Vancouver, BC – August 25, 2016. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2016 Third Quarter Housing Forecast Update today.

Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential sales in the province are forecast to climb 10.4 per cent to a record 113,000 units this year, eclipsing the previous record of 106,310 units in 2005. Housing demand is expected to moderate next year, with home sales declining nearly 8 per cent to 104,400 units. However, housing demand is expected to remain well above the ten-year average of 85,000 unit sales.

“The introduction of a 15 per cent tax on foreign national home buyers in Metro Vancouver is expected to accelerate a moderating trend in the market that began earlier in the year,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “However, other regions of the province are performing above expectations and at the provincial level, largely offsetting Metro Vancouver’s deceleration.”

The average MLS® residential price in the province is forecast to increase 11 per cent to $706,900 this year and a further 5.2 per cent to $743,700 in 2017.

“While the cyclical nature of housing markets can exact a harsh toll on affordability in the short term, there is some relief for beleaguered home buyers on the horizon, added Muir. Housing starts in the province are expected to reach near record levels this year, and the highest amount since 1993. In Metro Vancouver, a record number of homes are now under construction. “A moderation in housing demand combined with a rising number of both new and resale homes on the market is expected to create more balance and less upward pressure on home prices.”

To view the full BCREA Housing Forecast, click here.

The Vancouver SunAugust 8, 2016 GRAEME HAMILTON
ALLEN MCINNIS

MONTREAL• Quebec’ s rental board has authorized a Montreal landlord to change the locks of an apartment that was being rented out on Airbnb in a decision seen as a shot across the bow of the increasingly popular online vacation rental site.
The Régie du logement found that Quan Sheng Li, a tenant of a downtown apartment tower, had rented out his apartment on Airbnb for almost the entire months of July, August and September without his landlord’s approval.
“With as many rentals as the tenant has made, it is clear that this causes a serious prejudice to the landlord,” the board wrote in a July 26 decision. Pending a final hearing in September, it ordered Li to stop listing the apartment on Airbnb unless he got written consent from the landlord, Summit Property Management, and to pay his rent the first of every month.
It said the landlord could change the locks on the apartment to prevent further short-term rentals.
Tristan Pungartnik, Summit’s director of operations, said he manages 1,200 rental units in the city and has had to become increasingly vigilant to detect tenants who are just flipping apartments for lucrative online rentals.
“The fact that he’s making money off of our unit is probably the least of our worries,” he said. “It’s not knowing who’s in our building at all times and having our tenants being bothered. One week it could be a nice old couple who are there, super quiet. And the next week it could be a bachelor party. If you’re living 12 months a year and want peace, you don’t want to have a gamble every weekend. Is this going to be a quiet weekend?”
Li said the rental board exaggerated how often he rents out his apartment. “Sometimes I go to different places, and I just cover my rental bill,” he said.
He said it is unfair that he has been locked out of his apartment and he hopes to resolve the matter at a hearing scheduled for September.
The rental board decision comes as various jurisdictions grapple with the growing popularity of short-term rental sites like Airbnb, which hotels say have an unfair advantage because they are not subject to the same taxes.
In an earlier decision in the Li case, Quebec’s rental board said tenants wishing to rent out their apartments on Airbnb have to give advance notice to their landlords.
Established to protect tenants’ rights, the rental board is now faced with tenants acting as landlords.
It said the growing phenomenon of people renting apartments for the sole purpose of subletting them on Airbnb could distort the rental market and drive up prices.
A Quebec law that came into effect in April requires owners who frequently rent out their properties to obtain the same provincial certification as hotel and bed-andbreakfast operators, and therefore charge travellers lodging taxes of up to 3.5 per cent. Violators face fines between $500 and $50,000.
In Ontario, a report on the sharing economy published in March by the MaRS Solution Lab, in partnership with the Ontario government and the city of Toronto, recommended limiting to 180 the number of days a home could be rented out through “home sharing” services such as Airbnb. The report found that 11,000 people list properties in the province on Airbnb, leading to 375,000 stays in the previous year.
Pungartnik said he hopes his case will alert other landlords to a growing problem. He said his company regularly scours Airbnb and other rental sites to see if any of its apartments are being offered. He encouraged others to do the same.
“We want a little bit of a movement here. We feel like as it stands, we’re always at a bit of a disadvantage,” he said. “This is finally casting a bit of positive light on our rights as landlords and the recourse available to us.”

