Affordable housing is one of those topics as evergreen as a Christmas tree, and as one year turns to another the latest Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) survey of Metro Vancouver rental markets turns the spotlight on tenants.
While rising home prices made housing less affordable for first-time buyers through 2010, CMHC senior market analyst Robyn Adamache said this conspired to keep more households in the rental market – pushing vacancies in purpose-built rental apartments to 1.9% from 2.1% over the past year. The drop was even more pronounced in Metro Vancouver townhome vacancies, where this segment of purpose-built rental accommodation plummeted from 4.8% to 1.9%.
The amount of available housing for renters – which factors in investor-owned condo suites – also edged down a tenth of a percentage point this year to 2.7%.
Rents rose in response, edging up an average of 2.6% compared with 2.9% in 2009. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver is now pegged at $940 a month, while tenants of two-bedroom apartments can expect to pay about $1,195 a month. (Of course, given that these are regional averages, the rate in submarkets will vary.)
On the positive side, the rental market recorded a net gain of 8,116 units in 2010, primarily in investor-owned condos and secondary suites. Condos contributed 3,615 units, more than 10 times the number of purpose-built rental units added to the region.
This year also saw more than 300 rental starts, close to the five-year average of 359 rental starts a year. With the average Vancouver apartment building being 57 years old, however, there’s plenty of work to be done to renew the 104,457 apartment units available in the region.
Speaking personally, this columnist has seen some business savings as a result of the HST. The harmonization of federal and provincial sales taxes on July 1, 2010, has provided a few extra dollars that’s welcome relief on the business side of life but the savings appear to have been washed away by higher tax expenses on personal items.
So it’s fair to say there are merits to both sides of a debate that will rage into 2011 as a referendum on tax harmonization looms.
While groups such as the Urban Development Institute (UDI) and Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association seek modifications to the tax, which is acknowledged to be an efficient method of taxation (UDI, for example, would like to see the exemption threshold on new-home purchases raised to $600,000 from $525,000, among other concessions), the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) has attracted the wrath of tax haters for its unqualified support of harmonization.
The ICBA recently launched StopRecall.ca to counter efforts to recall MLAs such as Ida Chong over her support for the HST. HST opponents then called for a boycott of ICBA members.
“The recall is not designed to punish MLAs for public policy positions,” said ICBA president Phil Hochstein, noting that the HST has largely made sense for ICBA clients (though residential clients may see fewer benefits).
“We have been told by industrial clients that this thing does make marginal projects viable, and that’s important,” he said. “It’s good tax policy that will help maintain British Columbia’s competitive position both in Canada and the world.”
Sotheby’s International Realty Canada proudly debuted its Okanagan Collection to much fanfare in spring 2009 with the offering of a portfolio of vineyard properties owned by the Holman Lang Group. Those properties are once again on the block, but this time through receiver-manager Wolrige Mahon Ltd.
Holman Lang and its associated companies were pushed into receivership in November when BMO Bank of Montreal called its $15.1 million loan to the winemaker. Court documents also detail $1.75 million outstanding to 77 unsecured creditors.
Three of the group’s key properties – Lang Vineyards, Soaring Eagle Estate and Stonehill Estate – are for immediate sale, but the information package indicates that Wolrige Mahon is open to offers on all or part of the group’s assets. Its seven properties also include Zero Balance Vineyards, Mistral Estate Winery and Spiller Estate Winery, all in Naramata, as well as K Mountain Vineyards in Keremeos. These include approximately 105 acres of land and 38,357 litres of wine, excluding bulk wine being made from the 2010 harvest.
Sotheby’s listed the Stonehill Winery, including nine acres of property, for $3.9 million in spring 2009. Vineyards listed with Sotheby’s started at $170,000 an acre. While the properties attracted interest from as far away as China and Russia, there were no sales.
Wolrige Mahon has set a deadline of January 28, 2011, for final offers on the assets. It will accept or reject offers by February 9, 2011. Sales will close five days later.