The Kitsilano area continues to be among Vancouvers' most desirable neighbourhoods for buyers in todays market; leading all neighbourhoods on the Westside with 48 condo/townhome sales in the month of April. With 6.7 of 10 attached listings selling in April the neighbourhood has now seen similar sellers market conditions for the past 39 months. During this time the MLS HPI Benchmark Price for condos has grown by 62% while townhomes have increased in value by 55%.

I’m a firm believer that most Vancouverites don’t know just how many great things, programs, learning tools and opportunities, business tools and resources, on and on, are available to us all via the Vancouver Public Library.

This week the Friends of The Vancouver Public Library are hosting the first of three annual book sales benefiting special library programs and projects.

Beginning daily from 10am to 5pm at the Central Branch on Thursday, May 3rd, and running through Saturday, May 5th, used books will be available for purchase by cash at amazing prices!

Paperbacks start at just 50 cents while hardcovers will cost a whopping $2! Non-fiction books will begin at 50 cents as well. On top of that you can take 50% off everything that remains on the final day of the sale.

This is a great opportunity for you to scoop some great reads/finds while supporting a good cause!

Having visited previous sales I’d imagine you will find the sale happening in the atrium of the beautiful Central Branch building right at the entrance to the library.

You can also support the Friends of The Vancouver Public Library in their efforts and donate books, media, etc. Visit their website or review their flyer here.

PS: Please bring bags to carry your goods home with.

Happy shopping!

This past week Vancouverites were provided with a great new option for travelling south to Seattle!

Harbour Air and Kenmore Air have teamed up to provide daily air-service to and from the Coal Harbour terminal in Downtown Vancouver to the Kenmore Air Harbor Seaplane Base in South Lake Union neighbourhood of Seattle. This is Harbour Airs first international route offering.

Flying time is just one hour while an expedited customs check will occur on the arrival side which should make the total travel time substantially quicker than land options.

Arriving in South Lake Union is great in my opinion. It’s fairly convenient area that you could certainly grab a Lyft or Uber from within minutes to commute to wherever you may be going. This area is also near the quickly expanding Amazon offices. The service will also extend to Lake Washington should this be your preferred destination.

In my case most likely to Safeco or Centurylink field. Key Arena soon sports fans? ?

Travellers will have the option of two daily departure times out of Coal Harbour. The morning option departing at 9:30am (10:30am arrival) while the evening option takes off at 5:40pm. You will be asked to check-in at the Coal Harbour terminal a minimum of 45 minutes prior to your departure.

The cost for each leg of the flight appears to be $370.50 plus taxes at the time of this writing. You are permitted luggage weighing up to 25 lbs with additional lbs being charged at $1.50 each while space permits. This certainly will not be the cheapest of options as compared to the bus and rail routes offered out of Pacific Central Station. It will however, provide Vancouverites with the ability to make their own decision on the value proposition based upon the reduced time and efforts.

Vancouverites will be familiar with Harbour Air as the Vancouver company founded in 1982 flies their distinctive Yellow and Blue planes in-and-out of Coal Harbour on a daily basis. On the other hand we may not be as familiar with their new partner in flight operations.

Kenmore Air was founded in 1946 and is now operating an expansive schedule that includes more than 45 destinations and lands its passengers on “lakes, harbours and tarmac throughout the US and Canadian Northwest”. They utilize a range of planes within their fleet and proclaim to have a world-renowned aircraft maintenance facility.

You may read the complete media release here and check out the Harbour Air schedule and buy tickets at their homepage here.

This post is designed to report on and explain the new Speculation Tax brought in by the BC NDP Government as part of their first budget under Premier John Horgan's leadership. 

• 2% for “Foreign Investors” or “Satellite Families”
• 1% for Canadian citizens and permanent residents who do not live in British Columbia
• 0.5% for British Columbians who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Where in the province is the Speculation Tax applicable?

• Metro Vancouver Regional District, excluding:
• Bowen Island
• Electoral Area A except the area of UBC Endowment Lands
• The Capital Region, excluding:
• Gulf Islands and Juan De Fuca
• Kelowna
• Nanaimo-Lanztville
• Abbotsford
• Chilliwack
• Mission

 

This beautiful Vancouver day has me thinking of warm spring and summer days just around the corner which has me excited about a number of things.. Near the top of that list however is a swim at the refurbished Kits Pool and it happens to be scheduled to re-open is just one month!

This is a true Vancouver gem that was just listed third on Red Bull’s top-10 list of The worlds sexiest pools to train in. While I wasn’t training for anything last summer I did conceive of an idea to use the pool as part of a “mini-triathlon” I completed one day by biking around Stanley, Olympic Village to Kits, running around Vanier Park and returning to finish it off with a swim in the pool. Was a ton of fun! (Can check out my Instagram post ?)

While I am on the record as being bullish on the current market for Westside Vancouver Condos I do believe today’s market requires sellers, and their representatives, have a well conceived pricing strategy in order to derive top dollar from the market.

