Kamloops Real Estate News

This article was written by Jeremy Deutsch of Kamloops This Week on January 17th, 2012.

After sitting idle for more than a year, a controversial condo development has a new owner with a mission. An Edmonton-based real-estate company has been hired to complete construction of the stalled Mission Hill​ development in the West End.

Officials with Brentwood Developments have met with the city’s building department a couple of times to get the project restarted.

David Trawin, director of development and engineering services, said the company has told the city it wants to get phase one of the troubled project complete and sold. “We feel like it’s moving along like any other normal development at this time,” he told KTW, describing the initial meetings as positive. “From our perspective, it feels like it will get done.”

In October 2010, New Future group filed for protection from its creditors under the Companies Creditors Arrangements Act, the legislation that allows for a restructuring plan to be created. The group of companies, which is headed by Kamloops developer Mike Rink, owed a reported $80 million on projects, including Mission Hill. But, after more than a year under the protection of a court-ordered monitor, a financial firm from Toronto foreclosed on the property at the end of December. The move leaves Rink out of the development.

Mission Hill still has some hurdles to clear before it gets to the market. Trawin explained the city still needs to sign off on an amended development permit and occupancy permit, while the project still must become a strata before units can start to sell.

The amended development permit originally submitted by Rink looked to change some of the amenities in the development. Specifically, part of the plan was to build a pool in the first phase, but a geo-technical study concluded it wouldn’t work.

Trawin said the new company is considering its options, but he noted the amended permit will have to get final approval from city council. He couldn’t provide a timeline for completion of the project.

At the time of the development’s legal troubles, there were concerns from city officials about the state of the first phase, a 60-unit building, while it sat idle and incomplete. Though the city has not inspected the building, relying on inspection documentation from an outside engineer, Trawin is confident the structure is sound. “No red flags have been raised to me by the building department,” he said.

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This article was written by Jeremy Deutsch of Kamloops This Week on January 9th, 2012.

Despite fears of a double-dip recession and lingering issues with the harmonized sales tax, 2011 turned out to be a pretty good year for construction in the Tournament Capital.

The city handed out $162.5-million in building permits in 2011, which ended up to $40 million more than projected.

David Trawin, the city’s director of development and engineering services, said the year was saved by a strong showing in commercial and industrial development.

The city issued $57-million in commercial/industrial permits in 2011, including another $2.8 million in December, besting the previous year by $7 million.

Conversely, residential construction dropped significantly in 2011.

The city handed out $96-million in permits last year, down from $129 million in 2010.

As for 2012, Trawin is offering a conservative estimate — predicting the city will hit between $130 million and $150 million in permit value.

“I’m considering next year to be an average year for Kamloops,” he said.

However, there are some big projects expected to land on the department’s desk, including permits for a Telus data centre, an Interior Health Authority development in North Kamloops and a new Marriott hotel in Aberdeen, at the site of the former Home Hardware store at Pacific Way and Rogers Way.

Trawin also expects the commercial side of construction to remain strong in 2012.

“Those are the types of building permits that bring jobs into the community,” he said, adding the residential portion will eventually follow and rebound.

Though all the numbers might not mean much to the average Kamloopsian, Trawin noted the engineering department uses the statistics to budget and plan for the year ahead.

A full report on construction activity at city hall in 2011 is expected to be in front of council early this year.

The city has only topped $200 million in permits once — in 2008.

In that year, the city doled out $207 million worth of permits, which was a record.

In a 12-month period between 2009 and 2010, the city handed out $222.5-million in permits for 883 dwelling units.

That proved to be a record.

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This article was written by Cam Fortems of the Kamloops Daily News on January 3rd, 2012.

The average property assessment in Kamloops declined slightly in 2011, the first time values have gone down in a decade.

Homeowners began receiving notices Tuesday from B.C. Assessment Authority.

Graham Held, deputy assessor for B.C. Assessment Authority, said the numbers show a market that’s largely unchanged from a year ago. The market value of all single- and multi-family homes in Kamloops declined by 1.46 per cent, measured between July 1, 2010, and July 1, 2011.

The City of Kamloops will use that number to adjust its mill rate down. Property owners who see values decline more than 1.46 per cent will see a corresponding savings on their tax bill in June while those on the plus side will pay more. City council has also yet to set its general tax increase.

In the big picture, Heid said the market has been largely unchanged for several years.

“What we’re looking at for the City of Kamloops is it’s at about the same level, plus or minus five per cent,” he said.

The assessment authority values homes at July 1 the preceding year. But Held said little market shift occurred in the past six months.

“It still looks pretty flat.”

