50 WAYS TO GREEN YOUR HOME AND SAVE $$$ IN GREATER VANCOUVER
THE GREEN TOOL KIT
When it comes to making your home more energy efficient, you can easily make small changes that won’t cost you a dime. With even a modest budget, big changes are possible, especially if you qualify for some of the grants and rebates available to home buyers and owners going green. And you’ll recoup energy costs in the long-term making these change worthwhile. So here are 50 ways to help green your home.
HIGH-TECH GREENHOUSE PLANNED FOR VANCOUVER DOWNTOWN PARKADE ROOF
UNDERUSED SPACE TO PRODUCE 95 TONNES OF GREENS A YEAR
The roof of a city-owned downtown parkade will be converted to a high-tech vertical growing space capable of producing 95 tonnes of fresh vegetables a year.
Vancouver-based Valcent Products has entered into a memorandum of understanding with EasyPark, the corporate manager of the city’s parkades, to build a 6,000-square-foot greenhouse on underutilized space on the roof of the parkade at 535 Richards Street, in the heart of the downtown core.
COST SAVING PROGRAMS FOR HOME/PROPERTY BUYERS AND OWNERS
HOME BUYERS – COST SAVING PROGRAMS
Wise real estate decisions are made when you have a clear understanding of your personal financial circumstances. When assessing your situation, it is important to know that there is a broad range of cost-saving programs available to help you.
HOME BUYER’S PLAN: REGISTERED RETIREMENT SAVINGS FOR DOWN PAYMENT
• Canada Revenue Agency’s Home Buyers’ Plan lets qualifying home buyers use up to $25,000 of their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) to buy a home. Couples can use up to $50,000. The home must be a principal residence, the home buyers must not have owned a home within the past five years and the loan must be repaid with 15 years.
• Disabled home buyers upgrading to a more accessible home also qualify as do relatives helping disabled home buyers. Home buyers who have already used the plan and have fully repaid their RRSP may be eligible to use the plan a second time.
Canada Revenue Agency/Home Buyers’ Plan/1.800.959.8287
A WEST VANCOUVER HOME BY “THE OTHER GUY”
THE STAPLES RESIDENCE, WEST VANCOUVER B.C., DESIGNED BY BRUNO FRESCHI, ERICKSON MASSEY ARCHITECTS
“My parents were uncompromising: they never got talked into something they didn’t want,” recalls Kathleen Staples. She is speaking of the late Tom and Nancy Staples, whose architectural masterpiece of a family home is now on the market in West Vancouver. Tom Staples once told his daughter that getting the house built was the most difficult ordeal of his life, yet also the accomplishment of which he was most proud.
AN ISLAND AERIE ON THE B.C. COAST
GALIANO ISLAND, BC HOME DESIGNED BY ARCHITECT JENNIFER MARSHALL OF URBAN ARTS ARCHITECTS
“It’s a privilege to work on a site like this one,” says architect Jennifer Marshall as she drives up from the main Galiano Island Road onto a steep gravel pathway that climbs through three distinct eco-systems. The first one is fern-laden and dark, the next a thick forest of fir, and finally, at the top of the hill where she has recently completed a residence for a family of three, a typical Gulf Island landscape marked by groves of arbutus trees.
LANEWAY HOMES: A CREATIVE SOLUTION
VANCOUVER’S LANEWAY HOUSING INCREASES AFFORDABLE HOUSING WHILE MAKING TRADITIONAL NEIGHBOURHOODS EVEN MORE ATTRACTIVE AND LIVELY.
Vancouver has grown into a city where the housing market can be tight. Finding rental housing or a home you can afford is often a challenge. One of the ways the City of Vancouver is meeting this challenge is through a creative and green housing alternative – laneway homes. These types of small houses are built by homeowners behind a main house. Adding extra, low-impact housing to neighbourhoods not only provides more living space, but also fits with the City’s goals to be the world’s greenest City by 2020.
METRO VANCOUVER INDUSTRIAL SPACE IN DEMAND
LIMITED LAND SUPPLY SEES TRANSACTIONS REACH HIGHEST POINT IN THREE YEARS
Demand for industrial real estate is surging in Metro Vancouver with nearly $37 million in transactions in the first half of the year, according to a report released on Monday.The Report concluded that the number of transactions reached its highest point in more than three years as the economy improved and buyers leveraged lower debt to purchase business space for their own use.
THE CENTRE FOR INTERACTIVE RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABILITY OPENS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
INSPIRING. WELCOMING. UNIQUE. A PLACE FOR WORLD-CHANGING EDUCATION AND RESEARCH. A LIVING LABORATORY WHERE SUSTAINABILITY IS ADVANCED AND STUDIED.
