by Macrealty Marketing Team | Jul 24, 2018 | Company, In The News
Each week, BCBusiness takes you inside one of the most outrageously upmarket real estate offerings in the province
Address: 6485 Cedarhurst Street, Kerrisdale
Price: $10,998,000
Listing: R2234536
The skinny: Five-bedroom, seven-bathroom, 6,481-square-foot house on a 15,847-square-foot lot in Kerrisdale.
The bling: OK, it’s time to get with the times and leave the frou-frou behind. Yes, we know you love your frills and fancies, your chintz and your shag, but being a person of high net worth brings with it responsibilities. What? This is news to you? Don’t panic, we aren’t coming after your non-declared income or your shady shell companies. There’s no shorting your market up our sleeves, honest. We just think you should be aware that if you really want to look good around town right now, you should try living in a sleek, modern box with sliding windows for walls and (extremely expensive) natural materials that downplay your wealth rather than all that Italian marble and Svarowski crystal you’ve been bedecking your space with for decades. Seriously, dude, minimalism shows you’ve got so much money to burn you don’t have to prove it. You can clad your walls with wood and shower among lumps of raggedy rock, and people will think you have style. Sure, the through draft of indoor/outdoor living and that fabulous skinny pool are only really of value maybe two months of a Vancouver year, but that in itself shows your reserves are bottomless. And anyway, a dozen more patio heaters screwing up the environment isn’t your problem. Right? Rich people responsible? We were only joking.
The hidden extras: Wok room, media room, wine cellar, gym, air conditioning (because you might not want to, you know, open one of those great big wall windows and you deserve to live in a climate-controlled world).
This article was originally posted on BCBusiness on May 17, 2018. Written by Fiona Morrow
by Macrealty Marketing Team | May 29, 2018 | In The News
In April 2018 MoneySense.ca selected their top Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods to buy real estate Based on value and price momentum.
“The No. 1 spot on this year’s Vancouver neighbourhood ranking is Uptown New Westminster. The average home price in this neighbourhood in 2017 was less than $1-million ($996,903). Part of the reason for the slower appreciation in this neighbourhood is that it’s a mixed-use community, meaning single-family homes share the street with older, low-rise apartment buildings as well as newer condo towers.”
Read the Rest of the article here.
The top 10 Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods, according to MoneySense are: 
- Uptown New Westminster
- Birchland Manor
- Mission
- Port Moody Centre
- Mary Hill
- Walnut Groove
- College Park PM
- Glenwood
- Central Abbotsford
- Mission – West
To view all active listings currently for sale in one of these areas simply click the neighbourhood links above or call our head office at 1-877-278-3888 to be matched to an expert real estate agent in your area.
by Macrealty Marketing Team | Mar 9, 2018 | In The News
Vancouver’s luxury market, already experiencing a downturn since 2016, will likely take another hit with the introduction of higher tax rates for foreign and luxury home buyers, experts say.
The provincial government of British Columbia on Tuesday announced a basket of measures as part of its 2018 budget; among them was a hike, effective immediately, on property transfer taxes for foreign buyers and buyers of $3-million-plus homes (US$2.36 million and above).
Starting Wednesday, tax rates for foreign buyers were raised to 20% from 15%, while all C$3-million-plus home purchasers must now pay 5%, instead of the current 3% property transfer tax.
Not only will these taxes be applied to homes in Metro Vancouver, but they’ll also be levied in the Capital Regional District, the Fraser Valley, the Central Okanagan and the Nanaimo Regional District.
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by Macrealty Marketing Team | Feb 15, 2018 | In The News
With Lunar New Year beginning on Friday, Vancouver realtor Grace Kwok smiles and notes that this year’s zodiac figure — it’s the Year of the Dog — carries with it advice that she would follow year in and year out in the world of real estate: Consider your needs first before consulting the stars.
Under Chinese zodiac lore, if you were born in a Year of the Dog, one of the 12-year cycle of signs, you possess the best traits of human nature. According to the website, www.yourchineseastrology.com, you are honest, friendly, faithful, loyal, smart, straightforward, and you have a strong sense of responsibility.
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by Macrealty Marketing Team | Nov 8, 2017 | In The News
A one-bedroom condo at 1565 W 6th Avenue in Vancouver listed for $698,000. The overheated entry-level home buying market is being caused by conflicting initiatives from various levels of government, says Dan Scarrow.
The federal government’s tougher mortgage lending rules and the British Columbia government’s affordable housing measures are working against each other. Ultimately, these moves will hurt first-time buyers the most, says a senior real estate executive with a leading Vancouver-based firm.
Canada’s banking regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, says it wants to reduce the risk of mortgage defaults due to high levels of household debt. But applying stricter lending guidelines is making it more difficult for home buyers to access mortgage funds, says Dan Scarrow, vice-president at Macdonald Realty.
Last year, the former Liberal provincial government offered first-time home buyers help in covering the cost of a mortgage down payment with an interest-free loan of up to $37,500 that is payment-free for the first five years, Scarrow said, adding the new NDP government says it wants to continue the program for the time being.