 

Home buyers continue to compete for homes listed for sale across the Metro Vancouver housing market.

Residential property sales in the region totalled 4,400 in June 2016, an increase of 0.6 per cent from the 4,375 sales recorded in June 2015 and a decrease of 7.7 per cent compared to May 2016 when 4,769 homes sold.

Last month’s sales were 28.1 per cent above the 10-year sales average for the month and rank as the highest selling June on record.

“While we’re starting to see more properties coming onto the market in recent months, the imbalance between supply and demand continues to influence market conditions,” Dan Morrison REBGV president said.

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Metro Vancouver totalled 5,875 in June 2016. This represents an increase of 1.2 per cent compared to the 5,803 units listed in June 2015 and a 6.6 per cent decrease compared to May 2016 when 6,289 properties were listed.

“Since March, we’ve seen more homes listed for sale in our market than in any other four-month period this decade,” Morrison said.

The total number of properties currently listed for sale on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 7,812, a 35.9 per cent decline compared to June 2015 (12,181) and a 1.1 per cent increase compared to May 2016 (7,726).

The sales-to-active listings ratio for June 2016 is 56.3 per cent. While clearly indicative of a seller’s market, this is the lowest this measure has been since February.

Generally, analysts say that downward pressure on home prices occurs when the ratio dips below the 12 per cent mark, while home prices often experience upward pressure when it reaches the 20 to 22 per cent range in a particular community for a sustained period of time.

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is currently $917,800. This represents a 32.1 per cent increase compared to June 2015.

Sales of detached properties in June 2016 reached 1,562, a decrease of 18.6 per cent from the 1,920 detached sales recorded in June 2015. The benchmark price for detached properties increased 38.7 per cent from June 2015 to $1,561,500.

Sales of apartment properties reached 2,108 in June 2016, an increase of 18.8 per cent compared to the 1,774 sales in June 2015.The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 25.3 per cent from June 2015 to $501,100.

Attached property sales in June 2016 totalled 730, an increase of 7.2 per cent compared to the 681 sales in June 2015. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 28.1 per cent from June 2015 to $656,900.

For more info from REBGV click here

Finding a place to live in Vancouver is getting harder all the time. Finding a place to stay may never have been easier: the number of rooms, suites and apartments available short-term and online has skyrocketed over the past 18 months.

Home-sharing sites like Airbnb, VRBO and Homeaway have made it easier than ever for people to list their homes for short-term rentals. Some have even started doing so professionally, outfitting entire homes for tourists.

The boom in home and apartment “sharing” has many residents concerned to the point that last month Vancouver city council voted unanimously to have staff look into the issue and suggest whether action is needed.

“The biggest negative impact is the likelihood that a significant part of our rental stock is being used for short term rental,” Councillor Geoff Meggs said. “The city is committed to creating long term rental, and if it’s just going to be good for tourism then we really are concerned about that.”

Whether short-term rentals really remove potentially permanent accommodation from the marketplace is hard to say.

Karen Sawatzky has been examining the effect that one leading site, Airbnb, has on Vancouver’s housing market, for her MA in urban studies at Simon Fraser University. The number of listings is on the rise, she found: 2,978 in January 2015, and 3,473 five months later.

By December, listing-tracking site InsideAirbnb found 4,728 places available in the city. They ranged from a spare couch to an entire house. But 67 per cent were for complete homes or apartments. The comparable rate for New York City was 52 per cent, and San Francisco, 57 per cent.

Still, Sawatzky said it’s hard to quantify what effect short-term rentals have on other accommodation, since so many other factors also affect Vancouver’s housing market.

What’s clear is that many of those taking advantage of home-sharing sites to earn extra income are also breaking city bylaws. The law says only registered hotels and bed and breakfasts may rent accommodation for periods of less than a month at a time.

But thousands of online listings make the bylaw hard to enforce. “The existence of a listing online, or the statement of a neighbour, is not sufficient to issue a bylaw violation notice,” Meggs said. “Investigations are quite complex and require a lot of evidence.”

Love and hate for home-sharing

It’s an issue causing civic leaders to lose sleep around the world, where reactions have run from a warm embrace, to slamming the door.

Berlin has perhaps gone furthest. It made short-term rentals illegal in 2014, except for those with permission from the city government. After a two-year transition period, the law took effect on May 1.

You can still find listings for entire units in Berlin, but their owners risk fines of up to €100,000. (The city has yet to issue its first.)

