Category: Kamloops Real Estate News

This article appeared in the Vancouver Sun on October 5, 2011 and was written by Jenny Lee.

Kamloops is adding small businesses at the fastest clip of any community in B.C., according to Small Business BC. The southern Interior city is followed by Victoria, Penticton, Vancouver, Abbotsford, then Kelowna, each of them with significantly lower growth.

“Real estate seems to be the big driver,” said Mark Eversfield, a research analyst at Small Business BC. “Construction was also busy there.”

Kamloops added 412 new businesses, a six-per-cent increase, between June 2010 and June 2011. By comparison, Vancouver added 5,733 new businesses, up three per cent.

Not surprisingly, real estate agents led the charge in Kamloops, with 93 new businesses in the 12 months, but 83 were owner-operated. The city added 49 retail stores for the year ending June 2011, including 21 retail stores with fewer than five employees. Other growing sectors in Kamloops include health care, agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, business services, accommodation, food services, finance and insurance.

“I’m not sure why Kamloops would rank No. 1,” said Helmut Pastrick, chief economist at Central 1 Credit Union. “It does stand out in contrast to some other economic numbers suggesting that the Kamloopsarea economy is struggling somewhat.”

Business incorporations and labour market data for the Thompson-Nicola Regional District – which includes Kamloops – are weak, Pastrick said. The number of employment insurance beneficiaries continues to decline this year, but it’s not clear whether this is due to successful job searches or expired claims. Business incorporations in this regional district are running below last year, he said.

“Lower Mainland employment growth is up 1.7 per cent this year,” Pastrick said. “Metro Vancouver is up 2.1 per cent, compared to 0.3 for Thompson-Okanagan, -3.4 per cent for Vancouver Island, 0.5 per cent in the Kootenays and 1.3 per cent in the Cariboo.”

In the Thompson-Okanagan, which includes Kamloops, Kelowna and other cities, unemployment averaged 8.3 per cent from January to August of 2011.

Meanwhile, the Statistics Canada/Small Business BC data shows Victoria was the second-fastest-growing community for small business locations between June 2010 and June 2011, registering 3.3 per cent growth. There were 544 new real estate businesses, of which 527 had no employees. Other growth sectors were health, insurance and finance, professional, scientific, technical service and retail.

Real estate also led in Penticton, which grew 3.1 per cent over the period. Other growth came from professional, scientific and technical service business, agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and construction.

Cranbrook was the small business growth leader last year, increasing 5.2 per cent between June 2009 and June 2010, Eversfield said.

This article appeared in the Kamloops Daily News on September 29th, 2011.

Cutting lot prices at Tobiano in half may still be insufficient to sell property at the resort, according to information contained in a B.C. Supreme Court ruling.

An appraiser’s opinion on market prices for lots at Tobiano is contained in a ruling released Wednesday as part of the receivership process of Tobiano. The resort was forced into receivership in June this year by major creditor Bank of Montreal.

Pagebrook and Grenier together owe more than $48 million dollars on the project and could no longer make payment demands when the bank took action.

The receiver is attempting to package the resort to another developer and is also continuing individual lot sales. But the court document shows little sales activity has occurred at the resort on Kamloops Lake.

Only 66 lots were sold in the past five years. In 2010 and 2011, only two lots were sold.

Despite the near shutdown in sales, court documents show Grenier opposed what he characterized as “near fire-sale” prices, agreed to by the receiver, on three lots. Those deals needed approval by the court, which is overseeing the receivership.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Harris rejected Grenier’s arguments and approved the sale, noting a recent opinion by an appraiser:

“Considering current absorption rates, the existing inventory of developed lots is excessive if prices remain unchanged. Moreover, the majority of more recent sales have been the result of aggressive marketing and pricing program at a 50 per cent reduction.  In order to build momentum, a sustained and even more aggressive marketing and pricing program will be required.”

Grenier argued the lots have not been adequately marketed. But Harris also rejected that, noting extensive advertising and contact with 36,000 realtors.

