnaby up 39.2% ................. (110 units sold, up from 79)
Richmond up 59.6% .............. (158 units sold, up from 99)
Vancouver West up 21.3% ....... (74 units sold, up from 61)

ATELIER ON ROBSON

2007-04-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

Location: Downtown Vancouver
Project size: 202 homes
Residence size: 525 sq. ft. - 1,500 sq. ft., 1 bedroom, 1 +den, 2 bedrooms, 2 +den
Prices: From $339,000
Presentation centre address: 400 Robson, when it opens end of May
Web: atelieronrobson.com
Developer: Magellen 20/20
Architect: IBI/HB Hancock Bruckner
Interior design: Robert Ledingham
Tentative construction completion: Fall, 2009

Atelier on Robson will rise on one of the last remaining residential sites on Robson Street, the buzz of urban Vancouver outside and a cool, contemporary calmness inside.

Developer Henry Man completed many condo projects as former senior vice-president and COO of Concord Pacific Developments in Vancouver and COO of Concord Adex Developments in Toronto (at the same time) but he's particularly hands-on with this one. He wants it to be something of a legacy for him and the word 'iconic' is a recurring part of the Atelier lexicon.

"Architecturally, it's going to be very strong and fitting of an iconic location," he says.

"It's at a very strong, international corner. Construction costs, being so high, it's hard to spend as you wish, but this is an iconic location and it's going to be my flagship location."

It stands kitty-corner to another Vancouver icon, the Vancouver Public Library with its Roman coliseum reference.

As well, it will be walking distance to Yaletown, theatres, shopping on Robson, and of course, the library. Depending on the position of the suites, there are views of the North Shore mountains, Coal Harbour, Burrard Inlet, Stanley Park and the majestic, glaciated Mount Baker.

The City has plans for a park on an adjacent property.

"There are two Starbucks nearby," he says, as if it were Vancouver's barometer of street life.

Its proximity to shopping, sports and entertainment centres, the Canada Line (once completed) and a famous street (Robson) will appeal to international buyers, he says.

"During the 2010 Olympics, residents have a view from the observation deck, of Library Square where Olympic festivities will be taking place," he says, although he isn't marketing internationally.

As a developer, Man stands at a different place in life from his former days of juggling up to 10 projects at a time. The deeply religious man retired in 2002 to devote more time to family and church. "I was making 20 trips a year to Toronto and five to Asia," he says. "I wanted to spend time with the family, watch soccer games; I want to achieve a balance, which is very elusive."

But one thing led to another and he was back in the game. Only now he oversees only one property at a time. The last one was Freesia at Seymour and Helmcken.

Atelier, designed by IBI/HB Hancock Bruckner, riffs on the circular curves of the Vancouver Public Library and the Westin Grand Hotel which limns the curves of a piano. "Our building therefore has flowing curves to respect the neighbourhood buildings," he says.

"The look and feel will be contemporary and high-end. The podium level will be 50 feet high with the clean look of glass and not a lot of framing. We've pulled the tower back from the podium for a feeling of space around the building."

Upon walking through the door, you enter a lobby, designed for memorable first impressions with a 20-feet ceiling, limestone walls, granite floor, chandeliers resembling crystal balls and a 12-feet-wide fireplace. Off to one side, there will be a lounge area with Corbusier-style furniture. "When visitors go in, I'd like to think they'd be very impressed," says Man. "I'm spending a lot of time working with the interior designer [the top-notch Robert Ledingham]."

Other amenities include a gardening deck, restricted elevator access where residents can only go to their own floor, and a parking spot, included in the price. "People can travel and be away and have peace of mind," Man says of the restricted elevator access. (For that matter, they could live in another country for part of the year.)

There will be a 24-hour concierge service, not only for the exclusivity but for security. "They'll be able to monitor various parts of the building by video."

Part of Man's impact on design is in its space efficiency, maximizing the usable over wasted space. "People talk about dollars per square foot but if some of the square footage is in extra long corridors, you're paying for corridors space that's not usable, so I try to minimize that. It takes a lot of gymnastics because you have to balance mechanical elements," says Man, who has an engineering degree as well as a MBA.

"Now that I'm doing one project at a time, I can pay more attention to details. I think the architect thinks I spend too much time there," he laughs.

Individual suites are outfitted with high-end Sub-Zero, Liebherr and AEG appliances, which will be integrated into the wood cabinetry. Buyers can choose colours and stone countertops. Condo ceilings are commonly 8-feet but Atelier ceilings will be 8 feet, 6 inches and some will be as high as 9 feet, 6 inches.

Eastern suites will have floor-to-ceiling glass frontage but western exposures will have more solid panels and "fins" which will act like shallow awnings to cast a shadow in the afternoon as protection from the summer heat. "The placement of the balconies was important and we tried to use it to advantage on the west side," Man says.

As for pricing, he says his approach is aggressive. That is, lowered cost for faster sales. "The price is a little lower than market so the selling period is shorter, therefore, I can start construction sooner. It compresses the cycle."

For a guy who can sound all business, he waxes poetic when it comes to Atelier: "I'm incredibly lucky to have this site. I'm blessed, I tell people. It's not only on Robson St., it all lines up, like the Sun and the Moon."

Atelier will go on the market sometime next month , he says and be completed by Fall, 2009.

Atelier - New curves on Robson

2007-04-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

Retail, office space in addition to 202 condo units
Ashley Ford
Province
Wednesday, April, 25, 2007

Fashionable Robson Street will get some more curves in the shape of a new, semi-circular tower at the corner of Robson and Homer.

The 29-storey, $140-million Atelier on Robson project is being developed by Magellen Developments (20/20) Inc. and complements the circular design of the public library across the street.

It also incorporates a retail-and-office component in addition to its 202 condo units.

With office space already at a premium in downtown, putting such space into future developments will likely become the trend for developers, Magellen president Henry Man said yesterday .

"I think we will see more developments with an office component and it appeals to many clients who want office space downtown but not in an all-office highrise," he said.

"It appeals to a lot of professional and smaller companies such as engineers and architects. This way of providing new office space is good."

Atelier will have 27,000 square feet of high-ceiling office space with its own separate entrance from the residential portion of the building.

Man says the IBI-HB Martin Bruckner Architects-designed tower will occupy one of the last prime sites downtown.

"We wanted to create a distinctive building that reflects the other buildings in the area. It is one of the last pure sites downtown," he said.

"To give a greater sense of space we have set the building back on the site and the residential component starts at [15 metres] above the street level," Man said.

He hopes construction will begin this August, with completion set for the fall of 2009.
Atelier on Robson is an upscale development aimed at trade-up buyers, retirees and investors, Man said.

A one-bedroom unit, including a parking spot, will be priced at $338,000. All units will have top-quality kitchens, appliances and fittings. Units will average 830 square feet.

A further potential bonus is Atelier sits on the same block as city-owned land that is earmarked for a downtown park.

High prices will continue to push buyers out

2007-04-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

A report says high prices will continue to push buyers out

Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun

Published: Friday, April 27, 2007

High real estate prices will continue to push people out of the market through this year and next, although a still-expanding provincial economy will keep market values high, according to a new report released Thursday. The number of real estate sales recorded through the Multiple Listings Service will drop three per cent this year and a further four per cent in 2008, according to the first semi-annual housing forecast from the B.C. Real Estate Association. The forecast also estimates that housing starts will decline -- by seven per cent this year and 5.5 per cent in 2008 -- as physical limits on the ability of contractors to build new homes and the so-called "affordability squeeze" add to construction pressures. Prices, however, will edge upward -- by eight per cent this year and seven per cent in 2008 -- as growth in the job market continues and shortages of skilled workers push wages up faster than inflation.

"[The forecast] really points to what has been going on in the housing market for the last seven or eight months," Cameron Muir, B.C. Real Estate Association chief economist, said in an interview. The number of sales have retreated from record highs, as surveys that track the sentiments of first-time buyers have found that more of them are sitting on the sidelines.

"One of the reasons we see sales waning is that some first-time, or low-equity buyers are finding that home prices are such that they simply can't get into home ownership, or are choosing not to," Muir added. However, Muir added that his forecast for 93,600 real estate sales across the province this year is still well above the 10-year average of 77,800 transactions per year. While that is lower than 2006, it "is not a signal that sales are falling through the floor."

Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban land economics and real estate at the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C., said it is consistent for prices to keep climbing while sales are falling "if sales are declining from a very high point, and there are still indicators of a strong market."

Carol Frketich, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.'s regional economist for B.C., said recent economic data, such as Statistic Canada's labour market survey and measures of economic output and disposable income, are stronger than she anticipated in her own forecast. "Those things are still, I think, a fairly solid footing for the housing sector," Frketich said. Frketich's own revised forecast, which she will release in mid-May, holds to expectations that housing markets will moderate.