California’s Santa Monica didn’t ban short-term, whole-unit rentals outright. Instead, it made them expensive and unpopular. The city, with a population of about 90,000, still allows renting out a spare bedroom or shared room. But one rule pretty much ended the rental of entire homes or apartments: the host has to be living there while renters occupy the place.

City officials estimated that the rule — plus an associated 14 per cent tax and requirement for a business licence — would eliminate 1,400 of the 1,700 listings in Santa Monica at the time of the ordinance.

Other cities have taken a less punitive approach: laying down rules, and bringing in new revenues.

Paris is Airbnb’s most popular destination, with 40,000 listings. The City of Light imposed a rental tax of 83 euro cents a night, collected automatically by Airbnb. During the last three months of last year, the tax paid the city an estimated €1.2 million. Paris also limits residents to listing their primary residence, and started aggressively cracking down on violators, fining violators up to €25,000.

Leverage is elusive

Other cities are trying to get home-sharing sites themselves to help enforce the law.

Los Angeles will debate an ordinance this June that would require residents to get a registration number from the city before they rent out their primary residence. The city wants Airbnb to require hosts to provide the number before they sign up, and on any advertisement. The proposed ordinance would also levy a ‘transient occupancy’ tax, and set a 90-day-per-year limit on how often residents may rent their home.

“These provisions would require platforms to turn over a log of bookings to the local government on a monthly basis,” Sawatzky said. “Otherwise there’s no way of verifying that info, and therefore [it would be] pointless to include booking limits.”

Most booking sites have resisted turning over client data. New York City got four years worth of rental data from Airbnb only after the New York attorney general issued the San Francisco-based company a subpoena.

City supervisors in San Francisco hope to force cooperation by making sites financially liable for illegal listings. The city has had short-term rental legislation since 2014, but Supervisor David Campos claims that as of last month, 75 per cent of Airbnb San Francisco listings violate the law.

Campos has introduced city legislation to fine sites up to $1,000 per day for every illegal listing they host. Airbnb has publicly questioned the legality of the requirement, and it has yet to come to a vote.

But while most cities are fighting to stem, or at least control and perhaps profit from, the rising tide of short-term rentals, others have embraced the home-sharing economy’s pitch.

For decades, the Greater London Council Act of 1973 banned short-term rentals without planning permission. Last year, the city changed the law to allow them. The Department for Communities and Local Government even released a document promoting short-term rentals, saying that they “expanded the pool of competitively priced accommodation,” and helped support the city’s tourism industry.

No clear-cut answer

City staff are examining those and other approaches but, Councillor Meggs said, “We’d never go for a ban in Vancouver. We’ve always allowed for short term rentals under a bed and breakfast license, and we liberalized that during the Olympics.”

Those rules, however, require that landlords demonstrate that they have in place “business licensing, a fire plan, supervision, accountability and consumer protection,” Meggs said, adding that “none of that is taken care of” by sharing sites.

“So we have to look to the past and achieve those objectives in the new environment,” the councillor said, conceding that “I don’t know of any city that has a clear cut solution at this stage.”

Meanwhile, it’s a great time to visit Vancouver, less so to live here.

Vancouver, BC – April 15, 2016. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a record 12,560 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in March, up 38 per cent from March of last year. Home sales last month eclipsed the previous record of 11,683 unit sales in May of 2007. Total sales dollar volume was $9.69 billion in March, up 66.9 per cent compared to the previous year. The average MLS® residential price in the province was up 20.2 per cent year-over-year, to $771,620.

 

“Housing demand has never been stronger in the province,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “Most large population centres of the province are now experiencing record levels of housing demand.“

“Strong employment growth, rising wages and a marked increase in net inter-provincial migration is fueling consumer confidence,” added Muir.

Supply imbalances are becoming increasingly common as new residential listings are not keeping pace with consumer demand. As a result, the inventory of homes for sale is at decade-long lows in many regions.

The year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume increased 70.1 per cent to $21.59 billion, when compared with the same period in 2015. Residential unit sales climbed by 39.2 per cent to 28,028 units, while the average MLS® residential price was up 22.2 per cent to $770,408.

For the complete news release, including detailed statistics, click here

Vancouver East, Vancouver West

Click here to view the latest Stats Centre Report for Vancouver East.

Click here to view the latest Stats Centre Report for Vancouver West.

Statistics courtesy of REBGV