Vancouver Real Estate Blog

Olympic Village Mess - Who is really in charge of this Gong Show!!

In the last couple of weeks their has been sharp criticism of the handling of the Olympic Village. Business In Vancouver(BIV) headline "Athletes Village Marketing Makeover Urged". While I have not sold any Olympic Village homes yet, my friends and colleagues have. Their two biggest complaints is simple. The pricing scheme does not follow the market. Two, once an offer is brought to the attention of those in charge, the delay in receiving and answer back is outrageously long...Days in fact. So when Business in Vancouver wrote it's article for the December 7-13 edition, I am in favour in the City and the marketers to change course. Having these properties sitting around doing nothing...I hope is a wake up call to get those in charge to change the handling of the entire process. But like any organization, change is hard too do plus it takes them so long to realize this fact.

1) Prices must reflect today's market place not the years past.

2) The city and all those around must strive for a quick turn around. Maximum is 24 hours. I repeat 24 hours. Even that is long... If you want those who are interested to stay. There are too many people just walking away. Even though I do not have those number, I am sure that dozens of more units could have been sold.

3) Also for those who control the process, to think about farming out some of those listing to other agent who will personally market the property to give the Olympic Village more edge in their own personal marketing strategies.

BIV reports thatif the city sells a $700,000 condo for $600,000 within the agreement the city would get back the extra $100,000 after the new buyer sells the property in the future. Now lets just stop there. If I was representing my Client the Buyer, I would cross this out immediately. For the simple reason, that if they can be sold for $600,000 instead of $700,000 then that is what the market deems it to be worth and not a penny more. So why would a willing Buyer paying market value want to give away $100,000 dollars when they come to sell the property? Two things will happen. A) No one would be selling for a long time B) the new buyers frame of mind would probable be if I owe an extra $100,000 when I sell, I have to ask $200,000 to make up my profit when I sell. Which puts them in the same place and position the Olympic Village is at now. Not accurately pinpointing market value where you have a willing Seller and a willing Buyer willing to complete on the transaction. With this in place the price between the two - Buyer and Seller will come up with the market price.

The problem about buying new is that you are never Purchasing at Market Value. Instead you are buying at the Developr's Price which includes his profit margins and any undue extra costs that occurred while building. Sound familiar to the Olympic Village saga!!!

To read more see www.biv.com

 

Whistler sliding Centre - recreational bobsleigh course opens to the public.

Paul Shore of Whistler 2010 Sports Legacies said that bobsleigh course will be open to the recreational use sometime this winter 2010, 2011. This will be an opportunity to ride down the track in a 4-man bobsleigh with an expert driver. All I can say is Count Me In. I want to experience 120 -130km speeds, 5 G force and 60 seconds that will last me a life time. Just one more example of how the west coast living, will shapes the lives of those residences who live in the area. 

Official website of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Games.

Everything you need to know or find out about the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Follow the link below.

Official website

British Columbia's Economic and Fundamental Business Indicators -part 2/4

How did we get here? Everyone seems to want to know. From March of 2008 we saw a downward trend. In other countries and other parts of the world, we saw massive declines in housing prices-namely the the United States for example. We all saw and witnessed the collapse of the Financial Institutions and Wall Street.

But how did we survive so well? That answer put simply is in how our economy works with the rest of the world and frankly how it works independently at the same time. British Columbia unlike the rest of Canada and the USA has a different and flexible market place. Where there are the mega corporations and an inflexible corporate structure and a philosophy of "same old same old". BC has a very young and on the most part, a very small corporate structure, where flexibility is everything. This in turn allows these smaller companies to adjust in a moments notice causing less people to be tossed out of work, as these people are represented by families and are not just numbers to a big corporation. The entrepreneurship is alive and well here in British Columbia.

So, as the unemployment rate rose around the world dramatically. BC while experiencing some of that, was never  hit as hard as everyone else. That being said, we also had an influx of migration over the year of approximately 60,000 people expected for the 2009 year end, historically low interest rates, inventory levels of homes starting to falling, pent-up demand from buyers, a massive new housing start decline all added to produce a demand that out paced supply on re-sale properties. That's economics 101.

So where do I see price levels reaching? Let me take you back 14 years ago when I wrote an article to the home owners of Dunbar. Back then prices for a standard lot sold for about $450,000.  I predicted home prices surpassing the $1 million dollar mark. Yes I got a lot of calls telling me that would never happen and even some saying "It Would Not Happen In A Million Years". Well as time went on the market told the real story. So predicting the future home prices, I would say given our geographical location, lack of usable land, the natural beauty, the mountains to the north, the mildest climate in canada, the Baby Boomer's, economic ties to China, Japan and other Asian Pacific country's, population growth, employment opportunities and life style. I would say that in 10-20 years from now what we are saying are extreme prices for homes in the area, will be a drop in the bucket in years to come. Do not forget the power that the media has and over the 2010 Olympics their will be billions of advertising messages going out to the world about Vancouver and British Columbia as a whole. Do you remember what Vancouver was like before Expo?? Now think of how far we have come from those days. This is just the beginning. Like everyone says.... Hold onto Real Estate. Because if you are not in, then you are out.....

Vancouver Olympics - disruptions in moving around

All forms of vehicle traffic will grind to a hault during the Olympics. Moving vans will be heavily restricted from parking as the city has developed many area as non stop parking even commercial parking zone areas. So if you are moving in February call your moving company to see what plans they have to get you in or out of your home. Make the necessary and appropriate arrangements.

For information about traffic restrictions, please visit here.

For a traffic map of downtown Vancouver, please visit here.