Muir expects stronger performances from some areas than others, such as Northern B.C. where he expects prices to climb 14 per cent to an average $189,000 this year. Kamloops has also seen strong sales, and is expected to experience price growth of 15 per cent this year with the average reaching $255,000, although recent census data shows its population growing more slowly than the provincial average. Muir noted Kamloops benefits from strong retirement and recreational property markets. So does Chilliwack, he added, where buyers can find property bargains relative to towns closer to Vancouver. Chilliwack is expected to see 13-per-cent growth in its house prices this year, with a $305,000 average according to Muir's forecast.

The forecast for Greater Vancouver, however, is expected to see price increases of seven per cent with the average to hit $545,000 this year. The forecast noted that in 2006, Vancouver homebuyers "began to show some resistance to rapidly escalating home prices," for the first time in four years.

In the Fraser Valley, Muir forecasts that prices will rise nine per cent this year hitting $428,000.

HOME GAMES If you want to make money by investing in homes in B.C., keep in mind that some regions are expected to perform better than others. For example, Kamloops-area owners are told to expect average price increases of 15% this year, while those in the Northern Lights Real Estate Board region could do even better. The average home price in the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board region is forecast to increase just 5%.

AVERAGE PERCENTAGE HOME PRICE INCREASE BY REAL ESTATE BOARD REGION: 2006 / 2007* / 2008*
Victoria: +11% / +7% / +6%
Vancouver Island: +20% / +5% / +6%
Powell River/Sunshine Coast: +22% / +12% / +7%
Greater Vancouver: +20% / +7% / +7%
Fraser Valley: +20% / +9% / +6%
Chilliwack & District :+18% / +13% / +7%
Kamloops & District: +25% / +15% / +8%
Okanagan Mainline: +20% / +12% / +7%
South Okanagan: +19% / +8% / +7%
Kootenay: +21% / +12% / +6%
Northern Lights: +24% / +16% / +8%
B.C. Northern: +20% / +14% / +4%
B.C.: +18% / +8% / +7%

*forecast Source: B.C. Real Estate Association

City debates future of rental accommodation

2007-04-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Real estate forum examines dilemma as city debates future of rental accommodation

Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun

Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007

It is a Vancouver conundrum: Real estate investors will pay fat prices to buy rental property, but won't pay to build it. Greater Vancouver land prices are too high, construction costs too onerous, and despite astronomically high prices, rents are still too low to justify an investment in new supply, an industry forum heard Wednesday. Vancouver city council is debating a moratorium on demolition of existing apartments to preserve units that are left. Concert Properties CEO David Podmore told one session at the annual Vancouver Real Estate Forum that developers are finding it easier to build purpose-built rentals elsewhere. His firm is a partner with the Ontario public-sector pension OMERS in a $650 million apartment project.

In downtown Toronto, Podmore said, developers can buy land for $30 to $35 per buildable square foot, build apartments for $150 to $155 per square foot, and charge monthly rents of $2.10 to $2.25 per square foot, which earns a six-per-cent return. In Vancouver, a developer would have to pay more than $100 per square foot for land and $250 to $260 per square foot to build, yet could only charge $2 per square foot for rent for the same building. Greater Vancouver monthly rents would have to climb to the $3-per-square-foot range to justify new development, according to John Purcell, senior vice-president and portfolio at Bentall Investment Management. "[Vancouver] is poised for rent growth, but not nearly enough to justify new development on an economic basis."

Still, buyers are scrambling to buy existing Vancouver properties, even though they earn returns of five per cent at the high end to 2.75 per cent at the low end, David Goodman, of MacDonald Commercial Real Estate Services, said. Goodman added that buyers these days are typically large, such as Toronto-based TransGlobe Property Management, or real estate income trusts such as Boardwalk and Mainstreet. Goodman added that many buyers accept such low rates of return because they are counting on significant rent increases when units change tenants. He noted Vancouver rents have increased 21 per cent over the last decade. The prices to buy suites, however, have doubled over the same period. "In our view rents are moving in a catch-up mode," Goodman said, and are due to increase 10 per cent, on tenant turnover, over the next 12 to 18 months. However, government intervention will needed to encourage construction of new rentals.

Playing the Real Estate Game

2007-04-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

source: http://www.vanmag.com

The single-family house is an endangered species in this city. What's a guy who's always wanted a house to do?

By Tyee Bridge

WHEN I WAS SEVEN, my family moved from a rented rancher in north Langley to a five-acre farm across the border in Blaine. Two dozen gnarled plum, pear and apple trees surrounded the four-bedroom house, and beyond the orchard was an old dairy barn. There was even a treehouse in the front yard. In summer, lounging in that elevated, 50-square-foot pad with X-Men comics, ghetto blaster and root beer, I had my first and only taste of the condo lifestyle. Price for the whole rural package, circa 1979: $55,000. I�??ve lived in cities for more than 15 years, but my real estate expectations�??what home means, what a decent amount of space is, how much I ought to pay for it�??are undeniably rural. When I browse the real estate listings, I remind myself that for the going rate of an entry-level, 650-square-foot condo, I could, in many parts of the country, purchase a farmstead similar to the one where I grew up. (Then I think of the 15-acre farm my parents bought two years ago in Cape Breton for $85,000, and consider, yet again, whether I ought to pull a Shipping News and head east.) This partly explains why new condos don�??t appeal to me, why I live on the top floor of a drafty Craftsman deep in the east side, and why I�??ve come to realize that, like most of my generation, I�??m probably never going to live in a single-family home in Vancouver.

Reduced expectations are at the heart of the density issue, and, not coincidentally, the sustainability movement. Like most of my thirtysomething generation, I�??m guilty of wanting the level of luxury that my parents enjoyed. I sulk at the thought of living with less. Do I really want to move to the far-flung suburbs in order to have a single-family house? If so, I want it to be my choice, rather than an imposition of the market. My friends and I can rant for hours about real dollars, speculative bubbles, Olympic hype, all the factors that appear to have priced us out of the market, but we don�??t leave. We have roots here, and in spite of our whining we know Vancouver is a great city.

I don�??t want to move to Blaine or Cape Breton, at least not yet, and I�??ll probably never have any use for five acres of soggy grassland. Still, I refuse to accept the current Vancouver alternative: paying a third of a million dollars for a one-bedroom apartment that, besides location, offers at most an exercise room, a lounge with a plasma screen TV, and a Starbucks inset into the southeast corner. I think density is a great idea, on both cultural and ecological grounds, but I don�??t want the glossy, Euro-clad lifestyle package of the recent condo boom. I want density with soul. If I�??m going to live in a small space�??and more and more of us are, as people crowd into the Lower Mainland and force more vertical development�??I want it to be distinctly my own, not some cloned version of granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.

Density has always been a tough sell in North America. If you live in a condo, where do you put the barbecue, the ski-boat, the Winnebago? For the bigoted and skittish, dense cities also bring the unsettling possibility of living cheek-by-jowl not only with other races and cultures, but with all the other urban bogeymen�??addicts, artists, the homeless, lord knows what else. Given the psychological integration required to deal with such diversity, the popular response has been to flee to the suburban edges. Time-lapse satellite photos of the continent from 1940 to 1990 would be queasy but fascinating, 50 years of sprawl leaching out from the city centres like a greyscale infection of nanobots.

Vancouver�??s response to sprawl and its acidic side-effects�??urban decay, clover-leaf gridlock, gobbled farms and wetlands�??has been a bag of urban renewal tricks, with an emphasis on densely populated, mixed-use neighbourhoods. Thanks to the efforts of municipal savants like former co-director of planning Larry Beasley and marketing geniuses like Bob Rennie, condo living was rebranded from a squalid lowbrow compromise into a prêt-à-porter downtown cocktail party, complete with those granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. In the past 15 years, our downtown population has doubled; the success of our density effort even coined a global urban design buzzword, Vancouverism. Now, at least for a certain upscale, trend-conscious audience, the term density no longer connotes the nasty scratch-and-claw of the urban jungle. It has visionary loft to it, the conceptual shimmer of a halcyon metropolis. A condo, a futon and a latte for every citizen�??at least those who can handle the mortgage.

Most of our designer condo towers sprouted from old industrial lands and brownfield sites, which in development terms are low-hanging fruit: no neighbourhood associations to impede progress. Such pluckable brownfields are almost gone, and much remaining square footage downtown is reserved for office space. So as Vancouver proper adds over 4,000 new residents each year, and the GVRD grows from 2.2 million to a projected 3.3 million people in the next 25 years, enter Mayor Sullivan and so-called EcoDensity.