In the wake of the 2008 recession, Pagebrook itself offered 50 per cent discounts on lot prices. But the court document said those list prices are higher than today’s list prices, making the discount three years ago less than that of recent sales.

“In my view, these lots have been exposed to the market for several years, but have attracted little or no interest at the prices they were offered,” Harris wrote.

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Many people do not understand how a City tax sale works. Here is an article featured in the Kamloops This Week on September 19th, 2011 and was written by Jeremy Deutsch.

If you’re looking to buy a cheap home, Kamloops City Hall might be the best place to get a bargain.

Every year, several homes for which the owner has not paid their property taxes for three consecutive years get put up for auction by the city.

It’s a chance to buy a home for a fraction of the value, but there’s a catch. The homeowner has a year to pay off the outstanding debt to get their house back. And, in the last 20 years, not one sale has stood up for the entire year.

“I always get people in here going ,‘Oh, can I get a great deal on a house?’ And the answer is no,” said Tanya Garost, the city’s revenue and taxation manager. She said the auction is really a tool to get people to pay their taxes.

Garost explained that since many of the homes on the auction list still have a mortgage, the lending company will always come to the rescue and pay the taxes so it doesn’t lose interest in the property.

There are about 60 properties on the list for this year’s auction, but Garost predicts that number will drop to about 10 before the bidding even begins.

The city is owed about $400,000 in unpaid property taxes.

Though the odds of snagging a cheap house are remote, it can still be a good investment. Typically, the bidding for each property starts at the amount owed in taxes, plus some service charges. The person with the winning bid then cuts a cheque to the city for  the amount.

When the delinquent homeowner eventually comes to pay the tax bill, the investor gets their money back, plus the interest for the time it was held.

The interest rate this year is six per cent, while the bank rate is just one per cent. It’s the homeowner who pays the interest,  not the city.

The auction will be held in city council chambers at 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 26.

Garost noted the auction usually attracts  about 15 to 20 people each year.

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This article was written by Cam Fortems of the Kamloops Daily News on September 12, 2011.

Sewer expansion on TIB lands funded under a federal government program designed to create jobs after the last recession will provide even more economic opportunity in the future, leaders said Monday.

Tk’emlups Indian Band held a official opening at its arbor Monday morning to celebrate completion of its $9.7-million sewer mainline trunk expansion.

The system feeds into the City of Kamoops sewage treatment plant.

While the Sun Rivers development and Sk’lep school have always been connected to the City plant, most of the band lands remained on septic systems.

TIB councillor Fred Seymour, who headed the project for the band, said that fact limited commercial development potential, as well as housing for band members. The 114 homes at the band’s main George Campbell subdivision are on one-acre lots to allow septic fields. But Seymour said the trunk line extension will allow more dense land use, including multi-family projects for band members.

Seymour said the band had long wanted to expand its sewer system and was ready to approach Ottawa in the wake of the last recession, when government was looking for “shovel-ready” projects to help create jobs and boost the economy.

Chief Shane Gottfriedson said now that the more than seven kilometres of trunk line is in place, the band and individual certificate of possession owners will be looking at development and hooking up in the next phase. That includes Mount Paul Industrial Park, which is currently on septic systems.

“We’d like to get the business case and financial planning together.”

In addition to hooking up existing development, Gottfriedson said the sewer expansion allows servicing of 20 hectares of developable land along the South Thompson River beside the Chief Louis complex.

“We’re looking at a riverfront atmosphere with restaurants and fine dining,” Gottfriedson said. “We want to build upon what we started at the Chief Louis Centre.”

The band originally looked at building its own sewage treatment centre, but has an agreement with the City of Kamloops dating back more than a decade. One of the possible outfalls was on the North Thompson River.

Kamloops Mayor Peter Milobar said the City has always factored in development on band lands into its wastewater treatment planning.

“Anytime you can have one less outfall is a good thing for all the residents of the region.”

Both the engineering and construction were done by Kamloops-based companies. One of the band’s stipulations was 30 per cent of the construction workforce was First Nations.

The band also trained and will employ two workers to maintain the series of lines and lift stations.

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