Category: Kamloops Real Estate News

This article appeared in Kamloops this Week on February 11th, 2011 and was written by Jeremy Deutsch.

Though many of the real-estate conditions in Canada appear to be bipolar, the Tournament Capital is expected to be the bastion of stability in the market. The Kamloops and District Real Estate Association (KDREA) is predicting no major swings in the market — up or down — in 2011.

“It’s certainly not a hot market,” said Dick Pemberton, KDREA president. “Stable is the best term to describe it.” He makes his prediction despite a dip in sales last month.

Residential sales in the area fell by 18 per cent in January to 93 units, from 114 the previous January in 2010. The majority of the sales still falling in between the $200,000- to $400,000-price range.

However, Pemberton said real-estate agents in the region have noticed a dramatic increase in the number of people stopping in at open houses in the last few weeks, leading to a more optimistic forecast for the spring and summer.

Some real-estate experts are predicting house prices across Canada will fall by as much as 25 per cent in coming years, while other reports have the Vancouver housing market heating up, similar to last decade. But, tighter mortgage rules recently introduced by the federal government will no doubt keep some buyers out of the market.

Ottawa has lowered the maximum amortization period for a government-insured mortgage to 30 years from 35. The change is meant to help lower consumer debt. It’s a move applauded by the KADREA members, which sees it as a positive change in the long term. “Given the economy right now, we felt it was a prudent move and won’t have a significant impact on the market place,” Pemberton said. He added it takes borderline buyers out of the picture until they’re in a better position to purchase a home.

With no major increase in interest rates in the horizon, Pemberton suggested it’s still a good time to get into the market. Homes sales weren’t the only stats to take a dip last month.

The number of single-family permits issued by the city also dropped to just four in January, from 13 the previous year. The city also issued $5.4 million in commercial-building permits for the month, but the combined total of the two sectors failed to match the $13 million in overall permit activity from January 2010. It’s a slow start for the city’s building-permit department, which handed out $191 million worth of permits in 2010.

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This article appeared in Kamloops This Week on January 27th, 2011 and was written by Jeremy Deutsch.

As homeowners in much of the province, including Kamloops, saw their property values rise in 2010, there is at least one real-estate sector that wasn’t quite as fortunate. Many recreational properties were down in value last year — and Sun Peaks Resort was not spared.

According to BC Assessment, residential properties in the resort municipality dropped in value by an average of 2.5 per cent. Whistler, the only other resort municipality in B.C., also saw similar decreases in residential-property values.

Graham Held, a deputy assessor with BC Assessment, noted the values are based on the market and incorporation wouldn’t have had any effect on assessments. “It’s just what the sales are telling us,” he said. There are 1,600 properties at Sun Peaks on BC Assessment’s rolls, including 425 single-family homes.

The resort became a municipality last summer and 2010 marks the first year it is on the tax rolls as a municipality. But the drop in value is neither a surprise nor major concern for Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine. He feels the two per cent decline isn’t unreasonable considering the economic environment.

Raine noted recreational properties tend to take a bigger hit in value than residential properties when there is a downturn in the economy, adding some units in the village were sold for very low prices.

He also suggested a couple of other factors for the decline, including the harmonized sales tax, in which an HST credit isn’t offered on recreational properties, and that units were being built faster in the resort than the demand supported. “Quite frankly, I’m happy with stable prices for these days,” Raine said. He said real-estate agents have told him they expect demand to pick up in the spring. Raine said he still considers Sun Peaks “a good place to invest and live.”

Last year, a home in Sun Peaks sold for $2.2 million, besting the previous most-expensive house by $700,000. Another home was recently listed for $4.3 million, which will be a new record if sold. For the second year in a row, the majority of Kamloops homeowners saw a modest increase in their property assessments.

According to BC Assessment, the property owner of an average single-family dwelling — assessed at $309,000 — likely noticed their property value increase by 4.7 per cent.

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This article is written by Jeremy Deutsch and appeared in the Friday, January 14th, 2011 edition of the Kamloops This Week.

The condo-unit owner at the centre of a building-code dispute between the city and a strata is applauding the move by council to slap the entire building with a notice to warn potential buyers.

Richard McElroy, the owner of a unit in the Loma Bella condo units in Sahali, said he’s been battling with various groups, including National Home Warranty, builder Mike Rink and his own strata, to get a settlement problem with his unit fixed.

He said the decision by city council should help put pressure on all the interested parties to fix the problem. “Finally, some sunlight and some wisdom,” McElroy told KTW. “Council in their wisdom has put us all in the same boat now as a strata.”

City council decided to put notices — referred to as Section 57 — against all 16 units in the development, due to outstanding building-code violations and to reduce the potential liability against the city.

The notice, which is filed with the Kamloops Land Title Office and is meant to warn potential purchasers of the problems, can be lifted once the repairs are complete.

The saga began after settlement issues on McElroy’s unit were discovered in 2007. What has followed is a legal mess around who is responsible for the repairs, which finally culminated in the city moving to put the notice on the strata at the end of last year.

A representative of Loma Bella’s strata appeared in front of city council on Tuesday, Jan. 11, asking for another 30 days to deal with the issue. The strata rep suggested it wasn’t fair for the entire building to get a notice when only one unit is involved. But council wasn’t convinced.

Mayor Peter Milobar argued the issue has been ongoing for years and an extra month isn’t going to get the problem solved, noting there hasn’t been much agreement between the sides involved. He said council too often hears from people who buy property with a problem, and then complain they weren’t alerted by the city before the purchase. “We know there is a problem. We know it needs to be repaired,” Milobar said. “My concern is that future purchasers know that there is a potential liability there for them.”

He also suggested the easiest way to ensure the repairs are done is to make sure everyone is aware of the violation and have a vested interest in a resolution.

As for McElroy, he said he’s felt like a hostage through this situation, noting he can’t rent or sell the unit because of the possible dangers. “It’s been really frustrating,” he said. The cost of repairs to the unit are estimated at be $100,000.

This article was written by Jeremy Deutsch and appeared in Kamloops This Week on January 7th, 2011.

It wasn’t a record, but it was pretty close. By the end of 2010, the city had handed out $191-million worth of building permits, eclipsing 2009’s total of $160 million by more than $30 million.

The city had originally estimated between $120 and $140 million worth of building permits to be taken out in 2010. “It’s a lot better year than we thought,” said David Trawin, the city’s director of development and engineering, adding Kamloops is doing “exceptionally well” compared to other communities in the province.

He attributed the growth in 2010 to a rise in the amount of residential construction around Kamloops, particularly single-family units. The number of residential permits — which includes single-family and multi-family units for 2010 — jumped to 660 from 430 in 2009. Of those residential permits, 300 were for single-family units, more than double 2009 totals.

It was such a busy year at city hall, there is extra money for city council to consider during upcoming budget discussions.

The development and engineering department built up an operating surplus of $1 million from the unexpected boost in construction. Trawin said it will be up to council to to decide what it wants to do with the extra cash.

The city is also taking another conservative approach to its estimates for 2011. Trawin said he expects his department to hand out between $120- and $130-million in building permits. He said the prediction is based on discussions with builders in the city, but noted that number could be larger if a couple of big potential projects come through this year.

However, Trawin wouldn’t divulge the details of the potential developments.

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. Before the beginning of summer, the city handed out $222.5 million in permits for 883 dwelling units in a 12-month period. That proved to be a record.