Sullivan�??sEcoDensity initiative. The plan, approved by council in July, adds a green dimension to the decades-old density debate; Brent Toderian, the city�??s new director of planning, tells the media, �??We are not a sustainable city and we can no longer pretend we are one.�??
Sullivan�??s initiative makes candid use of the ecological footprint model of UBC community and regional planning professor William Rees. �??If all people on Earth lived the way we do in Vancouver,�?? the brochure reads, �??it would take four planets, not one, to sustain the population.�?? Half the world�??s population lives in cities, Sullivan points out, uses three-quarters of its resources and kicks out three-quarters of the pollution. In this context, Vancouver, like every other city, needs to do more to be sustainable.

The EcoDensity plan, with its long list of please-everyone goals�??affordability, sustainability, economic growth�??could easily be laughed at as green-hued political fluff. But Brent Toderian, the new director of planning, is not laughing. Now that the old industrial lands have been harvested, the mood of global climate crisis and growing political will affords him a unique opportunity: moral justification for pan-Vancouver densification. Arterials and neighbourhood centres like the Kingsway-Knight redevelopment have been on the radar for some time, but Toderian hints that the whole city is due for a wake-up call. �??We�??re looking in all contexts,�?? he says. �??Neighbourhood centres, arterials, yes, but also single-family neighbourhoods. The ideas will be different, but opportunities exist in all three.�??

You can already see it happening: townhouses in West Vancouver, infill housing in Shaughnessy, Dunbar�??s shrill but ultimately futile resistance before the steamroller of densification. Toderian calls the new paradigm �??resilient livability.�?? The term defines livable density not as the artful presence of view corridors but as development that acknowledges global warming and peak oil, and will, over the long-term, enable Vancouver to, as he puts it, �??weather the storms that are coming, better than any other city.�?? Resilient density also means that I can say goodbye to the idea of a single-family home in the city, and so can all those of my generation who do not have substantial wealth or a fat inheritance headed their way.

My prodigious sense of entitlement, nurtured on that property in Blaine, is being subjected not only to globalized real estate markets but to a long-overdue ecological calculus�??the sort of ethical, responsible, full-context planning I�??ve spent years arguing for. True, the mayor, the city planners and the development community are using the global environmental crisis to lubricate some profitable projects, but that�??s fine with me, because in principle they�??re right.

Densification, particularly densification that encourages green building practices, is a clear and present need. My question has to do, once again, with soul. Character. Individuality. Creating a living space that transcends the cookie-cutter version we�??re so adept at selling to one another.

My rural upbringing depended on my father making a tedious and expensive commute to Richmond and back five days a week. If someone can offer my (as-yet-unborn) children an urban alternative that�??s anywhere near as rich as my own childhood was, I�??ll let go of the longing for my own house, the huge yard, the treehouse for my kids. And here�??s the good news: Vancouver, as you�??ll discover, is full of people who think the same way and are inventing vibrant ways of living distinctly, densely, and well.

The South Granville Lofts come with a view

2007-04-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

Sun
Saturday, April, 07, 2007

Contemporary and clean-lined architecture�?�his destination, designer Ran Mansouri followed a bespoke road in the resedences at the South Granville Lofts. Everytning here is custom-made, he reports

South Granville Lofts

Location: False Creek, Vancouver
Residence size: 450 sq. ft - 1,000 sq. ft.
Prices: $319,000 - $849,000 (excluding upgrades)
Presentation centre: 1525 West Sixth
Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. daily

Developer: Abbey Woods Development Ltd.
Renovations: Architect Construction Ltd.

Designer Ran Mansouri has created a display centre in the South Granville Lofts project that epitomizes true loft living.

What immediately stands out upon entering the light-filled home, with its soaring, 18-foot ceiling and two-storey-high windows, is the view.

The homeowners-to-be of the north suites will have picture perfect views of the Vancouver skyline with the ocean and North Shore mountains beyond.

It's hard to take your eye off the prized view but when you do what stands out next are the smartly designed interior features such as the custom-made kitchen island with birch ends, giving the space an organic feeling to the leather-look finish of the black granite countertops.
The showroom also boasts a custom-built Murphy bed and an office pod where the doors swing out 180 degrees for easy access. It's clear that Mansouri has created an esthetic and highly functional space where every single inch of the space is fully utilized.

"It's very contemporary and clean-lined architecture," says Mansouri, of Artech Construction Ltd., a company that is also responsible for the stylish interiors of the high-end condo Shangri-La now being built on Georgia.

"Everything here is custom-made."

Buyers can opt to go with one of two upgrade packages that have been customized by Mansouri, or they can simply buy the suite as it is. South Granville Lofts is an anomaly among Vancouver projects in that the developer has taken an existing building, at 6th and Granville, that was tenanted and put it on the condo market. The tenants' leases expire on average in three to six months so most suites should be ready for new occupancy by this fall.

The 10-year-old concrete building was known as "the Copper Building" because of its exterior use of copper and steel. It had been rented to a cross-section of residents, including artists, architects and photographers. About a dozen residents plan to buy their own homes but that leaves the majority of the 80-unit development to trade hands.

Stephen Hynes of Hillside Developments has been responsible for creating some of Vancouver's more striking projects, such as Choklit on West Seventh and the award-winning Waterfall Building on West Second near Granville Island.

When he built the South Granville Lofts, at 1529 West Sixth Avenue, Hynes said at the time his goal was to design a building where the inhabitants would have opportunities for social interactions. For instance, to access the individual suites in the four buildings that make up the lofts, tenants would have to walk along narrow catwalks or very high open stairs.

While the original architecture has stood the test of time, the new interior work by Mansouri has brought a stylish fresh take to loft living. The two upgrade choices are either Gold or Gold Plus. In the former, features would include granite counters, Collezioni lacquered kitchen cabinets with dining island, an AEG oven, cooktop and dishwasher, stainless steel refrigerator and Italian fixtures. The Gold Plus would include the Gold features plus additional built-ins like the Murphy bed and the work/desk unit and a modern closet.

The original features that will not change are radiant floor heating, heavy, steel soundproof doors and a fully tiled marine-style bathroom. All of the suites have classic clawfoot tubs.
The upgrades would add anywhere from approximately $35,000 to $65,000 to the purchase price, estimates Greg Zayadi, of Rennie Marketing Systems.

Condos on the second floor, with ceiling heights of nine feet, six inches, range from 450 to 800 sq. ft. and will sell for $319,000 to $509,000. On the third floor, the ceiling heights are 13 feet, and range from 450 to 800 sq. ft. They are priced from $329,000 to $539,000 and on the fourth and fifth floors, the ceiling heights are 18 feet, and the square footage ranges from 650 to 1,000 sq. ft. Prices range from $489,000 to $849,000.

"The views to the north are absolutely impressive," says Zayadi.

"This is unquestionably the best views of the city and the mountains you can get."

Zayadi says what is nice for buyers is they are getting a unique property in a great location that has a sound track record. All of the engineer reports for this building are available.

So far about 1,300 people have registered and when sales opened last Saturday the presentation centre received more than 300 visitors.

Province becomes landlord to poor and homeless - buys 10 Downtown hotels for social housing

2007-04-07T11:05:00.000-07:00

PROVINCE BUYS 10 DOWNTOWN HOTELS FOR SOCIAL HOUSINGMayor Sam Sullivan calls the provincial government's $80-million investment in supportive housing in Vancouver, Victoria and Burnaby "10 years' work in one day."

Maurice Bridge
Sun
Wednesday, April, 04, 2007

In a dramatic move to deal with homelessness, the provincial government has purchased 10 single-room occupancy hotels in Vancouver with a total of 595 rooms.

The move is part of an $80-million initiative to preserve affordable housing announced Tuesday by Premier Gordon Campbell in Vancouver.

Campbell also announced the purchase of an SRO hotel in Victoria, four other housing units in Vancouver and Burnaby, and the funding of 287 planned social-housing units in Vancouver.

In all, the province will purchase or fund a total of 996 units.

The Vancouver SRO hotels, which provide shelter for those at the lower end of the economic scale, have been at the centre of a fierce fight in recent years over homelessness and property redevelopment as soaring residential real-estate values have put increasing pressure on low-income housing stock.

Working in secrecy, the province struck deals with the hotels' owners over the past 60 days, and acquired the buildings for about $45 million. Possession dates range from this week to mid-May.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan hailed the move and said he has been working on this project for more than a year, asking various levels of government to invest in low-income housing.
"We have the largest commitment to social housing in history," he said. "I think today is the day we begin to turn the tide on homelessness. This is a wonderful day."

Sullivan noted the city had already committed itself to acquiring one SRO hotel a year. "Think about it," he said. "In one day, we've done 10 years' worth of effort."

Rich Coleman, the provincial minister responsible for housing, promised those who occupy the rooms in the SROs will not be evicted during renovations to bring them up to standard. He said the cost of the renovations is estimated between $5,000 and $15,000 per unit, and should be completed by the end of 2007.

Campbell said the refurbished housing, which he called "supportive housing," will come with social support for its occupants.

