Real Estate

In Vancouver, family housing is mostly unsuitable, unaffordable: report

By Felicity Stone /

THE#BCBIZDAILY
Plus, Brucejack mine strikes a deal and Lions Gate Hospital strikes gold 

The housing trap
Families with children face a triple whammy in the housing market according to a report from Vancity: most homes are unsuitable, unavailable and unaffordable. In 2014 more than 99 percent of Metro Vancouver’s housing stock was unsuitable and unavailable for families; just nine percent were three-bedroom attached homes with yards and only 9.5 percent of those were available for sale. As for affordability, with a median total annual household income of $65,492 in 2014, dual-income Millennials could afford property around $384,000, but the benchmark price of attached homes in August 2015 was $511,500.

Golden opportunity
Despite challenging times for the mining industry, prospects are good for Vancouver-based Pretium Resources’ Brucejack project, the first mine approved in B.C. since the failure of Imperial Metal’s Mount Polley tailings dam last summer. A US$540-million construction financing package with the Orion Mine Finance Group and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities will provide immediate access to US$340 million at closing and fund more than 70 per cent of the development costs. In more good news for Pretium, its stock rose almost 7 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Healthy gift
Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver has been given $25 million, the largest single donation ever made to a hospital foundation by an individual in B.C. The individual is Paul Myers, owner of Keith Plumbing and Heating, one of the first plumbing companies on the North Shore and particularly successful in the health field: “We have done more hospitals than any other contractor in B.C.,” said Myers in a statement. A recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vancouver Regional Construction Association, Myers is a former director of the Construction Labour Relations Association of BC (CLR) and the Mechanical Industrial Relations Association (MIRA). Lions Gate Hospital’s existing South Acute Tower will be named the Paul Myers Tower in his honour and transferred to a new patient facility in the future.