COLWOOD AND LANGFORD Following a successful entry into the housing market last year, homebuilder Formwell has unveiled plans to expand its development portfolio to Victoria’s West Shore. Situated in the emerging Olympic View neighbourhood of Colwood, one of Formwell’s two upcoming West Shore development parcels is located at 641 Latoria Road, at a size of 1.74-acres. A few blocks away in the adjacent Happy Valley neighbourhood of Langford, Formwell’s second holding at 898-914 Klahanie Drive is a 4.07-acre property. A mix of family-oriented three and four-bedroom townhomes are envisioned for both projects.
LANGFORD Another office complex could be coming to Victoria’s West Shore region as the suburban office space sub-market continues to gain traction. Planned for the 4300-block of the newly-built West Shore Parkway (near Valemount Court) is a five-storey, approximately 29,000 square foot concept that would be built-to-suit for a future tenant or tenants by Urban Pro Developments. According to municipal documents, the company is requesting a variance to permit a five-storey structure in lieu of the zoning’s four-storey maximum, and to raise the permitted building height to nearly 20 metres from a 15 metre maximum.
REGIONAL A Victoria-based company is bringing dog wash and pet care stations to multi-unit housing projects nationwide as the in-building amenity gains traction among pet-friendly buildings. Furever Clean has become a staple of the dog care kiosk industry with its dog wash station product line-up offering a wide array of customizable options available to developers planning new buildings, strata councils seeking ways to address pet care needs, and rental operators looking for new perks. Furever Clean’s dog wash stations can be as simple as a galvanized steel basin with a hose, or more sophisticated self-serve, pay-for-use kiosks able to take payment in cash, debit or credit cards and Apple Pay, and with automated product disbursements, a built-in dryer, pet tub disinfectant, and a hair filtration system. Pricing can range from several thousand dollars for entry level and basic solutions, to over $20,000 for heavy duty ‘K9000’ machines.
SAANICH A boutique condominium project along the Shelbourne Valley corridor is nearing its sales launch by TLA Developments. The builder/developer recently unveiled Ferrell, a 24-suite, four-storey complex slated for 1544 Christmas Avenue at Ophir Street near the intersection of Shelbourne Street and Cedar Hill Cross Road. Comprised of nine studio, six one-bedroom and nine two-bedroom layouts, Ferrell’s floor plans will range from nearly 400 square feet to just over 1,000 square feet targeting first-time purchasers, urban professionals and right-sizers seeking attainable new-build housing in Victoria’s core.
SOOKE Victoria’s western-most suburb is adding a record number of residential units to its commercial centre as the seaside town responds to growth pressures and demand for housing. Collectively, high density construction now underway and proposed is expected to deliver 736 apartment and condominium homes by the mid-2020s, according to the current project pipeline tracked by Citified, with a further 259, at least, as part of single-family and/or townhome offerings (all totalling 995-units).
VICTORIA Developers behind a downtown condominium project are offering a unique first-time homebuyer program through lower down-payment requirements and a longer period to contribute those payments. Mod, a 15-storey, 129-suite mixed-use tower now rising on View Street at Cook Street in the former Pluto’s Diner location, surpassed 50 per cent sold-out status earlier this summer. But one segment of the market developer Fraser McColl believes could use a leg-up to make homeownership possible is made up of younger, and often first-time, buyers working to overcome the down payment threshold. McColl and partner Dan Robbins have structured a down payment option that lowers the up-front (or pre-mortgage) cost to secure a home at Mod from 15 per cent to 10 per cent, and buyers can make equal instalments of 2.5 per cent over a 12 month period in lieu of the three month standard.
View Royal The final pre-sale campaign for the upcoming Skyeview condominium has been released with a collection of seven pet and child-friendly two-bedroom homes. Last winter, TLA Developments culminated its initial pre-sale campaign by reaching a targeted 75% sold-out status for the 37-unit, four-storey project, now rising at 242-244 Island Highway west of Admirals Road at Craigflower Road, with completion earmarked for early 2023.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