"Our real goal here is to make sure that people who need housing supports are finding those supports," he said. "We can take them and put them through transition with health care and addiction services and other kinds of social-support services so they can move on to other housing types."

Coleman said the key to operating the new housing will be cooperation and consultation with non-profit groups with experience in the field. He said the province will be talking to these groups in the next 30 to 60 days to discuss which groups will partner with the province in the operation of individual buildings. Talks will also be held with the current operators of the buildings to discuss operations and to determine whether any operating subsidies will be required.

The initiative was praised by those who have fought for low-income housing in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"I think it's good news," said David Eby of Pivot Legal Society. "I think it's an important first step to preserving the housing in the Downtown Eastside that we need for low-income people."
Mark Townsend of the Portland Housing Society, which provides low-income housing, said he was taken by surprise by the provincial move, but added he approves of it.

Although Campbell said the province was not swayed by repeated demonstrations and legal battles over low-income housing, Eby said he believes public pressure led to the hotel purchases. "I think it's a direct result of the concerted advocacy that has taken place by Downtown Eastside groups," he said. "I know that without the advocacy we've had around housing in the Downtown Eastside, this announcement wouldn't have been made today."
He said with continued advocacy, he expects to see the creation of additional housing units to get people off the street.

Campbell indicated there could be more such purchases in the future, but did not specify any details about such plans.

"This is not the end of this," he said. "This is part of an ongoing program to stabilize our communities, create opportunity and affordable housing and really connect people with the services that they need."

Provincial Opposition leader Carole James was less impressed by the premier's announcement.
"We have to remember that it's this government that created the crisis to being with," James said in a telephone interview from Cranbrook.

She said the Liberals cut the housing program in 2001 when it was building an average of 1,200 units a year.

Housing market gears up for busy spring cycle

2007-04-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

You can get the raw stats from imhome.ca

Vancouver, B.C. April 3, 2007 �??The Real Estate Board of Greater

Vancouver (REBGV) reports that total residential sales for detached, attached and apartment properties reached 3,582 units in March 2007, a decrease of 11.2 per cent when compared to the 4,033 units sold in March 2006 and a decrease of 9.0 per cent when compared to the 3,938 sales in March 2005.

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties decreased by 5.4 per cent to 5,456 units compared to the 5,767 units listed in March 2006. The total number of active listings increased by 19.5 per cent to 10,356 units when compared to March 2006�??s 8,664 units.

�??Last month we saw a relatively fast turnaround on the majority of properties listed on the MLS® system. The average days on market dropped to 43 days in March 2007, compared to 49 days in February 2007,�?? says REBGV president Brian Naphtali. �??Consumer demand for property in the Greater Vancouver area is still very, very high and the market is heating up as a result.

�??With year-over-year double-digit price increases pushing the average price for a single-family home to near record levels, sellers are continuing to get excellent value for their homes throughout Greater Vancouver. Despite these price increases, buyers are still not shying away from this market either,�?? says Naphtali. �??New listings are still very tight, but the increase in total listing inventory is opening new opportunity for people to make that long awaited move to their new home.�??

According to Multiple Listings Service® (MLS®) data, sales of apartment properties decreased by 13.9 per cent to 1,532 sales in March 2007 compared to 1,779 sales in March 2006. The benchmark price of an apartment property in Greater Vancouver, calculated by the MLSLink® Housing Price Index, is $349,373, up 14.5 per cent from one year ago.

Sales of attached properties decreased by 10.8 per cent in March 2007 to 651 sales, compared to 730 sales in March 2006. The benchmark price of an attached unit is $428,299, up 13.9 per cent from a year ago.

Sales of detached properties decreased by 8.2 per cent in March 2007 to 1,399 sales, compared to 1,524 sales in March 2006. The benchmark price of a detached unit is $682,173, up 11.8 per cent from last year.
�??To get a better picture of what�??s happening in your community, consult your local REALTOR®,�?? suggests Naphtali.

Bright spots in Greater Vancouver in March 2007 compared to March 2006:
DETACHED:
Delta South up 8.9% ................................................ (61 units sold, up from 56)
ATTACHED:
Vancouver East up 19.1% .........................................(56 units sold, up from 47)
Burnaby up 8.2% ....................................................(106 units sold, up from 98)
APARTMENTS:
Burnaby up 9.6% ..................................................(194 units sold, up from 177)
Port Coquitlam up 13.6% .........................................(50 units sold, up from 44)
Port Moody/Belcarra up 26.7% ................................(38 units sold, up from 30)
Squamish up 150% .....................................................(20 units sold, up from 8)

You can get the raw stats from imhome.ca

A design marathon disappoints at the starting gate

2007-04-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

A murky vision for Millennium Water
TREVOR BODDY

Friday, March, 30, 2007

After years of waiting, we at last have an idea of the architecture coming for South East False Creek, portions of which will start out as the athlete's village for the 2010 Olympics. The design news is not good.

The downtown Vancouver formula of skinny condo towers on top of rows of townhouses has been jettisoned for this, the city's last large development zone on the waterfront. Instead, no building will be higher than 13 storeys. Because SEFC densities will be higher than most of downtown, this means that more housing will have to be packed closer to the ground.

This is due to planning requirements, but also in large part because winning developer Millennium Development paid a record $200 per square foot for the huge site. This netted the City of Vancouver a windfall profit of $60-million more than anticipated in the $193-million sale of the SEFC properties it had assembled.

Architects for the first buildings to start construction soon are respected Vancouver housing specialists Gomberoff Bell Lyon. At the January 9 meeting of Vancouver's design panel which somewhat grudgingly approved the design plan after several previous rejections one member nailed the character of the designs for the first of these new blocks by describing them as having a "pseudo-retro European look."

To me, the since-refined designs published here for the first time recall nothing so much as flasher versions of 1990s re-building around the edges and in the ruined centres of former East German cities. These new housing zones are earnest in intention, Green in aspiration, competent in execution, but so utterly un-memorable as to induce that heavy-heartedness Germans call weldschmertz.

The architects, developer, planners and politicians have laboured hard and brought forth a mediocrity Weimar gone west-coast; Dessau with Douglas firs; Falkensee on False Creek. How did this happen, on a precious precinct of our city which will be the focus of intense global curiosity in 2010?

I found a partial answer at that same January 9th design panel meeting �?�an advisory, not regulatory body charged with improving the quality of our architecture and urban spaces.

In previous meetings, the panel and Vancouverites generally had been hard on Millennium's original architect, Yale University architecture dean Robert Stern, whose proposal was thought by some to resemble a New England fishing village and was ultimately rejected.

With the clock ticking toward 2010, Millennium's owner and director Shahram Malek instead turned to a local architect he had worked with for a decade, Stu Lyons, and Merrick Architecture Ltd.'s Roger Bayley, who was responsible for key elements of the urban design.

The feeling in the room that winter's day was the closest I have ever experienced to an architectural version of the Stockholm syndrome where stress causes captives to start admiring and emulating their captors.

Plans for the key site had been presented many times previously, and design panel members seemed worn down by repeated revisions of the housing plans, in frustration asking for a list of design principles for designs that seemed to lack them.

More generally, and in fairness to developer and designer, there was a sense that SEFC's elaborately pre-determined urban planning, housing mix and building density requirements all admirable intentions had, in their aggregation, conspired to take away any possibility of architectural verve or flair. What happened to his team's plans for the Olympic village and the permanent neighbourhood to follow is succinctly summed-up by Mr. Lyon: "There was a lot of pain at design panel."

Despite faint praise and murmured criticisms, ("The elevations lack interest," "Too many elements,") the panel approved the design. Panel member and architect Peter Wreglesworth called the taller buildings' design "much improved."

The site has been split into blocks designed by Gomberoff Bell Lyon or Merrick Architecture.

GBL is responsible for a block called Parcel 2 at the southwest corner of the site along 1st Avenue between Manitoba and Columbia, where site preparations are already under way.

Here, Mr. Lyon and his colleagues have designed a 13-storey, 127-unit 'market' condo building along Columbia Street, with a low rise U-shaped 84-unit social housing complex around a courtyard defining the block's eastern edge along Manitoba.

According to Mr. Lyon, the undulating curtain wall on the west elevation of the market building came from developer Shahram Malek's interest in a wave-shaped facade on a Norman Foster mid-rise housing project in London. For floors four through 11, a banding of straight glass railings run the building's length along Columbia, the curved wall and balconies set behind them like cardboard corrugations. The first three storeys are unencumbered by balconies, glass meeting sidewalk in a sinuous sashay down the block.

As if lacking the conviction of its own organic forms, the building is topped by something quite different a half dozen penthouses arrayed like squared-off country club mansions. These, plus the idea of putting the highest towers on the western portion of the block came from all-powerful marketing consultant Bob Rennie's "Big View, Big Price" philosophy, says Mr. Lyon. Views to the west are prized most of all, even though this means the family-oriented social housing courtyard next door will remain in shadow when most used late afternoons and early evenings.

