BC Business
Back in 2010, this Vancouver house was put back on the market while awaiting demolition permissionBack in 2010, this Vancouver house was put back on the market while awaiting demolition permission
Flipping outrage A Globe and Mail report about realtors who flip houses without paying property transfer taxes has prompted so much public outrage that the Real Estate Council of BC has decided to look into it. Assignment clauses that allow the contract to be reassigned to someone else before the sale closes are legal, but agents are required to disclose any interest they have in the sale.
The real estate council is appointing an independent advisory group to investigate whether assignment clauses are being used appropriately and to develop recommendations to increase the council’s enforcement and oversight of nondisclosure by licensees investing in properties, according to a media statement. Members of the “multi-stakeholder advisory group” will be announced within the next couple of weeks and expected to report back to the council with initial recommendations in 60 days.
The council’s statement notes that assignments are typically used when buyer demand outstrips supply, as in the current Vancouver real estate market. Home buyer activity remains at near record levels in Metro Vancouver, according to CMHC statistics released last week. Residential property sales in January 2016 were 31.7 per cent higher than in January 2015 and 46 per cent above the 10-year sales average for the month, the second-highest January on record.
Balanced marketIn Vancouver’s office space market, both supply and demand have increased. While additions to downtown Vancouver’s office space contributed to regional vacancy rising to 10 per cent at year-end 2015 from 9.4 per cent at year-end 2014, more than 1.3 million square feet was absorbed—the most recorded in Metro Vancouver since 2005 according to Avison Young’s year-end 2015 Metro Vancouver office market report.
Positive annual absorption of more than 1.1 million square feet in 2015 marked the most annual absorption recorded since year-end 2005. It also marked a reversal in a four-year slide toward negative absorption that started in 2011 when absorption reached 373,425 square feet before dropping to just 7,753 square feet of positive absorption in 2012 and then registering negative annual absorption in 2013 and 2014.
Most suburban submarkets in Metro Vancouver recorded positive annual absorption in 2015, led by Richmond with 186,883 square feet. Vancouver-Broadway and Yaletown were the only submarkets to register negative annual absorption.
Beer nutsB.C. drinkers like beer, especially Labatt’s Budweiser, according to B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch figures reported in the Province. Budweiser is the BCLDB’s top-selling item in Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Squamish-Lillooet, Columbia-Shuswap, East Kootenay, Central Kootenay, Kootenay Boundary, North Okanagan, Peace River-Liard, Kitimat-Stikine, Bulkley-Nechako, Fraser-Fort George, Cariboo, Central Coast, Thompson Nicola and Strathcona on Vancouver Island.
The next most popular is also a Labatt product—Lucky Lager—a favourite in Mount Waddington, Comox Valley, Nanaimo and Cowichan Valley.
And then there are the iconoclasts: Sunshine Coast: Persephone Goddess Golden Ale Powell River: Townsite Zunga Golden Blonde Ale Northern Rockies: Smirnoff Red Label Capital Regional District: Phillips Brewing Blue Buck Central Okanagan: Gray Monk Pinot Gris Okanagan Similkimeen: Black Hills Nota Bene
The Province‘s interactive map shows each region’s top five favourites.