Brian Ledoux, president of Kamloops District Real Estate Association, said the flat and slightly declining prices come as no surprise. They are in the wake of increases in the mid-2000s in property values of up to 20 per cent a year, in back-to-back years.

Ledoux said he expects little change in the current trend. Last year the assessment authority calculated that property values climbed about three per cent on average.

“We’re looking at slight, slow and steady increase of one to three per cent in 2012,” he said, noting interest rates remain near historic lows and show few signs of moving up.

MLS sales in December in the City were up by seven per cent over the same month last year, something Ledoux said is a positive sign for the new year.

Reflecting the assessment values, the association calculated the median price for a single-family home here declined a little more than one per cent, to $327,000 at the end of the year.

One recent positive sign is a decline of 460 listings, bringing the number of homes for sale on the MLS to about 2,400. That inventory remains high by historical standards, however.

“It’s good it’s (inventory) coming down. but it’s got some more room to come down,” Ledoux said.

B.C. Assessment Authority tracks the market value of property as well as growth through building and subdivision.

The latest roll growth of about $25 million is the smallest in the past five years. Roll growth between 2008 and 2009 was $1 billion, both from market increases and new development.

Property owners concerned about their valuations must submit a notice of appeal by Jan. 31 in order to qualify for a hearing in front of the Property Assessment Review Panel. Hearings are set between Feb. 1 and March 15.

Price mixed in city neighbourhoods

B.C. Assessment Authority calculated values for typical houses in several Kamloops neighbourhoods, showing a mix of increases and declines:

• Sahali and Aberdeen declined to an average of $404,000, down about $6,000 from the year before.
• East Kamloops (Valleyview, Juniper, Barnhartvale and Dallas) up to $392,000, an increase of $4,000.
• Batchelor Heights increased by $7,000 to $374,000.
• North Shore (Brocklehurst and North Kamloops) decreased $3,000, to $303,000.

Property values in neighbouring municipalities were also typically down or flat. The largest decrease was felt at Sun Peaks, where values stayed the same or decreased by as much as 15 per cent.

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This article appeared on the Kamloops Daily News on December 23rd, 2011.

Multi-family housing and home renovations kept builders busy in 2011, says the president of the Canadian Home Builders Association-Central Interior. But new house construction took a hit, a one-two punch from the global economy and uncertainty around B.C.’s Harmonized Sales Tax, Brian Hayashi said Friday.

“New homes were significantly down. We think it’s a combination of things: the bad news of the global economy. A number of realtors and homebuilders have said sales stopped when the HST vote happened,” he said.

Of course, new home sales also turned sluggish when the HST was first created, but they did pick up after about six months, he said. “This time around, we don’t know.”

His group is working on a campaign for the new year to let buyers know it’s an ideal time to purchase a new house, Hayashi said. “Costs are going down. There is no advantage in waiting for the GST/PST to come off,” he said.

While new house sales are slow — with the exception of a flurry of selling in late November — there also isn’t a lot out on the Kamloops market, he said. “The other concern is when sales do pick up, there’s going to be a shortage. And whenever there’s a shortage, prices start to go up.”

Hayashi said his company, Nexbuild, has stayed busy with commercial work and home renovations. There are also energy-savings grants that homeowners should be aware of. “We’re looking forward to things picking up in new energy retrofits, some grants and incentives out there,” he said. “The renovation market continues to be strong. The energy retrofits, people staying put and upsizing or downsizing or even just maintaining. That’s a good opportunity for local builders.”

Despite the single-family home slowdown, Kamloops’ construction demand has been fairly stable going into 2012, he said. “So I’m hoping it’ll pick up. We’re not looking at a big boom or anything, the world is going to affect us, but I would say we’re doing really well. We’re really fortunate here.”

Brian Ledoux, president of the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association, agreed with Hayashi’s observations about multi-family housing doing better than new single-family homes. “New construction and residential sales were low, just based on the way the HST rules bounced around, nobody knew what to do,” he said. “Information didn’t get out well enough for the public to understand what was happening, so they decided not to do anything.”

But used houses sold well, in fact by year’s end, the total number of homes sold was close to matching last year’s, said Ledoux. The count taken a few weeks before 2011 ended was 1,980 homes sold, compared with around 2,100 or 2,200 at the end of 2010, he said.

He knew of only one house that sold that was priced over $1 million this year, but there were several in the $700,000 to $800,000 range. Interest rates attracted first-time home buyers, he said.

House prices in Kamloops have actually been declining since 2007, but are now leveling off, said Ledoux. He predicted the housing market in 2012 will see a slow and steady increase in sales.

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