Everyone had to give a bit to make this project happen. According to Mr. Lyon, for Millennium it was their obligation to use double-loaded housing corridors (they seldom build these elsewhere) for the mid-rise, though each end is open to natural light and breezes, in good sustainable fashion.

The architecture of plans and elevations is very different for the eastern and western sides of this corridor. The eastern half of the building is un-curved, just a few of the units closest to 1st Avenue rotated out of alignment a few degrees, allowing sliver views to the North Shore mountains, and preventing these from becoming hard-to-sell 'dog units' at the least desirable corner. To be sure, the design reconciliation of four quite-different elevations is a tough architectural problem, but GBL has not come close to solving it here.

Working within strict B.C. Housing guidelines, the social housing block adjacent is more even-handed, and in its mandated simplicity, more architecturally successful. Larger family apartments are ringed around the courtyard, with smaller suites in the block along Manitoba, this wing clad in a red brick. This cladding, plus the fritted glass panels planned for the rest of the structure are of a higher standard than typical for Vancouver social housing compliments to developer and architect for doing this. The only slip here is a curving lobby, a hiccup passed on from its confused neighbour.

Dull condo towers downtown and now the over-prescribed mid-rises of South East False Creek are demonstrations of how Vancouver is failing to spark artful city-building and innovative architecture. The reason for this at design panel, at city council, in the offices of planners, developers and designers is because a culture of mere sufficiency has prevailed over a culture of true excellence.

Energy-efficient condos a high priority for Canadians in urban centres

2007-04-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

90 per cent of Canadians surveyed want 'green' condominiums
Fiona Anderson

Sun

Thursday, March, 29, 2007

Ninety per cent of Canadians living in major urban centres want to buy condominiums that are energy efficient, according to a survey conducted on behalf of TD Canada Trust.

Forty-five per cent of respondents in the on-line survey -- which was carried out by Ipsos Reid and questioned 725 adults in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax -- said living in an "environmentally friendly, energy-efficient building" was very important while another 45 per cent said it was somewhat important.

Robert Drew, an architect with Busby Perkins+Will Architects in Vancouver said the finding was consistent with the message his company is getting from its clients.

"Underlying this is a young demographic out there buying condos and they're educated, they're informed [and] they know that the environment is critical as an issue right now," Drew said. "And that's informing how they are choosing to live."

There is also the older demographic who are downsizing and need to know the condo they are buying isn't going to drain their monthly income through high energy costs, he said.

The survey found the importance of energy-efficiency increased with age, with 50 per cent of those 55 and older citing it as very important.

Jennifer Podmore, managing partner of MPC Intelligence which advises developers on consumer needs, said energy-efficient condominiums have become much more topical recently.

A lot of people are realizing how easy it is to have a more energy-efficient condo and with that realization there is more pressure on developers to deliver them, Podmore said.

"[But] the one thing we are finding is not many people are willing to spend a lot more to have a greener condo," Podmore said.

So the key is finding ways to make an apartment more environmentally friendly -- without making it more expensive -- by cutting down on common-use areas such as lobbies and swimming pools that take a lot of energy to maintain.

"The less common space the less waste," Podmore said.

Developers are also putting in gas stoves and heating, energy-efficient light bulbs and water-efficient toilets, some of which add to the price of the condo but will pay back in reduced monthly expenses over time, Podmore said.

Qualex-Landmark Group of Companies found that higher prices didn't scare buyers away from their Pomaria project, which is aiming to be one of the first residential towers in Canada to get silver certification under LEED, an American rating system that stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Getting LEED certification, which won't happen until the building is completed this summer, required Qualex to do a number of things, including recycling parts of buildings that were torn down to clear the site for the new development, and keeping down dust during building. The building also had to use LEED-certified materials right down to the carpets and cabinets, Qualex's vice-president of sales and marketing, Chris Colbeck said.

That added about three to four per cent to the construction costs "which obviously translates into sale price," Colbeck said.

But Pomaria was aimed at sophisticated buyers who were looking for something special, he said.

"First of all they liked the product. Second of all they liked the fact that it was a sustainable building."

The TD survey also found Vancouver had the highest number of respondents (50 per cent) who were willing to buy a condominium as their principal residence. Sixty-two per cent of Calgarians and 57 per cent of Torontonians were against the idea. Thirty-four per cent of Vancouver respondents could see themselves raising a family in a condo, compared to 29 per cent country-wide.

Vancouverites were also most likely (84 per cent compared to a survey average of 79 per cent) to walk away from a condominium that didn't have a parking space. Yet 81 per cent of Vancouver respondents (above the national average of 80 per cent) said the condo needed to be near public transit.

More see condos as family friendly

2007-04-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

Security still the No. 1 amenity

Province

Thursday, March, 29, 2007

OTTAWA -- More potential condo buyers see them as a place to raise a family, but too many children in a building would be a turnoff for even more, survey results suggest.

The proportion who would consider raising a family in a condominium has in- creased significantly to 30 per cent from 20 per cent a year ago, TD Canada Trust said yesterday.

However, it noted that 46 per cent also said too many children in a building would cause them not to buy a condo unit in it, while just five per cent said not enough children would be a reason not to buy.

While the vast majority of potential buyers also said living in an environmentally friendly building is an important factor, the results suggest having parking is even more important.

The online survey conducted earlier this month, which asked potential condo buyers living in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary and Halifax to rate the importance of amenities that might factor into their decision to buy, found 90 per cent indicated that an environmentally friendly, energy-efficient building is important, with half saying it is very important.

Proximity to public transit also ranks high, with 80 per cent saying it is important, including 45 per cent who said it is very important.

"For many Canadians, energy-efficient features can also appeal to their desire to reduce monthly expenses," Joan Dal Bianco, a TD Canada Trust vice-president, said in a statement. "As green choices save them money, Canadians will increasingly look for energy-efficient features and ready access to public transit when shopping for a condo."

However, the most important amenity was good building security, with 91 per cent saying it is important, including 71 per cent who rated it as very important.

FIRST of its kind in past 15 years Boutique proje...

2007-04-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

FIRST of its kind in past 15 years
Boutique project is unique in the Kitsilano area

Sun

Saturday, March, 24, 2007

FIRST

Developer: Wedgewood and Marcon

Architect: Ray Letkeman Architects

Interior Design: Kodu Design

Presentation Centre: 1808 West First Ave., Vancouver

Web: firstonfirst.com

Price range: $399,000 to $915,000

Penthouse: $1 million to $1.6 million

Size of regular condos: 600 to 1,500 square feet.

Occupancy: Early 2009

FIRST is appropriately named because there hasn't been anything like it for the past 15 years in the neighbourhood, says Platinum Marketing group spokesman George Wong.

The 45-unit condo, in Kitsilano, appeals to buyers wanting to be in a prime location and in a mid-rise, concrete tower.

The six-floor building, on the southwest corner of Burrard and First, is considered a "boutique" project because of its small size but spacious interiors, says Wong.

"It's very unique because of the distinctive block and it's very rare. Nothing of this nature is on the horizon for Kitsilano and nothing has been offered similar to this here for about 15 years.

"Many would agree this block has the most personality and style in Kitsilano. The trendy shops, row housing and the merchants are here. It's a very distinctive style."

Wong adds although FIRST has a gym and meeting room, with a flat screen TV, fireplace and kitchenette that opens onto a large terrace, the amenities are really to be found just outside buyers' doors, with the beach and Vanier Park only two blocks away.

The homes are priced from $399,000 to $915,000 with six penthouses available, priced between $1 million and $1.6 million.

The size of the regular suites ranges from 600 to 1,500 square feet, and all of them have overheight ceilings of 8 feet 10 inches. The penthouse ceiling heights are 9 feet 4 inches.

The architect, Ray Letkeman, has designed plans that maximize space with all homes having an open concept kitchen/living area, ideal for entertaining.

The exterior of the building will be a combination of masonry, concrete and glass with large windows in each suite to take full advantage of the location. Directly on the corner of Burrard and First there are no high-rises in the vicinity to block the sun.

Kodu Design has created a sleek interior with high-end European finishes in a neutral backdrop, either teak or maple color scheme.

This was deliberately done for home buyers to put their own unique stamp on the interiors.

"It's contemporary, urban style but yet it's not cold. It has a very human touch," says Wong.

Some of the features include hardwood flooring in the entry, kitchen, living, dining and storage/flex room. The bedrooms have 100 per cent wool looped carpet in a warm tone.

Each unit has an enclosed balcony with large-format, 12-by-24 inch slate tiles. Some of the suites have in-floor electric radiant heat on the outdoor patios.

The kitchens are Dada kitchens by Molteni, with satin aluminum edged detailing and come with either a taupe or white matte finish.

