Vancouver Real Estate Market Insight » Vancouver Fairview and Westside Real Estate Market

City of North Vancouver approves regulations for coach houses

admin — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:03:07 +0000

They’re known as coach houses, carriage houses, laneway homes, garden suites or granny flats. And, after years of debate, the City of North Vancouver Council has agreed that home owners can build one in their back yard provided they comply with new regulations.

What is a coach house?

In the City of North Vancouver, a coach house is a small, detached secondary residence located on an alley or lane behind an existing detached home.

New Options

City of North Vancouver home owners have two options if they plan to build a new unit or replace their garage.
“This is great news,” says Dave Watt, a past president of the Real Estate Board and a long time North Shore REALTOR®.

“Coach houses can be an affordable, flexible solution that brings significant community benefits.”
As an example of these benefits, Watt explains that coach houses will help seniors and young families remain on the North Shore in their neighbourhoods.

“A coach house lets a senior stay in their home, and have an adult child or a caregiver live in their coach house. A senior can also move into their coach house and let their children and grandchildren live in their larger home,” says Watt, noting that the home owner also has the option of renting the coach house for added income.

While opponents often cite increased traffic and decreased neighbourhood privacy as significant concerns, most are convinced that coach homes benefit the environment. “They’re smaller, they’re more affordable and they don’t require new infrastructure since they can hook up to existing water mains, sewers and power,” explains Watt.

New regulations

The new regulations govern siting, access, setbacks, parking, habitable space, architectural style, privacy, building products, landscaping and use. Home owners who have built to the maximum allowable density on their property won’t be able to build a coach house.

A coach house can only be rented, it can’t be sold, which doesn’t make sense to Watt.

“I think the City should consider allowing coach houses to be under a strata plan similar to a duplex,” says Watt, who has been talking to North Vancouver City Council members about this option. “It’s a home owner’s property and their investment, and home owners should be able to sell their coach house if that’s what they want to do.”
Currently there are requirements in both the Land Title Act and the Strata Property Act that make such a subdivision difficult when the primary home already exists, says urban land use consultant, Bob Ransford.

“One requirement is that the existing building would have to meet current Building Code requirements,” explains Ransford. “Because the home might have been built some time ago it likely met Building Codes then in place but not the current ones.”

Watt believes allowing home owners to sell their coach houses would bring much-needed diversity to the local housing stock, and new affordability to neighbourhoods. (See diagram)
For information on North Vancouver’s coach house regulations visit: www.nvc.com/coachhouse.

On the left-hand side, go to Accessory Coach Houses and then Coach House. This will take you to a page, Coach House Community Working Group. Scroll down to:

Staff Report with Coach House Bylaws, dated February 24, 2010 (Contains the Coach House Implementation Bylaws)
Comparative Summary Level-A and Level-B Accessory Coach Houses
Level-A Accessory Coach House Development Permit Guidelines
Level-B Accessory Coach House Development Permit Guidelines

A Quick Mortgage Insurance Primer

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:29:38 +0000

I have adapted the following from a recent Globe and Mail article on the same subject. I have decided to include it because it’s an issue not often considered by homebuyers in the early stages of home owning.

In addition it’s value-added knowledge that many realtors do not present to their clients as something they might like to consider. I am often guilty of this. However, it’s worth looking at even the basic options for those of you who are interested (apologies for the poor formatting of the table below)

Pete & Susie are a young co-habiting unmarried couple and have decided to buy a small condo. They decide to take a small mortgage mortgage for $100,000 with a 20 year amortization. Their parents have also helped them with a sizeable downpayment. Right now only one Susie is working , so in the event that the breadwinner falls sick or dies, they decide to insure the loan.

How much will it cost and what will be the benefit be upon death or at end of loan period?

If they get	Benefit now	Benefit when they pay off the mortgage	Monthly premiums	Total they spend over 20 years
Mortgage life insurance	$100,000	$0	$9	$2,160 – $2,380
25-year term life insurance	$100,000	$100,000	$8	$1,880 – $2,070

Pete & Susie decide: To take the term life insurance because:

• The term life premiums are lower because Susie is quite young and a non-smoker. The mortgage life insurance, on the other hand, costs the same for everyone.

• The mortgage life insurance will ends in 20 years, when the loan has been effectively repaid. With the term life insurance, they get an extra five years of coverage.

• They might have the option to convert this to permanent insurance if their policy allows this.

While buying term life insurance to cover their loans is the right choice for Pete and Susie in this example, the correct insurance for you will depend things such as state of health (past and present), age, current life situation, and the length of time the insurance is required.

Garth Turner On RRSP Mortgages

bruce — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:14:24 +0000

I wasn’t planning to start this year’s blog with a hat tip to the irrepressable market ‘bear’ Garth Turner at his Greater Fool blog. But he has actually written a very good post recently. Garth writes a very informative and useful post on RRSP mortgages. If you don’t know what they are, you should read his post.

On a different subject, I have always had a bit of a problem with Garth’s forecasting tsyle. I think his forecasting style is a little rough round the edges.