These initiatives, on top of government intervention with the 15 per cent foreign buyers’ tax introduced last year and two interest rate hikes this year, are causing major market distortions, such as overheated entry-level home buying and a cooling of the higher priced homes in Vancouver, he said.
Over the past year, MLS statistics show that the benchmark price for a single-family home in greater Vancouver rose only 2.9% to $1,617,300 while condo prices soared 21.7% to a benchmark price of $635,800.
In the end, all these initiatives are hurting the very people that various levels of government are trying to help, says Bill Dick, managing broker for Macdonald Realty.
“Since many of the government reforms have been implemented, the top end of the market has softened while the entry level has performed extremely well,” he said.
While Macdonald Realty realizes there is a place for some government intervention in the housing market, it is against the mortgage regulation changes that it sees as unnecessary, especially considering that Canadian banks have long been recognized globally for managing their business well.
“The regulators have arbitrarily insisted that buyers undergo stress testing that artificially limits the amount that they can borrow, making it harder for first-time buyers to compete with already wealthy landowners,” Scarrow says. “The banks have their own risk assessment and they have made the determination that these are acceptable risks and returns that they are willing to take.”
Macdonald Real Estate Group employs more than 1,000 people in over a dozen real estate offices across British Columbia. Last year, sales volume exceeded $8.9 billion while assets under management grew to over $5 billion.
This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Macdonald Realty. The article was originally posted on vancouversun.com November 6, 2017. Written by Michael Bernard.
by Macrealty Marketing Team | Nov 1, 2017 | In The News
Fewer listings translated into a slow month of home sales in October, according to figures released Wednesday by the Victoria Real Estate Board.
There were 664 properties sold last month, a drop of nearly 10 per cent compared with the same time last year.
At the same time, there were 1,905 active listings for sale at the end of October, a 3.6 per cent drop compared to September and 1.7 per cent fewer than the 1,938 active listings for sale at the end of October 2016.
“As expected, we saw fewer sales than this time last year. Looking at the longer-term picture, however, sales last month were 17.1 per cent above the 10-year average of 567 properties for the month of October,” said board president Ara Balabanian. “So the market is still very active here in Victoria, and this is in spite of the ongoing low inventory levels.”
The benchmark value for a single-family home in the Victoria core last month was $821,900, a 9.3 per cent increase over the $752,000 benchmark value in October 2016.
“The fact that we’ve seen such a controlled levelling off in the market directly following a year which felt so uncontrollable in terms of demand and pressure on prices illustrates the depth and stability of the Victoria market,” said Balabanian. “An unstable market may have experienced a heavy correction or shift, whereas in our market sales are moderating at a reasonable rate.”
Historically speaking, the region’s pricing is unprecedented.
According to a survey conducted by Century 21, the price per square foot of a typical single-family home has increased 238 per cent over the past 10 years to more than $424.
The study gathered the price-per-square-foot for a typical home across the major towns and cities in Canada in 1997, 2006 and 2017.
According to Century 21, Victoria’s 10-year increases — 182 per cent for condos to $435 per square foot and 173 per cent to $354 per square foot for townhomes — was considered healthy.
“It has really changed. It gives you a snapshot of where you are living and Victoria, Vancouver and Toronto have seen some big increases,” said Chris Markham managing broker at Century 21 Queenswood.
The biggest increase was seen on the west side of Vancouver where the typical price per square foot — building and land — increased 400 per cent to $1,210.
Markham said the price point in Greater Victoria is a growing problem that is pushing young people out of the equation. He said the large number of condos that are under construction might help in terms of added supply and improving the 0.5 per cent rental vacancy rate, but might not do much in terms of price.
Markham cited increased building costs and scarcity of skilled trades as factors driving up cost.
He also noted foreign investment in homes and businesses has been great for spurring on growth, but it’s made getting into the housing market that much more difficult.
“[Foreign investment] goes to Vancouver, Vancouver comes to Victoria and we spin it up Island,” he said.
Foreign investment in the capital region remains fairly low, with just 4.3 per cent of all property transfers in the last six months involving foreign nationals.
Markham said the current market conditions are unprecedented, and it’s anyone’s guess when it will slow down. “I do think we are seeing more balance,” he said, noting the market is not building up its inventory but rather matching new listings with sales each month.
But he doesn’t think the market has seen the end of high prices and demand. “If you and I had talked a year ago, I’d have said be in cash and out of the market by the end of this year. But now what I’m seeing is there’s so much momentum that even if they jacked up interest rates and even if a bomb dropped there’s so much momentum I don’t see it dying. There’s too much already committed,” Marjham said, adding the unemployment rate remains low, interest rates are relatively low and in-migration continues.
The VREB said a balanced market will continue over the next few months as low inventory levels will match the traditional slowdown in buyer and seller behaviour.
The article was originally posted on Times Colonist, November 1, 2017. Written by Andrew A. Duffy.