The success of your sale in todays market will be the result of a number of factors. From the quality of the home itself, to its showing condition, to the preparation, marketing, and promotion of the listing materials. However, I believe at this time, the most vital of all is the presence of a well conceived pricing strategy.

There are a number of reasons I believe this to be true. Among them is the long standing fact that every listing garners the most exposure at the outset of its listing term. That is, the day it hits the MLS public sites as an active listing. This is when it comes across fellow agents hot-sheets and begins to appear in the inboxes of active buyers as a match to their home searches. This is when you have the publics, and agent eyeballs, fixed on your listing. This is when we want to capture their interest and make them move!

Furthermore, I have this hypothesis, that in todays market buyers have grown accustomed to watching only the new listings as they come out. This is because there’s been periods of time over the past years in which you needed to be in the door of that new listing on the first day of showings, and, if you liked it, preparing an offer immediately. If buyers don’t pounce on the listings as they come out it seems to me their perception is those listings they didn't move on have most likely sold and they move their attention elsewhere.

The process of.. watching new listings, attending sneak peaks and/or open houses, making or not making offers, winning or losing, only to move on to next weeks crop of new listings and do it all over again.. Has gotten ingrained into many Vancouver buyers as well as many agents. Making those early days of your listing, when all the attention is there, even more important than ever when it comes to being successful.

Therefor I believe you must hit the listing price on the mark! How do you do that?

1. Gain a very clear understanding of your product
2. Gain a good understanding of the likely value
3. Have a clear understanding of the market conditions
4. Identifying as best possible the direction of the market
5. Choosing the most effective listing price to garner exposure

Some of this seems dead obvious, but I’ll be honest, in telling you it’s dead obvious that the ball is dropped on each accord on a daily basis.

First - Understanding your product. 

Vancouver, with kudos from AirBnB, is allowing Vancouverites the ability to generate an income by way of short-term rentals.

As it stood the City of Vancouver did not allow residents to rent any space in their home for a period less than 30 days. As of April 18th bylaws will be enacted allowing for short-term rentals in the permanent residence of Vancouverites. Beginning Thursday, April 19th, Vancouverites will be able to apply for a Short-term Business License and as of September 1st, 2018, anyone short-term renting will be required to have one or be subject to fines.

The program has been created with a number of goals in mind but primarily to effect the cities long-term rental vacancy rate which is currently at or around 0.9% (As per April 10 Administrative Report). The idea being that regulating short-term rentals, and inflicting fines for non-compliance, that some of the roughly 6,700 units actively marketed as short-term rentals will return to the long-term rental pool.

Both homeowners and tenants will be able to take advantage of the program so long as they meet the city requirements.

The first criteria for a STR business licence is that the space you will be renting out is your principle residence. That means you will not be approved to short-term rent an investment unit or any secondary suite(s) you are not the primary resident of. For example:

In council meeting minutes the City of Vancouver notes that if the city-wide rental vacancy rate (which is a major goal of the cities for this program to effect) “meets or exceeds 4%” they will give consideration to allowing secondary suites to be allowed in the program regardless of permanent residency status. This will be interesting to monitor for anyone that owns revenue property with multiple dwelling units in which one is currently rented long-term.

During the application process you will be required to provide a 24/7 access number while being asked to declare the following to be true:

Happy BC Day Long Weekend!

Thanks for visiting and happy house hunting!

While you’ll find news abound that the Vancouver Real Estate market has cooled or that prices are off; these are generalizations. Certain areas of our market are seeing less activity for certain but that is definitely not true of the market as a whole.

The truth is there is opportunity in every market. Just need to know where to find it and whether you’re in position to take advantage. Fact it, this could very well be the best market ever for you to be selling and buying!

If you’re reading this and are feeling a little crammed in your 1 bedroom Vancouver condo… this is an amazing market!

If you’re reading this and have been considering selling your place in favour of something newer, shinier and in a higher price range… this is an amazing market!

If you’re reading this and always dreamed of getting your own piece of dirt in Vancouver but the detached housing market has been out of reach… this could be an amazing market for you!

Take a look at these sales stats from the past two weeks:

Ok so now you know the condo market in Van is hot. So where is the opportunity within the market?

As noted above, if you currently own a 1 bedroom condo in Vancouver you're in the hottest market in one of the hottest markets in the city. Check this out courtesy of my friends at SnapStats based on the month of January:

Vancouver West:

Vancouver East:

Anything above 20% your looking at Sellers Market conditions. At that point 1 in 5 homes on the market are selling every month.

You can see here that the 0-1 bedroom product on the market is moving at a very good clip. Less inventory and more demand here than anywhere else. Therefor if you’re the owner of a 1 bedroom Vancouver condo in need of something bigger… this is your market!

How about if you have a great condo or townhouse but wanted to get into a home on your own piece of land within the city?

Based on the REBGV January Stats for East Van and Westside Van we know:

Therefore, if you’ve ever wanted to ditch the condo/townhouse and stretch to buy a house there may not have been a better time than now.

There’s always opportunity out there. As always, just need to know where you're looking!