The countertops are a polished white engineered stone with matching 12" backsplash. The sinks are under-mount with a distinctive ribbon faucet.

The bathrooms are all outfitted with a custom-Italian-imported rectangular basin with a polished chrome lever style ribbon faucet. Behind it is a full-height beveled mirror flush to the walls. The floors are a large 18-by-18 inch porcelain floor tile. The toilets are dual flush and water efficient.

The developers are Wedgewood and Marcon who Wong notes have been building homes in Vancouver for over 25 years and in that time have built over 6,500 condos.

Some of the features include hardwood flooring in the entry, kitchen, living, dining and storage/flex room.

The bedrooms have 100 per cent wool looped carpet in a warm tone.

Each unit has an enclosed balcony with large-format, 12-by-24 inch slate tiles. Some of the suites have in-floor electric radiant heat on the outdoor patios.

The kitchens are Dada kitchens by Molteni, with satin aluminum edged detailing and come with either a taupe or white matte finish.

The countertops are a polished white engineered stone with matching 12" backsplash. The sinks are under-mount with a distinctive ribbon faucet.

The bathrooms are all outfitted with a custom-Italian-imported rectangular basin with a polished chrome lever style ribbon faucet. Behind it is a full-height bevelled mirror flush to the walls.

The floors are a large 18-by-18 inch porcelain floor tile.

The toilets are dual flush and water efficient.

The developers are Wedgewood and Marcon who Wong notes have been building homes in Vancouver for over 25 years and in that time have built over 6,500 condos.

First-time buyers plunge into the market

2007-04-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

Edit: This kind of talk is precisely why it's a great time to sell. Markets like these don't last forever and if you've thought about cashing out some investment properties or downsizing, now's the time to do it. Give me a call. The number is 604-787-6977 - Will Wertheim

No price too high as purchasers raid their RRSPs, borrow from family, Re/Max says
Derrick Penner

Sun

Wednesday, March, 21, 2007

First-time home buyers in the Lower Mainland continue to raid RRSPs, borrow money from family and take on mortgages that will take longer to pay off just to get into the property market, Re/Max reported Tuesday.

In its latest affordability report, the national realtor noted first-time buyers are still jumping into the market in the face of double-digit price increases and rising unaffordability, mostly by buying condominiums.

"Purchasers simply refuse to be priced out of the market, even though household income has not kept pace with housing appreciation," Elton Ash, Re/Max's western vice-president said in a news release.

A decade or so ago, buyers expected to own a house like their parents', Ash said in an interview. Now in Vancouver, almost every other property sold has been a condominium.

"Suites have always been a large factor in Vancouver, and I think the news here [is] the compromises," Ash said. "People are willing to look at smaller homes or condos to get into the market."

The Re/Max report is a survey of its realtors in 13 cities across the country, which found condominiums to be a more popular choice for housing in markets where prices have gone up most, such as Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon and Kelowna.

Buyers have been inventive in their financing, such as signing mortgages with longer amortization periods and lower monthly payments.

Ash said some buyers are taking on mortgages without downpayments, though that practice is limited by strict qualification criteria.

Some wealth is starting to be transferred from baby boomers to their children as the leading-edge of that group reaches retirement age between 2008 and 2013.

"That's the reason why we're pretty confident with how the market is going to continue to perform in the near term," Ash said.

However, the help doesn't mean buying into the market is getting easier.

Diane Luu, a realtor at Legend Coronet Realty in Vancouver said first-time buyers largely accept that the prices they see on the Multiple Listing Services are the prices they have to pay.

Some of her clients have used help from parents on their downpayments, others have swung the purchases on their own.

"To be honest though, first-time purchasers do struggle," Luu said. "They're overwhelmed with the costs that come along with the purchase that they're not aware of [such as] property transfer taxes, mortgage fees and all the other details."

To date, however, her first-time clients have been happy with the equity gains they've seen in their properties a year after they've bought.

Aaron Best, Luu's colleague at Legend Coronet added that the first-time buyers he's worked with have experienced some frustration with prices and with the lack of quality on the market.

"Especially since January, the good product [sells] right away," he said. "Everybody's looking for the same product, the prices are already high and they have to over-bid. There's general frustration with that as well."

The Royal Bank, in its latest housing affordability index, found the standard Vancouver condominium, priced at $273,313, had become slightly less affordable in the last quarter of 2006 consuming 35.4 per cent of the average household income to cover mortgage, taxes insurance and other property costs.

That compares with 35.2 per cent in the previous quarter.

The qualifying income to buy that condominium, assuming a 25-per-cent downpayment was, $60,444.

The standard Vancouver bungalow worth $541,889, on the other hand, became a bit more affordable consuming 68.5 per cent of the average family income in the last quarter of 2006 compared with 70 per cent in the previous quarter.

The qualifying income to buy that house, with a 25-per-cent downpayment, was $117,172.

Julie Jaggernath, education coordinator for the Credit Counselling Society said her non-profit agency is hearing from an increasing number of people who have felt pressured to jump into the real estate market and are winding up with credit problems.

"The 'want it now, get it now' philosophy: That has become a challenge," Jaggernath said.

However, Jaggernath added that bankruptcy numbers are down because so many people are working.

"[They are] able to look at repaying their debts so they're not having to declare bankruptcy."

CONDOS OPEN DOORS TO FIRST-TIMERS

Yes, it's possible for some first-time buyers to get into the Vancouver housing market, especially if they opt for a condo rather than the house/yard/ white picket fence dream of their parents. Consider these recent affordability comparisons from RBC Economics

Affordability in Greater Vancouver, Q4 2006

STANDARD CONDO

Average price: $273,313

Qualifying income: $60,444

*Affordability measure: 35.4

DETACHED BUNGALOW

Average price: $541,889

Qualifying income: $117,172

*Affordability measure: 68.5

To flip homes or not to flip homes

2007-04-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

Edit: This is a hot topic, still, and if you'd like to look at teh funny side of the issue might I recommend FlipperNation.com

'If you cannot afford to lose, don't get into the business,' says TV flipper
Joanne Hatherly
Province
Sunday, March, 18, 2007

VICTORIA -- They're provinces apart, but Randy Mackay of Toronto and Robin Pickard of Victoria have a few things in common.
They're both 40 years of age and they both have found, fixed and flipped four houses.
That's where the similarities end.
Mackay has sworn off flipping. Pickard is still in the game.
On paper, Mackay looks like an obvious winner when it comes to house-flipping.
A 13-year veteran of the residential construction industry, Mackay co-hosted HGTV Canada's The Big Flip. Cameras followed Mackay and a friend for a year as they flipped as many homes as they could. During the same period, Mackay's construction firm built 18 luxury homes, showing that he is a businessman with resources.
It's a good thing. He put up $1.5 million in the race to make a fast buck off the hot real-estate market. But one year later, Mackay refused to sign up for a second season.
"I've had enough," said Mackay from Toronto. "I'm not doing it again."
Meanwhile, Pickard, a full-time wife and mother, doesn't even call herself a flipper, "because we actually live in the house. It's our home."
Pickard doesn't flip as much as she flows from home to home, living in each one for about a year.
That's her advantage. While Mackay fell victim to a stalled housing market that hit in the middle of the show's production, Pickard can weather those storms.
"We never buy a house that we can't live in," says Pickard. If the market slowed, Pickard and her family would simply stay put and wait out the downturn. Pickard has never lost money on a flip, but she has sometimes spent more on a renovation than she expected. Those costs have ranged from $5,000 to $65,000.
Pickard declines to answer when asked how much money she's made on her Victoria-style leisurely flips.
Of Mackay's four flips, he lost money on two and made money on two. He likes to say that he broke even, but he admits that's only true if he limits his audit.
"That's if I don't count my own time," says Mackay who reckons that if he also took into account six per cent interest he could have earned on the money if he hadn't taken it out of circulation, his losses would go into the hundreds of thousands.
"It's like gambling," says Mackay. "If you cannot afford to lose, don't get into the business."
If there are flippers in Victoria, Murray Sluggett, chief building inspector for the city, doesn't know of any.
"We're not seeing any that emulate the HGTV-style of house flipping," said Sluggett.
The local home-builders association couldn't name a house-flipper.
Arnie Harnden, operations manager for MAC Renovations in Victoria, says some clients have approached MAC to do renovations for a flip, but MAC usually doesn't get involved in the project because they would prefer to do a quality job rather than a quickie makeover.
Other times, Harnden says MAC has been called in to fix flips that flopped.
"I'm sure there's people out there who will do a quality job, but there are those who are just in it for the money," says Harnden.
That's where flippers can get into trouble, says Pickard, who says she does every upgrade as though she's going to stay in the house, because she may end up doing just that if the market slumps.
She ponies up the cash for upgrades that are best left to professional tradespeople, such as plumbers and electricians. She saves dollars by taking on the surface work of painting and patching, along with her husband's help. They also reduced the cost of their renovation by selling some of the things they replaced, such as kitchen and bathroom cabinets.
She relies on a home inspector to ferret out trouble spots.
"We've walked away from some houses," says Pickard.
She looks for homes that appeal to a broad cross-section of the market -- one-level houses that were built with a unique architectural esthetic quality that appeals to both empty-nesters and first-time homebuyers.
"Location is everything," says Pickard.
Pickard repaints her homes, pushing the colour envelope to the outside edge of rich neutrals, just enough to give the house a professional look, without teetering over into colours too strong to suit most palates.
The result: Pickard's homes all attracted offers the day of the first open house.
Pickard doesn't know how many more houses she'll shine and sell. The tug toward creating a permanent home is strong.
"There are things I miss doing, like being able to take my time doing landscaping and gardening."
Mackay has some advice for wannabe flippers.
"Don't step up to the plate if you can't hit a home run."