Built in response to the global challenge of creating a more sustainable society, the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) is one of the most innovative and high-performance buildings built in North America today, demonstrating leading-edge green building design technologies, products, and systems. CIRS is a state-of-the-art “living-lab” in which researchers from leading academic institutions worldwide can conduct interactive research on and assessment of current and future building systems and technologies. Partners from private and public sectors share the facility, working with CIRS researchers to ensure study conducted is connected to real world needs of the community, industry, and policy makers. The outcome of research, product and policy development manifested from CIRS will play a fundamental role in accelerating the path to sustainability.
BRINGING YOUR KITCHEN OUT OF THE DARK WITH LAYERS OF LIGHT
LIGHTING SHOULD BE ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS PEOPLE CONSIDER WHEN DESIGNING OR REMODELING A KITCHEN, BUT IT OFTEN GETS LAST PRIORITY.
Lighting is often described as the jewelry of the home. But it’s more critical than that, especially in kitchens, where it’s all about slicing, dicing and reading recipes. So maybe the new catchphrase should be: “Lights are the eyes of the home.”
“Kitchen lighting is so crucial and should be one of the first things people think about when they’re designing or remodeling a kitchen, but it often gets last priority,” says lighting consultant and interior designer Lisa Duncan of Kansas City, Mo. “People spend tens of thousands of dollars on their kitchens, but then you can’t see the new improvements or what you’re doing if the lighting isn’t right. Then I come along, and drywall has to be ripped out.”
HOW TO GET BEST RETURNS ON YOUR HOME RENOS
TIME TO RENOVATE??
Are you making upgrades to your home with an eye toward improving your home’s resale value? If so, consider these suggestions before you get started.
CHECK OUT THE COMPETITION
• When selling is your end game, the golden rule of home remodeling is to make your home comparable to others in the neighbourhood. If you over improve, you have no chance of recouping your investment. If you under improve, the other homes on the market will sell before yours does.
• Look at online real estate listings, attend open houses and talk to real estate agents to find out what features are considered to be the standard in your neighbourhood. If everyone else has scraped their popcorn ceilings and turned that cramped shower stall into a soaker tub, you should consider making these changes to your home too. If no one has an outdoor kitchen, adding one to your backyard probably won’t pay off.
• Smart buyers are looking to buy either the worst house on the best block or a turnkey home, but they aren’t looking to buy a house that’s nicer than its neighbours. For the extra money, they would usually rather move up to the next nicest neighbourhood.
EVERGREEN – BOWEN ISLAND
EVERGREEN IS UNFOLDING
SIMPLY BOWEN
All too often, our modern lifestyle sacrifices “life” for style. Our families are burdened by the need for two incomes to afford our larger homes, our two cars, our frequent travels and more. Today, we are seeing smaller families living in larger homes with hardly enough time to sit down and eat together. We are surrounded by more roads, more traffic, bigger buildings, expanding to the very edges of their lots. Nature has become a travel destination more than an every day living environment. Our lives are being consumed as we race to pay for all the things we think we need. It’s a home for people wishing to step off the treadmill and come back to life, with time to go slow, to recharge, to connect with family and nature. When you arrive on Bowen, you feel the stresses of the city lifting. At Evergreen you’ll wind along our single lane road through the parkland that surrounds us, with views of ocean and islands, and join a community that retains its tranquility and vitality. Only four lots were released in 2008.
BEIJING-BASED DEVELOPER OPENS FIRST BC PROJECT
YU CONDOMINIUM BY BEIJING – BASED MODERN GREEN
One of China’s biggest green developers is constructing its first project in Canada, and marketers are expecting a quick sale when units hit the market this weekend. The University of B.C. residential project, called Yu, is a Canadian first for Beijing-based Modern Green. The company has so far specialized in sustainable residential development in China and Australia, and is now looking to tap into the North American market. In partnership with UBC Properties Trust, Modern Green is constructing 110 condo and townhouse units on the 99-year leasehold land at UBC’s Wesbrook Village. Prices start at $449,900. Developer Robbie Zhang has been based out of Vancouver for more than two years, and he says plans are under way to set up a permanent research and development headquarters in Vancouver. The company has donated $3.5-million to UBC’s Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability.
HOUSING BUBBLES FEARS OVER-INFLATED
SAVVY SHOPPERS CAN STILL DO RELATIVELY WELL IN VANCOUVER BY SEARCHING FOR THE RIGHT UNIT IN THE RIGHT LOCATION
Vancouver’s existing housing market seems to defy economic logic. The Conference Board’s Metro Resale Index shows that Vancouver remains a balanced market. Since neither buyers nor sellers should have bargaining advantage under these conditions, prices should grow near their trend rate.
But the average resale price was up more than 20% from a year earlier in both May and June, the latest in a six-month string of double-digit price hikes, and well above the 6% long-term trend of price growth.
