MAKING IT HOME
There’s no shortage of offerings among new residential projects throughout the region
The Metro Vancouver residential real estate scene has been red hot this year, and if the number of new projects set to launch is any indication, it won’t be slowing significantly any time soon.
In Burnaby alone, at least 33 towers are set to dramatically change the skyline in the years ahead. Of those, more than 23 will be included in Shape Properties’ City of Lougheed, with another 10 at Concord Pacific’s master-planned Concord Brentwood.
At 40 acres, the City of Lougheed is one of the largest new masterplanned communities in Canada, if not in North America, says the developer.
“As far as we are aware, other than Hudson Yard project in New York, this is the largest project,” said Darren Kwiatkowski, Shape’s executive vice-president, development and design. The sprawling development around Lougheed Mall is expected to house some 10,000 residents, more than double the number of residents planned for the New York project.
At the nexus of two SkyTrain lines, it will also have 300 shops, restaurants, fashion stores and other retail outlets. “In our minds, this is the game changer in terms of urban living in that I can live and walk everywhere to anything, and it’s all within about 400 metres of SkyTrain,” said Kwiatkowski.
A few kilometres west, Concord Pacific is transforming 26 acres in a community surrounding the Brentwood town centre, where this summer it sold out the first two towers it began marketing earlier this year.
Elsewhere in the Metrotown area of Burnaby, Station Square is poised to begin sales this fall for its fourth tower of 41 storeys after selling 900 homes in 90 days in its first two phases.
Condo marketers say they expect the hot spots this fall will continue to be downtown Vancouver as well as Burnaby.
Sales remain brisk for Bosa Properties, which is claiming a record in pre-selling 100 of its 119 homes at its Cardero project in Coal Harbour for an average per square foot price of $1,750.
Planned sales for this fall also suggest there are new kinds of product appearing in the condo market. Boffo Development’s The Smithe, a decidedly upscale 300foot tower, has only two- and threebedroom apartment homes, said Cam McNeill of Mac Marketing Systems.
Downtown opportunities are increasingly rare because we are running out of land,” says McNeill. “You may see over the next 10 years less than one project per year and within 10 or 15 years we’ll be done (for big downtown projects).”
The scale of such development in the region reinforces numbers from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the country’s prime housing forecaster; its data from the first seven months of 2016 supports predictions that the Metro Vancouver market will be hitting new highs for both sales and housing starts this year.
“We are up quite a bit over last year in terms of housing starts,” says Robyn Adamache, principal, market analysis, in CMHC’s local office. Our forescast, now a range that recognizes the uncertainty in the markets, is from 35,300 to 36,700 housing starts, a 38-percent increase over the 31,446 starts in 2015.” Meanwhile, the MLS resales numbers are expected to finish between 103,800 units and 113,000 units, up from 103,000 units last year.
Adamache also says continuing strong in-migration — with increases from Alberta offsetting a decline in offshore arrivals — and a buoyant economy with three per cent job growth, are fuelling housing demand.
Meantime, housing market analyst Michael Ferreira, principal of the real estate forecasting firm Urban Analytics, says this year’s market has been characterized by anxiety among first-time buyers, some of whom are purchasing homes now, worried that if they wait, they’ll be shut out of the market.
“Our data shows that the supply has not been getting replaced as quickly as it has been absorbed so that tends to create a sense of urgency and a fear of loss in the market,” he said. “Once prices start to increase, people want to get in before the prices get beyond what they can afford.”
Building and buying fever has spread to surrounding areas as well. Townhouse and condo development on the North Shore has been picking up after years of lagging behind, as evidenced by Grosvenor International’s luxurypriced Ambleside and Edgemont village offerings. Also competing for the downsizing baby boomers is Cressey Development’s Bellevue, a 35-home high-priced project going on sale this fall in the Dundarave neighbourhood in West Vancouver.
In the suburban market, we are seeing the townhouse demand continuing to accelerate,” says Scott Brown, president of Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing. “More and more people are seeing this as an acceptable alternative to the single-family home.”
“We are also seeing a new category of executive townhomes emerging, which are 2,000 to 2,600 square feet in size and are priced $200,000 to $300,000 less than a single-family home, he said pointing to projects by Essence Properties in Langley. They (the new buyers) want a little yard for barbecuing and the dog, but they don’t want to maintain a large lot.”
Changing social patterns, such as kids being more active out in the community than the back yard, means lower townhouse prices, allow parents “to take a vacation and put the kids in private school or music lessons,” he said.
There are other new housing trends emerging, he said. More buyers are asking about air conditioning, showing a renewed interest in gas fireplaces, and looking for power outlets for recharging electric vehicles.
Our data shows that the supply has not been getting replaced as quickly as it has been absorbed so that tends to create a sense of urgency and a fear of loss in the market. Once prices start to increase, people want to get in before the prices get beyond what they can afford. MICHAEL FERREIRA