Vancouver needs to be sustainable, planner says

2007-04-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

'Green density,' downtown jobs and better design are goals of new planning director

Frances Bula
Sun
Saturday, March, 17, 2007

VANCOUVER - The city's future will be focused on "green" density, better design and the preservation of room for jobs downtown, the city's new planning director said Thursday in his first state-of-the-city style speech.
"Sustainability, density and the [ecological] footprint are here to stay," Brent Toderian said, speaking to a crowd of 300 developers, architects and planners at an Urban Development Institute lunch. "Protecting the job capacity that we have downtown now is our top priority. If you haven't heard that message, we need to talk."
Toderian also commented that, while Montreal "fosters a culture of great design, I am not sure I would put Vancouver in that category." He added that this is something he would like to see changed.
But Toderian, who talked largely about big-picture ideas, spent most of his speech trying to explain to the crowd what the city wants to achieve with its EcoDensity initiative.
For a long time, Toderian said, Vancouver development has been focused first on livability, things like views, privacy and separation from neighbours. But under EcoDensity, sustainability -- not livability -- will become the priority.
"Sustainability is the No. 1 goal and density is the No. 1 tool."
Toderian said his department is working with the University of B.C. to develop a tool kit, possibly a software program, to help analyse projects and neighbourhoods to figure out what their environmental impact is.
Toderian didn't give the kinds of specifics developers would have liked to hear, like exactly what the new rules or requirements might be future projects.
He did say that developers might be able to get bonus building space, more than the usual zoning would allow, in return for using green building technology.
The EcoDensity initiative was launched by Mayor Sam Sullivan last June to coincide with the World Urban Forum being held in Vancouver.

Varsity homes 'the sequel' has developer excited

2007-04-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Robert Fung gave buyers their money back in 2005 because of unprecedented rise in costs
Michael Sasges
Sun
Saturday, March, 17, 2007

VARSITY

Location: West Point Grey, Vancouver
Address: 4375 West Tenth
Project size: 19 apartments, 4 storeys
Residence size: 1 bedroom, 1 + den, 2 bedrooms, 705 sq. ft. - 1,154 sq. ft.
Prices: $430,000 - $725,000
Developer: Salient Group
Architect: Tom Staniszkis and Kristina Kovacs, Neal Staniszkis Doll Adams
Interior design: Alda Pereira Design
Tentative occupancy: September, 2008
For more information: varsitystyle.ca on the Internet

Advance and retreat. Despair and deliverance. Conflict and resolution. Build homes on a property occupied by a movie theatre for 65 years and, of course, drama will ensue, developer Robert Fung's experience with the Varsity new-home project suggests.
Fung has sold the Varsity homes before -- in October, 2005. By last spring, he knew he couldn't build them for the prices at which he had sold them. "The unprecedented rise in construction costs has claimed its first Vancouver victim," as The Vancouver Sun's business section reported in June of his decision to return the buyers' deposits.
He returned the deposits with interest and with an additional sum of money to compensate the purchasers for their inconvenience.
He also promised to come back to market with redesigned and re-priced homes, with construction costs known before he sold the Varsity homes for a second time.
He now is selling the Varsity homes again. And, yes, his asking prices are higher in spring, 2007 than in fall, 2005. He's declining to say how much higher.
He also organized a rewrite of the Varsity script in the last year.
The first Varsity homes were to have been located in a steel-and-concrete building. The latest homes will be located in an all-concrete building.
"A steel and concrete building is a very good building," Fung comments. "But I like all-concrete better, just because we then have better control from a design standpoint. It's better acoustically in terms of the . . . separation between units.
''Further, from the standpoint of our environment all-concrete is much more long lasting in a wet environment. And now and at the time when we re-costed it it turned out concrete and concrete and steel were the same instead of being a savings to do the steel.
''So you get a better building at the same price right now. we just redesigned it to be the better building at the same price. Concrete and steel is still a good way to do it, just more complex.''
If he has stepped back from the ''complex'' outside, he has stepped forward with the sophisticated inside.
Fung brought in Alda Pereira as the relaunched Varsity's interior designer, a resurrection of a collaboration that served him well at his Bowman Block warehouse conversion on Beatty Street in downtown Vancouver.
Alda Pereira is a storied new-home-project interior designer. Developers name buildings after her - Alda in Yaletown. When Oprah wanted an interview about small-home residency, she called Pereira. The interiors in this year's lowrise of the year in the annual Georgie competition are Pereira's.
The end-of-apartment glazing of the 19 Varsity homes frame Vancover's most splendid geographies, natural and cultural.
To the north, just beyond the lane between West Tenth and West Ninth single-family-detached homes on tree-lined streets roll down to English Bay, the North Shore mountains beyond.
To the south, beyond West Tenth, the established neighbourhood rolls upward - as if unto infinity - at least from the upper floors.
These proximities figured large in her response to the interior spaces - large views seen from small homes and further, seen, from small homes located on what Robert Fung calls one of Vancouver's ''high streets."
''You see a lot of developments going up on the 'high streets,' four storeys, three residential over [one] commercial,'' he says of the second-offer product he wanted at Varsity.
''Usually it's discount housing. Behind it [will] be an expensive high-rise, or a mid-rise. Along the street itself will be the cheaper product. This is totally the opposite.''
Perhaps the most pointed reference to the location of the Varsity homes is Pereira's tile selection for the kitchen backsplashes.
''The backsplash tiles are referred to by the supplier as 'pool tiles,' '' she reports.
''These mosaic tiles are one-inch by one-inch, with rounded edges and are traditionally used for swimming pools. We thought we would incorporate them in the Varsity project to reflect the larger 'pool' of the Burrard Inlet - certainly, for the lucky ones with a view - or the sky.
''Plus, there are three colours offered as an option, white, a 'sky blue' or a more dramatic dark 'midnight' blue.''
Perhaps the most pointed reference to Robert Fung's aspirations for the Varsity homes - interiors only found in high-end Coal Harbour penthouses and never in wood-frame apartments on city arterials - are the kitchens he and Pereira have specified.
She credits him with the commercial gas range that is making its first appearance in the city (he says). It's an Italian design, by a company called Bertazzoni.
He credits her with the fully integrated design of the kitchens, that is design that conceals as much as it reveals.
Simply put, you're not supposed to see the fridge (or the dishwasher or the hood fan). ''The idea is that the integrated kitchen serves like a piece of furniture when you're not in the kitchen and when you are in it it serves as a highly functional cooking environment.''
Comments Pereira: The integrated doors of the fridge and dishwasher allow these appliances to also disappear, which provides a cleaner and more modern approach to the overall function and aesthethics of a kitchen.
''These doors are fabricated by the cabinet millworker at the same time as the other cabinet doors. In this case, to match the lower wood cabinets.''
The lower cabinets will be faced in quarter-cut walnut with the grain laid horizontally, a presentation she says means the doors will ''visually become more like furniture pieces.''
The upper cabinet in white laquer ''are meant 'to disappear,' therefore opening up the upper half of the room.
''We have used this approach to small spaces in a few other projects with great success.''
She also specified the same arrangement for the Varsity bathrooms.
If the ''specs" inside were taken upmarket and one form of construction was replaced with another, the West Tenth facade of the building was not changed, Fung reports.
''We haven't changed the nature of the building, in the way it interacts with the neighbourhood.
''It's still of the same philosophy. We wanted a design that would utilize traditional materials. So we have brick, we have metal panels, we have glazing. But we will utilize them in a way that is contemporary.
''We wanted to try . . . and have something that isn't in the face of the existing traditional neighbourhood. We wanted something that blends in, but also speaks to new design.''