MORTGAGE NEWS FROM NICK BURZESE – MORTGAGE ARCHITECTS
PROPERTY TAXES
For most cities and municipalities in B.C. property taxes are due the first week of July. This is also a good time to make sure you take advantage of the Provincial Home Owners grant. The grant must be applied for each year. The basic grant can reduce your taxes by as much as $570. However, it cannot reduce your taxes owing below $350. The grant should be claimed prior to the tax due date even if you do not pay your taxes at that time, since the grant is considered unpaid tax until it is claimed. By claiming the grant prior to the due date, you avoid paying a penalty on this portion of your property tax.
The deadline for applying for the homeowner grant each year is December 31. However, in some circumstances, a retroactive grant may be approved for the previous year only. For example, you may be eligible to claim the 2007 grant retroactively in 2008 if you missed the 2007 deadline.
If you want additional information on the homeowners grant you can find it by following the following link.
http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/individuals/Property_Taxes/Home_Owner_Grant/about.htm
VANCOUVER HOMES MORE EXPENSIVE THAN NEW YORK OR LONDON
BUYERS FROM MAINLAND CHINA ARE LEADING A WAVE OF ASIAN INVESTMENT
VANCOUVER – Vancouver’s Royal Pacific Realty had such a surge of business during the first two weeks of February that agents and assistants worked day and night shifts to find homes for Chinese buyers visiting during the Lunar New Year.
“It was unprecedented,” said Royal Pacific Chief Executive Officer David Choi. “I called them sleepwalkers.”
Sales of detached homes, townhouses and condominiums in metropolitan Vancouver jumped 70% in February from January, to 3,097 units from 1,819, and were up 25% from a year earlier, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. In March, sales climbed 32% from February, to just shy of a record for the month of 4,371 transactions set in 2004. Sales increased by 80% from two years ago.
Buyers from mainland China are leading a wave of Asian investment in Vancouver real estate as China tries to damp property speculation at home. Good schools, a marine climate and the large, established Asian community as a result of Canada’s liberal immigration policy make Vancouver attractive, said Cathy Gong, who moved from Shanghai to the Shaughnessy neighbourhood on Vancouver’s west side about three years ago.
VANCOUVER REAL ESTATE – STATISTICS PACKAGE FOR MARCH 2011
HOME BUYERS AND SELLERS ENTER THE HOUSING MARKET AT NEAR RECORD PLACE IN MARCH
VANCOUVER, B.C. – April 4, 2011 Activity in the Greater Vancouver housing market continued to strengthen in March with both the number of homes sold and added to the region’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) reaching near record levels.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver reached 4,080 in March 2011. This represents a 31.7% increase compared to the 3,097 sales recorded in February 2011, an increase of 30.1%t compared to the 3,137 sales in March 2010 and an 80.1% increase from the 2,265 home sales in March 2009. The all-time sales record for March occurred in 2004 when 4,371 transactions were recorded.
MORTGAGE NEWS FROM NICK BURZESE – MORTGAGE ARCHITECTS
HEADS UP
Last month I spoke about the maximum amortization period going from 35 years to 30 years for insured mortgages (less than 20% down payment or equity). At that time the indications were that the lenders would still allow a 35 year amortization on non insured mortgages.
This week several lenders indicated that they have decided to also reduce the maximum amortization period on their conventional products. This will not impact most people but it is something to consider if you are looking to upgrade your home or are looking to consolidate some debts which is the topic for this months newsletter. Spring clean your debt to improve cash flow, save on your interest costs and get out of debt sooner. Mortgage interest rates are still near historically low levels but the same is not true for credit card rates. If you are running balances on your credit cards it may make sense to consolidate these debts into your mortgage.
If you want to review your situation, please give me a call at 604.351.6424.
REMODELISTA APP FOR iPAD AND iPHONE
CREATING DECOR WITH THE TOUCH OF AN APP
Do you look forward to seeing the cover of your favourite home and décor magazine every month? Do you drool over design and stand in awe of architecture? Is your small talk about big ideas for your house?
If you answered yes to any of the above, and you have just as much affection for your iPad or iPhone, you have the chance to combine the two passions. So wrestle your kids away from that Angry Birds app and download some décor apps just for you. To name just five you won’t soon be able to live without: Remodelista, Houzz, Mark on Call, Benjamin Moore Colour Capture and Decomash.
VANCOUVER REAL ESTATE – STATISTICS PACKAGE FOR FEBRUARY 2011
REBGV REPORTS INCREASED HOUSING DEMAND IN FEBRUARY
VANCOUVER, B.C. – March 2, 2011 – Demand for detached homes continues to be strong across Greater Vancouver, with particularly high sales volumes occurring in Richmond and Vancouver Westside.
For the past two months, the number of properties listed for sale and those sold on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Greater Vancouver outpaced the 10-year average in both categories. From a historical perspective, February’s 3,097 homes sales outpace the 2,742 home-sale average recorded in the region over the last ten years.
