Bob Sethi, B.Comm | 604.273.2828

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B.C. government opens exemption process for speculation tax


NDP's misguided Speculation Tax hitting BC residents first

Estimated two-thirds of those who will pay the Speculation Tax will not be out-of-province speculators, but British Columbians.


The NDP's "Speculation Tax" being charged to all homeowners in BC's largest urban centres - whether they're speculators or not.


It's up to those affected homeowners to apply for exemptions by March 31, 2019 or wait up to 6 years (yes, years) for a rebate if they fail to opt-out.


Read more from The Province here.



Note - Declaration forms are being mailed by the NDP - if you haven't received your's by mid-February I recommend you visit the Speculation and Vacancy Tax page to contact the Provincial Government.




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Home sellers continue to outnumber buyers in Greater Vancouver’s summer housing market

Home sale activity remained below long-term averages in the Greater Vancouver housing market in August.
  
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties reached 1,649 in August, a 30.7 per cent decline compared to the 2,378 sales in August 2011 and a 21.4 per cent decline compared to the 2,098 sales in July 2012.
  
August sales were the second lowest total for the month in the region since 1998 and 39.2 per cent below the 10-year August sales average of 2,711.
  
“Home sales this summer have been lower than we’ve seen for most of the past ten years, yet we continue to see relative stability when it comes to prices,” Eugen Klein, REBGV president said.
  
New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 4,044 in August. This represents a 13.7 per cent decline compared to August 2011 when 4,685 properties were listed for sale on the MLS® and a 15.8 per cent decline compared to the 4,802 new listings in July 2012.
  
“For sellers it’s critical to work with your REALTOR® to understand today’s market and to develop the best strategy for selling your home,” Klein said. “On average it’s taking about two months for a home to sell on the MLS® in Greater Vancouver today.”
  
At 17,567, the total number of residential property listings on the MLS® increased 13.8 per cent from this time last year and declined 2.8 per cent compared to July 2012.
  
“Today, our sales-to-active-listings ratio sits at 9 per cent, which puts us in a buyer’s market. This ratio has been declining in our market since March when it was 19 per cent,” Klein said.
  
The MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI) composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver is $609,500. This represents a decline of 0.5% compared to this time last year and a decline of 1.1% compared to last month.
  
Sales of detached properties on the MLS® in August 2012 reached 624, a decrease of 38.8 per cent from the 1,020 detached sales recorded in August 2011, and a 30.1 per cent decrease from the 893 units sold in August 2010. The benchmark price for detached properties increased 0.2 per cent from August 2011 to $942,100.
  
Sales of apartment properties reached 725 in August 2012, a 24.1 per cent decrease compared to the 955 sales in August 2011, and a decrease of 22.5 per cent compared to the 935 sales in August 2010. The benchmark price of an apartment property decreased 0.9 per cent from August 2011 to $370,100.
  

Attached property sales in August 2012 totalled 300, a 25.6 per cent decrease compared to the 403 sales in August 2011, and a 19.8 per cent decrease from the 374 attached properties sold in August 2010. The benchmark price of an attached unit decreased 1.9 per cent between August 2011 and 2012 to $462,300.

real estate board of greater vancouver. all rights reserved.

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Bubble? What Bubble?

Alberta homebuyers eyeing B.C. again

British Columbians love talking about their real estate.
 
And nowhere is that topic hotter than in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver, where average housing prices upward of $700,000 are not uncommon.

Yet in the wake of recent news reports about a housing market swoon on the West Coast due to price plunge headlines, the talk of a housing bubble has popped up yet again.
 
The average residential price in B.C. dropped 10.9 per cent in April compared to a year ago to $532,855, but B.C. Real Estate Association Cameron Muir says that decline was offset by a 14 per cent increase in the rest of the province.

He says Kamloops, the Okanagan and the North all posted double-digit increases in home sales compared to levels one year ago.
 
In Kamloops, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of the Central Interior executive officer Patsy Bourassa says she has noticed a definite pick-up in the market compared to the same time a year ago.
“With this spring, things have started moving again,” she says.
 
Bourassa credits a few things for spurring the current increase, which she describes as slow but steady, such as the First Time Homebuyers’ tax credit and HST transition measures announced by the provincial government earlier this year, as well as a generally robust resource economy – she notes there are five mines in the Central Interior – and homebuyers from Alberta.

UBC Sauder School of Business real estate economist Tsur Somerville also notes the Interior and the North are doing better than the Lower Mainland lately.
 
“A lot of that is being driven by the second home purchase market in Alberta,” he says.
 
Those areas are popular for Albertans who purchase vacation properties and with that province’s economy recovering, more consumers are thinking about buying in B.C., Somerville said.
 
He points out the B.C. market now is very different form one or two years ago, as high-end market sales and the foreign source of wealth market have both slowed down.
 

Somerville doesn’t think British Columbians needs to worry about a housing market bubble.

“I never thought there was a bubble to begin with,” he says.
 
While there’s a lot of inventory in the new-home market, there are locations with a lot of starts happening, he notes.
 
Despite a lot of inventory – depending on where you live in the province – Somerville doesn’t go so far as to say B.C. is experiencing a buyer’s market.
 
“When average prices are in excess of $700,000, I don’t think you can really say it’s a buyer’s market,” he says.
 
He advises potential homebuyers not to base big decisions on what the market may or may not be doing.
 
“If you’re buying real estate for yourself to live in, I think you need to do that based on your life cycle and not try to time it with the market.”
 
When you get listings to sales ratios rising, consumers don’t have to approach the market with as much anxiety and can take their time to choose a product they really love, he says.

In the Central Interior, “Everybody’s cautiously optimistic” the housing market will continue to move, Bourassa said.
 
 
Excerpted from BCHomesmag.com.  Article written by Tricia Leslie. 
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Bob Sethi, B.Comm
Office:604.273.2828
Fax:604.273.0685
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Richmond, BC
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