Shami Sandhu talks about what makes Realty ONE Group different and why those differences work well for buyers and agents
Shami Sandhu is president and regional director of Realty ONE Group of Western Canada. What is the Realty ONE Group and what do you do? Sandhu: Realty ONE Group is a full-service lifestyle real estate brand that has experienced rapid growth since Kuba Jewgieniew started the company in 2005. Unlike existing traditional models, we don’t…
Single-family houses in the city are now deposit boxes. How did we get here and how can we restore balance?
It’s time for broad review of the dirty money games played in the casinos and on the high streets of the raincoast’s ‘capital' city. B.C. Attorney General David Eby recently reported that upwards of $2 billion in dirty money laundering has occurred in Vancouver casinos and luxury real estate over the past year. He characterized…
The ruckus over the Kinder Morgan project is a good reminder that the economic conditions we once enjoyed are on the way out
While the opinion writers and politicians are venting about expanding the Kinder Morgan pipeline for diluted bitumen to the West Coast, it might help to consider some history. We didn’t arrive at this shout-fest without making diverse tracks from previous experiences, and most of us are old enough to think back over a few previous…
New zoning powers for local governments will only meaningfully affect rental vacancy rates if cities streamline approval processes
The British Columbia government recently introduced legislation aimed at housing affordability, which – among other things – would grant municipalities the power to zone for rental-only housing, ostensibly to preserve and expand the supply of rental units in the province’s tightest housing markets. With Metro Vancouver’s vacancy rate consistently below one per cent, there’s a…
The B.C. government balked at applying the foreign buyer tax to pre-sale contracts, so property flipping won’t slow down and it certainly won’t stop
Everyone knew that Vancouver housing prices were criminal, they just didn’t know by how much. By now, many citizens are aware that offshore money, mostly from China, has been laundered through casinos and invested in properties that have often been flipped through shady realtors and unlicensed brokers. The new government in British Columbia talked a…
Instead of targeting affordable housing, B.C. government should be targeting housing affordability
By Josef Filipowicz and Steve Lafleur The Fraser Institute The B.C. government’s recent budget included a 30-point plan aimed at the province’s housing woes. The aim was off the mark. Most of the plan’s points fit into two broad categories: reducing demand by raising property transfer taxes, for non-residents and on homes over $3 million,…
When investor neighbourhoods replace residential ones, civic sustainability is the big loser
“We are basically not a self-sustaining society. There is no other way to provide amenities we need … currently land and development is one of Canada’s biggest exports,” Ian Egloff of Creekside Architects is quoted as saying in Kerry Gold’s real estate column in the Globe and Mail on Nov. 25. What a great oxymoron.…
The extraordinary run-up in real estate prices like the one experienced in the Lower Mainland raises the odds of a painful market correction
How can people afford to live in Vancouver? That question came to mind as I struggled to catch up with the latest torrent of media stories on the Lower Mainland’s seemingly inexhaustible housing boom. Metro Vancouver has long been the most expensive place in the country to purchase (or rent) a home. Indeed, relative to…
Homebuilders were asked how long they wait for permit approvals, how much it costs, how often rezoning is required and the scope of local opposition
By Kenneth P. Green and Josef Filipowicz The Fraser Institute There’s no silver bullet for Vancouver’s perennial housing woes. But trimming the red tape would help. Housing markets are incredibly complex, reflecting the ongoing interaction between demand and supply. So far, the provincial government, and Vancouver city hall, have targeted pockets of this interaction, including foreign…
To take pressure off the cost of living in Vancouver, the city should build more housing units on its limited geographic footprint
By Steve Lafleur and Josef Filipowicz The Fraser Institute Housing prices in Vancouver have caused a frenzy, as analysts, pundits and activists wrestle with how to improve affordability. The discussion has fixated on foreign buyers, speculators and empty houses. Regardless of the policies implemented to address these factors, trying to increase affordability by sniffing out…
Shami Sandhu is president and regional director of Realty ONE Group of Western Canada. What is the Realty ONE Group and what do you do? Sandhu: Realty ONE Group is a full-service lifestyle real estate brand that has experienced rapid growth since Kuba Jewgieniew started the company in 2005. Unlike existing traditional models, we don’t…
