Big Business Stories of 2011

Vancouver Real Estate | BCBusiness
Real estate, along with energy, was the story that affected businesses most in 2011.

Forget the yearly list of great business stories. In 2011, there were only two.

It’s common in the waning days of any year for business publications to list the top business stories of the previous year.

We’re going to dispense with the yearly list, because, well, In B.C., there were really just two business stories that overwhelmed everything else: energy and real estate.

Energy

Energy was everything this year, if you were a business. Maybe not directly, but certainly indirectly, because it pumped up the general economy.

The economic news was all about energy – whether it was the amazing changes going on in traditional energy sources such as oil and gas, or whether it involved the growth (or shrinkage) of new and sustainable energy sources.

I’d have to say that this year, the biggest gusher of the year, in terms of news, easily had to be the rise of natural gas as a new energy source. Fracking technology enabled the opening up of previously unavailable gas fields in B.C. and (it seems) just about everywhere else.

All this natural gas discovered throughout North America caused a glut, of course, and prices tanked generally. But here in B.C., we had an alternative to the traditional north-south gas market: Asia is hungry for natural gas because they see it as the energy source of the future.

And since we’re the main Canadian port for Asia, it’s pretty obvious we’ll benefit immensely from this demand, either by shipping our gas to Asia, or shipping Alberta’s oil to Asia – presuming one of several pipeline and LNG refineries and port proposals are approved.

It’s likely they will in some form or other. This will finally give Canada, specifically B.C. and Alberta, a market that isn’t totally dependent on the U.S. Clearly, natural gas and, perhaps, oil and shipping, are doing to dominate B.C.’s economy for some time to come.

Real estate

The other big business story, more from a buyer point of view, in B.C. this year was the incredible rise of real estate to absurd proportions.

For most people, housing, specifically traditional single family homes, has reached the point of unavailability. When the average house price in Vancouver hits $800,000 and wages generally remain stagnant or are declining, you know something has to give.

I think that something is going to be the concept of a single-family-home-for-everybody that has governed B.C. for so long.

Most of the world lives in multiple-family housing because it’s more efficient, and therefore, more affordable. Vancouver is one of the few cities of any size where people still cling to the 1950s idea of a single-family home, complete with lawn and garden, as the only kind of housing.  

So, get ready for the next big wave in real estate in B.C., especially Vancouver. That is multiple-family housing – and I don’t mean those cubicles that have been built in the downtown area to date and are classed as “multi-family.” Multi-singles, maybe, but hardly multi-family.

Instead, these will be two and three bedroom apartments where a family can actually live. They are going to go up everywhere as city authorities realize they have to relax zoning restrictions to accommodate new realities and encourage multiple family housing to relieve the pressure on houses.

And with this will come an entirely new industry – advice and products for families that have to live in smaller spaces.

Think New York, not Los Angeles.