“We saw an increase in demand across our region last month as more buyers entered the market in advance of the spring season,” said Jake Moldowan, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). “The intensity of this activity varied between communities. Our statistics tell us that single detached homes in Richmond and the west side of Vancouver remain the most sought after properties in our marketplace.”
BUILDERS BRINGING AN ENERGY-EFFICIENT OPTION TO MARKET
The march towards turning new single family homes from energy wasters into energy savers seems to finally be picking up speed. An increasing number of builders large and small are offering Energy Star and Greenhouse rated homes as options and upgrades to buyers.
Some custom home builders are even starting to focus on delivering high-end Greenhouse rated homes, the third of the four levels of environmental certification.
“Yes it is encouraging,” says Corey McBurney, president of EnerQuality Corp. the organization set up in 1998 by the Ontario Home Builders Association and the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance to certify the four different levels of new so-called Green low rise housing, to train trades and professionals in how to design and build them and to be a consultant to the industry.
NEW PRICING – OLYMPIC VILLAGE – VANCOUVER
CONDO MARKETER BOB RENNIE ANNOUNCES NEW PRICING STRUCTURE FOR OLYMPIC VILLAGE
Olympic Village condominiums hit the market for the third time on Thursday. VANCOUVER – Condo marketer Bob Rennie took the wraps off a new pricing structure for the troubled Olympic Village this morning that is intended to set a cautious roadmap for recouping much of the $740 million Vancouver taxpayers have put into the troubled development.
The discounts range from as much as 50% on the most expensive units with good views to as little as 5% on some of the cheapest and smallest studios. On balance, the average discount is about 30%.
But before the public can be convinced those reductions are enough to move sales, Rennie will have to satisfy real estate agents, some of whom are angry at being excluded from a market test he conducted last week in which he sold 31 units. Rennie will hold a briefing session this afternoon for more than 1,000 real estate agents who will be given detailed information about the new prices.
REGION’S HOUSING MARKET BALANCED IN JANUARY, DESPITE SIGNS OF SELLERS’ MARKET RETURNING
VANCOUVER – Metro Vancouver’s housing market remained in balanced market conditions in January, although there were signs of a sellers’ market returning with higher levels of demand in larger communities.
“There was a healthy balance between the number of home buyers and sellers in our market in January, but there’s always variation in activity from region to region,” Jake Moldowan, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), said in a statement Wednesday. “We’re seeing strong sellers’ market conditions in areas like Richmond and the west side of Vancouver.”
TIGHTER MORTGAGE RULES WILL HIT B.C. THE HARDEST
SHORTER AMORTIZATION, HOME EQUITY LIMITS PUT DAMPER ON WEST COAST HOUSE PARTY
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is cracking down on Canadians’ ability to qualify for a mortgage, in the government’s latest attempt to rein in consumer debt.
VANCOUVER – Tighter mortgage rules announced Monday by the federal government will have a disproportionate effect on the purchasing power of homebuyers in Metro Vancouver.
Amid rising concern about increased household debt in Canada, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty cut the maximum amortization period from 35 years to 30 years and tightened the rules for mortgage-backed lines of credit. Canadians will only be able to borrow up to 85% of the value of their homes, down from 90%. And Ottawa will no longer insure the popular home equity lines of credit.
The amortization change, which affects purchases with a down payment of lower than 20%, means somebody with a four-per-cent rate on a $300,000 mortgage would pay about $100 a month more.
VANCOUVER’S MOUNTAIN VIEWS AND EXTREME TALL BUILDINGS
PUBLIC FORUM JAN 11th AT VPL: THREATS TO VANCOUVER FROM EXTREME TALL BUILDING POLICIES IN DOWNTOWN, WEST END, CHINATOWN, DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
City council is on the verge of making what may be among Vancouver’s most important decisions in a generation on January 20th. On that day, Council is prepared to adopt two key policies to eliminate protected views and permit extreme building heights of 80 storey or taller on the downtown peninsula, and significantly higher buildings in Chinatown and the Downtown East Side.
CityHallWatch plans a public forum on January 11th to help citizens identify and articulate key concerns that staff and Council appear to have missed and should address before any vote on the policies. Issues that have not yet been adequately addressed include not only lost or eroded views, significant view changes from many locations in the City, and major changes to the skyline, but also implications for Vancouver’s livability, sustainability, affordability and gentrification, ecological footprints (buildings and the city), global warming, city infrastructure, traffic and transportation, city finances and taxes, schools, public amenities, seismic safety, fire safety, disaster response, and the very character of Vancouver. Expert presentations, Q&A and small group discussions on (1) risks to Vancouver’s mountain views from extremely tall building policies set for City Council approval on January 20, and (2) critical impacts on livability, solar access, environment, sustainability, city finances, city infrastructure and more. This is a public forum with expert input. Media are welcome.