For example:In a recent response to one of his readers request for advice whether to sell her home in Kelowna, Garth portends that:

“Kelowna is in for a kicking”

Based on:

“I say this based on a working knowledge of a place I visit at least twice a year, and watch the rest of the time”.

Not quite an analysis by any stretch of the imagination.

Happy New Year, Dear Readers

bruce — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:34:32 +0000

I’d like to Wish all my thousands of blog readers a Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year.

2010 will be a fascinating year for Vancouver real estate as we watch the market adjust to new realities, new perceptions, news and opinions that will shape how people buy and sell homes in this magnificent City.

I expect we will continue to see some radical and unpredictable changes and challenges to buyers and sellers, the mortgage industry, the real estate industry and the City itself.

We promise to bring you the key insights from this fascinating and unpredictable market for the year ahead.

Almost 4 Million Homes in USA Face Foreclosure in 2009

bruce — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:26:07 +0000

Realtytrac reported that home foreclosures in the United States decreased by 15% in November, 2009, from a peak in July, 2009. The number of home foreclosures in the United States is expected to increase to a record 3.9 million in 2009.

According to Zillow.com, homes in the United States have lost approximately US$5.9-trillion in value since March, 2006. Metropolitan areas in California and Florida reported nine of the 10 biggest losses during the same period.

“30,000 Homes in Canada Face Foreclosure” Over Next Three Years

bruce — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:24:24 +0000

According to records obtained by the The Globe and Mail under the Access to Information Act, a lobby group representing alternate mortgage lenders has advised the Canadian federal government that they will be forced to foreclose on up to 30,000 homeowners in Canada over the next three years.

The alternate mortgage lenders are requesting that the federal government back a special billion-dollar fund that would renew the healthy mortgages of borrowers who do not qualify for loans from traditional lenders.

CMHC Rental Survey – Rents Down, Demand Down

bruce — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:42:45 +0000

CMHC have released their rental market report for Vancouver. Good to see that they are reporting data not only for purpose built apartments but for investor owned condominiums too, considering that the latter apparently makes up a hefty 35% of the rental stock Downtown (according to CMHC research).

I am a landlord and own property Downtown (in Gastown) ….and yes, it was noticeably different rental market this year from last year. It was clear there was a lot of choice for tenants and rental rates were under serious downward pressure.

One tip for landlord’s who are keen not to reduce their rent, and who want to out-compete the market, is to consider allowing pets into the rental suite (where strata bylaws allow) .

My experience was that once I switched from a ‘no pets’ policy to ‘pet friendly’, I had a significant increase in demand in my property and much less resistance to montly rent price. There are so few pet friendly’ rentals in the City, that landlords who are willing to be flexible, can capitalise on this opportunity in softer rental markets.

Queuing for Condos Again in Vancouver

bruce — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:53:36 +0000

Interesting to note from Gary Mason’s Globe & Mail article yesterday that about 20 people camped outside the sales office for a new building called The Mark last week. By the end of business the next day, 163 of the 214 available condos had been sold.A couple of years ago this might not have seemed strange.Indeed it was de rigeur to camp outside a condo sales office in Downtown Vancouver, if you wanted your little piece of Vancouver real estate. Well times have changed, of course, and any economic recovery (provincial or national) could at best be described as ‘nascent’.That’s why it’s troubling to see people queuing for condos again.Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada is speaking today at the Canadian Club of Toronto and Empire Club of Canada on the “Current Issues in Household Finances”.The speech will be available on the Bank’s website later today.The Bank want to take their message of prudent borrowing ‘to the streets’. This direct appeal to the public to watch their household borrowing may be prudent but it’s also worrying. It suggests the Bank sees potential trouble ahead for over-leveraged households-and if the problem is big enough-for the wider economy and financial system.

Toronto Market on Fire

bruce — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:58:37 +0000

Toronto registered double the number of sales of November 2008 – a healthy 7446 sales.

Year-to-date sales were up a strong 14% compared to the first 11 months of 2008 as well.

“This year in the GTA home sales will be in line with the healthy levels experienced between 2004 and 2006,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President Tom Lebour.

The average price for November transactions was also up 14% year-over-year to $418,460.

Vancouver is not the only market experiencing significant activity as you can see.

Bank of Canada Governor Issues Warning to Consumers on Housing Debt

bruce — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:50:22 +0000

Hat tip to venerable Westside realtor and avid blogger Larry Yatkowski at www.yattermatters.com. I hadn’t read the Globe and Mail early enough to catch the story but caught it on Larry’s blog over morning coffee.

I would imagine it is pretty unprecedented in recent Bank of Canada history that the Bank’s governor Mark Carney appeals directly to the public to rein in their borrowing-particularly in relation to mortgage borrowing.

The Bank and Governor Carney are in a tight spot: inflation is low and the high dollar is damaging uptake of exports-hence the desire to maintain record low interest rates.

But those low rates have ignited significant price inflation in many key Metro housing markets, as a result of a surge of purchasing activity and mortgage borrowing since April of this year. The idea that we are out of recession (technically) seems to have hit home with most consumers.

The fact that the governor of the bank is appealing directly to the consumer for prudence in their financial affairs is itself prudent-indeed courageous in some ways-but suggests the Bank is seriously worried about a reversal of fortune in the housing market.