Toward building an affordable Vancouver

2007-04-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Small steps (shared laundries), big steps ('reciprocal development') would trim new-housing costs in city, former councillor writes

Jim Green
Sun
Saturday, March, 17, 2007

Jim Green is a one-term Vancouver city councillor, two-time mayoral candidate and long-time developer and builder of social housing. He presented the comments published here to a forum on housing affordability earlier this month.
To help people enter the housing market and then to help them maintain their housing choices in today's atmosphere of rising costs we need to question the basic assumptions of what is the best way for development to proceed.
In the past there have been many developments that have been contested by communities and sometimes by the City of Vancouver itself. (The CPR and the city have been involved in the courts for years over the future of the Arbutus ''Right of Way.'' The costs have been enormous for both corporation and taxpayer.)
It seems to me that an antagonistic development process adds to the expense of housing and makes it more difficult to deliver in a timely manner.
An alternative to this is "reciprocal development'' in which the developer engages consumer and community in a very real way and at the earliest possible moment.
Developer, community and consumer must be educated by one another.
I would further argue that the more the developer involves consumer and community in the design and placement the better the end product will be.
The approval process will clearly be faster if there is community support. In addition community support could lead to more density and height if there are benefits to the consumer, the community and the city.
There can be further reciprocal benefits if the development also provides specific components that address desired social and cultural elements such as social housing and/or support for the arts.
This reciprocal development, I believe, is the key element in development of a diverse, vibrant and inclusive city.
This is not a pie-in-the-sky concept that simply looks good on paper.
We have a laboratory example of "reciprocal development" in the Woodward's redevelopment which went forward with the support of Chinatown and Gastown businesses and the residents of the Downtown Eastside.
The project received increased density and height from city hall as a result of providing social housing, public outdoor amenities, housing for the disabled, space for SFU's school of contemporary art, community office and commercial space, and a child-care hub.
Another development, L'Hermitage, acquired extra density and height by providing new replacement single room accommodation units for the local low-income community.
Living Shangri La contributed to an affordable housing fund, saved and upgraded a significant heritage structure, endowed a public sculpture garden and planted thousand of trees to offset emissions.
The key to affordability generated by this process is that the community and development partners must create a compact that creates a proper working relationship and that this is endorsed and championed by the City of Vancouver.
The city must then apply the greatest degree of flexibility to allow reciprocity to create the desired results.
This is only the first assumption that needs to be question. Others may include:
- Persons entering the housing market prefer private amenities to shared amenities.
- A starter home must include an array of high quality appliances and finishes.
- Sustainable options are more expensive than conventional technology and materials.
- Households are static entities.
We assume we know what a person entering the market is looking for.
However, a starter home may not need a garburator; the new owner might be happier with rooftop composting.
If we are to generate affordable homes we must re-examine our assumptions and create a new philosophy of affordability.
For any number of reasons, shared living arrangements may be preferable to private and sustainability and creative design may be less expensive, more desirable and highly marketable.
If we take all of these factors into account, consumers and developers will both benefit from user design modelling.
This approach allows the developer to better understand the consumer's needs and the "sacrifices" that are acceptable in achieving affordability.
Affordability is not created by choosing one alternative over another. It requires the correct bundling of options that work together to create affordability, livability and sustainability.
Are purchasers prepared to give up or reduce individual amenities in exchange for shared amenities?
For example, if they gave up smaller individual balconies in exchange for shared roof decks that allow for community gardens and other activities, they would most likely have better views than from apartment balconies.
This could be a very attractive alternative and would also be in keeping with sustainability goals and could add to social cohesion.
We must examine our concepts of housing units. For example, what is a two-bedroom unit?
This is an important concept in that the needs of people change through time as does the household makeup.
Students, young workers and others often get together to purchase or rent housing.
A two-bedroom home may be adapted to a three-bedroom by converting the living room into a bedroom. This may be designed to ensure access to the bedrooms does not require violating anyone's personal space.
Later if things change the bedroom can go back to being a living room and a bedroom may change into a study or workroom.
This flexibility in the unity allows for affordability, more flexibility of lifestyles as well as allowing aging in place. More stable housing also leads to more stable communities.
Mortgage helpers in the form of secondary suites are one of the most cost-effective means of creating affordable housing.
These need not be confined to single-family-detached housing. They may work just as well in multi-storey, multi-unit housing. And they do not have to be an owner with a tenant in the secondary suite.
Both may be renters with the primary tenant being responsible for the two units. In this situation the secondary suites are referred to as lock-off suites. We have local examples at SFU's UniverCity and Bastion Development's projects at UBC.
Washrooms are more functional if functions are separated. Separation of toilets and washbasins from bath and shower allows simultaneous use.
This saves space and is cheaper than providing plumbing and appliances for two fully equipped bathrooms. Pocket (sliding) doors save space.
In units that are two bedrooms or larger there need not be a bathtub in all washrooms and showers may replace tubs in others.
LOFTs
- Sleeping lofts (static): A permanent sleeping loft over a work area could be well designed and be a sought-after design and living feature. It would add about 50 square feet to the home.
If the city were to include that 50 feet in its floor-space-ratio calculation, this could be a drawback. And building codes may require higher ceilings.
- Sleeping lofts (animated): This option has all the positive aspects of the static option, but disappears when not in use.
It required a pulley system that elevates the loft to the ceiling when it is not needed. It also requires a floor-lock system.
The sides and underside are treated with wood panelling or other claddings that adds to the overall design of the unit. There could be code considerations with this option. This would be seen as a very cool and hip unique option. Animated sleeping lofts may be powered by hand or electronically.
MURPHY BEDS
This is another option that has worked well in small homes in Vancouver (Bruce Erikson Place). Murphy beds need very exacting design to function well. They also require vacant floor area or daily re-arranging of furniture.
'SHELL UNITS'
These homes are turned over to the resident with an occupancy permit, but are in different stages of finish. The resident is then required to provide "sweat equity." "Shell" design allows the residents to alter bedrooms, living rooms, kitchen and dining arrangements as financial and livability needs change.
This allows the occupant to be involved in do-it-yourself design and renovation. (This is a very popular aspect for residents of single-family homes that can now be enjoyed by people in multi-unit accommodations.)
Unlike a static design the "shell" unit concept allows for units to better reflect the personality of the inhabitants. What are people prepared to forego to reduce purchase price? Are they prepared to purchase with less expensive materials that can be upgraded at a later time? Will they buy inexpensive armoires and do without built-in closets for the time being? What materials and appliances will they accept? In understanding "starter" home we need to know where "starter" starts.
Reduced finishes, or amenities, could include:
- Washer, dryer and dishwasher connections roughed in, but the appliances sold as options. Alternatively washers and dryers could be provided in basements and shared.
- Vinyl surrounds and flooring in bathrooms.
- Exposed concrete ceilings and polished concrete floors.
- Range-tops, with ovens optional.
- Shared composting areas for community gardens on roof decks rather than in-sink garbage disposers.
- Fewer parking stalls.
Any alternative to supplying parking is a great savings. In general, the less we use our vehicles the bigger our contribution to sustainability and livability.
The city may reduce parking requirements if alternatives are provided such as car-sharing or car-pooling options. As a parking stall costs up to $34,000 to provide, reduced parking can be one of the greatest way to provide affordability. Parking stalls should be leased or sold to inhabitants if they are needed. If all the stalls are not taken up by the residents and the car co-op they could be offered to the public.
We may also look at operating costs. Affordability is not just based on purchase price but the ability to sustain the residence. Therefore operational aspects of the home are as important as purchase price.
Fuel costs will continue to rise and could rise at a pace that would make it difficult for the owner to keep the unit. We need to look at alternative ways of heating air, heating water and cooling the unit.
Alternate systems are becoming less costly to install and are less costly to operate. Also there are programs that can offset the cost of installation. For example:
- Geothermal systems can save greatly on electrical and related costs while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gases and other emissions.
- Radiant floor heat is highly efficient.
- Passive solar floor heating is also efficient but needs to be used in conjunction with other systems.
- Installation of energy efficient lighting through the use of fluorescent lamps rather than incandescents.
Water is a resource that is becoming rare and more costly. Collecting rainwater, reducing consumption and recycling water can reduce costs.
There are very aggressive roles that the federal and provincial governments can embrace to assist in providing affordable housing.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is very strongly lobbying the federal government to create a nation housing policy and plan.
Without this all of our attempts to assist persons to acquire appropriate housing will be at best patchwork solutions.
This is true of the province as well. The recent provincial budget had some elements, such as the elimination of the Property Transfer Tax for first-time home owners, that will help in the attempt to reduce housing costs.
IN SUMMARY
There are many little tricks that can make minor contributions to affordability. But we can make major steps to achieve affordable housing if we follow the model of "Reciprocal Development;'' use sustainable approaches; seek density and height bonuses for providing social and cultural components; and reduce parking.
The beauty of this approach is that it not only produces more affordable housing, it also supports low income housing, the arts and livability. This in turn helps build a better Vancouver.