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COVID-19 will leave a lasting mark on real estate – The Globe and Mail

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New home owners Denise Craine and Jim Burtcher sold their home in Mississauga and moved to Wasaga Beach during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tannis Toohey(c)/The Globe and Mail

Buying and selling a house in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was, for Denise Craine and her husband, an exercise in adapting to viewing rules that changed from one house to another.

”Every house had a sign that said ‘sanitize before you enter, do not open cupboards, do not use the washroom, no children allowed, no more than two people allowed plus your agent,’ ” recalls Ms. Craine, who runs a Toronto-based association management firm called Secretariat Central. “But then there were two houses that also had gloves in the entrance, and I remember (my husband) telling me later ‘I think we were supposed to wear those.’

“For viewings in their home, Ms. Craine and her husband added their own twist to pandemic protocols: all cupboard doors and drawers were left open to further dissuade touching and visitors were encouraged to disinfect as they went along, with bottles of disinfectant distributed throughout the house.

”So if they really wanted to inspect something, they could clean that surface before and after they touched it,” says Ms. Craine.

As the country’s vaccination rates continue to edge higher and there’s hope that COVID-19 will ease in the months ahead, a question for the real estate industry is what pandemic practices it should hang on to and what can go safely by the wayside.

George Filntissis, Toronto realtor with The Condo Kings – a Royal LePage Terrequity broker – thinks most of the safety practices that were either mandated or strongly recommended because of COVID are here to stay. As far as he’s concerned, that would be a good thing.

”I think that continuing to do things like wearing masks and social distancing would still make sense in the long run because we now know that they help keep us from getting sick,” he says. “I see a lot of people in my work and pre-pandemic it couldn’t be helped that if you met with someone who had a cold, you’re also going to get sick. Handshaking was constant so at some point you were going to catch something.

”Beyond the safety aspect, many of the current real estate practices that were either introduced or accelerated during COVID-19 have also led to greater efficiencies and convenience for realtors and their clients, says Mr. Filntissis.

For example, virtual viewings – which have been around in real estate for some time – have made it easier for prospective buyers to decide whether or not a place is worth visiting.

Shorter appointments, which became the norm during COVID to allow for sanitizing between showings, have shown to be just as sufficient as the typical pre-pandemic one-hour visits.

”Now it’s 15 to 30 minutes which, quite frankly, is more than enough time for most people to look through a place and ask questions,” says Mr. Filntissis.

A minor change with major impact has been the switch from purchasers picking up the keys to their new abode from their lawyer’s office to simply taking it out of the lockbox on the property.

”That is not going away,” says Mr. Filntissis. “It’s very logical, it’s very efficient.”

Courtney Cooper, president of Proptech Collective – a Toronto-based group that connects real estate professionals, technology entrepreneurs and city builders – foresees technology being integrated into more parts of the buying and selling process in real estate.

She points to digital documents and signatures, which allow all parties to sign and seal the deal virtually, as an example of technology that took off during the pandemic and will likely become part of standard practice after.

Denise Craine and Jim Burtcher saw a whole new set of buying and selling rules that have come into play due to COVID.

Tannis Toohey(c)/The Globe and Mail

Digital mortgage platforms such as Homewise and Nesto, which help homebuyers find the best mortgage rates, will also be in greater demand post-pandemic, predicts Ms. Cooper, because they eliminate the hassle – and safety risk – of having to go to a bank to negotiate and sign a mortgage contract.

”I think we’re also going to start to see platforms that tie it all together so you can just go to one place to find and share listings, collaborate with your realtor, get a mortgage, sign the deal and transfer the deed,” says Ms. Cooper. “Right now you need to deal witheach person and company individually but over time all these parties will be more interconnected, and information that you’re providing to different parties today will be moved seamlessly.”

Virtual tours, whether offered as a 3D rendering of a space or through a video conference with a realtor, will also remain a regular part of what homebuyers can expect.

”We might even start to see self-touring here, like they do in the United States,” says Ms. Cooper. “We’ve been seeing more digital connected locks in the U.S., so access is automated, and people can come in using a passcode that’s set to work during a specific time.

”Some of these self-tours are augmented with smartphone audio tours that viewers can listen to as they walk through a property, says Ms. Cooper.

Virtual staging, which designs spaces using digital software that adds 3D furniture and, in some cases, even shows a property’s renovation potential by taking out walls or adding a swimming pool in the backyard, has been another winning technology during the pandemic.

Ibtisem Hamani, owner of Home Magic Touch Inc., a Toronto company that offers traditional and virtual staging services, says the latter accounted for about 10 per cent of sales before the pandemic.

“Then COVID hit, and it was unbelievable the number of orders we had for virtual staging,” she recalls. “The impact on our traditional staging business was immense – the split between our two businesses actually flipped, with virtual staging accounting for 90 per cent and traditional staging 10 per cent.”

In addition to the reduced risk and convenience of being able to show a home at its spiffed-up best on a digital platform, virtual staging offers significant cost-savings – less than $100 for one image versus between $2,000 to $3,000 for traditional staging, where rented furniture is trucked in, and a home is decorated professionally.

”We approach virtual staging like we do traditional staging – it’s all about the proper design and layout,” says Cos Pina, director of marketing at Home Magic Touch. “But the difference is that with virtual staging we have access to more than 3,000 pieces of 3D furniture.”

Ms. Hamani and Mr. Pina say they expect virtual staging to become even more popular in the post-pandemic future. They’re already planning to build on its success with an offering of augmented reality, where online viewers use virtual reality glasses for immersive walk-throughs of properties for sale.

While most home buyers and sellers seem to have embraced – or at least accepted – today’s COVID-driven protocols and processes in real estate, there are some practices that will likely not be missed after the pandemic is over.

Ms. Craine cites one example: when she was shopping around for home insurance, one insurer told her it would send over a property assessor who would inspect the house first-hand only from the outside. Ms. Craine and her husband would need to take the assessor on a virtual tour of their home’s interior.

”We would have to get on our phones and the assessor would direct us to parts of the house that he would want to see virtually,” recalls Ms. Craine. “I didn’t want to have to do that, so in the end we went with someone else.”

As a seller, Denise left cupboards and closet doors open so people wouldn’t have to touch them, and Lysol dispensers all over the house so people could disinfect any surfaces before they touched them.

Tannis Toohey(c)/The Globe and Mail

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Here are some facts about British Columbia’s housing market

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Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.

Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.

Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500

Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438

Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103

Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359

Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent

How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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B.C. voters face atmospheric river with heavy rain, high winds on election day

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VANCOUVER – Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.

Environment Canada says the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.

The agency says strong winds with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour will also develop on Saturday — the day thousands are expected to go to the polls across B.C. — in parts of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.

Wednesday was the last day for advance voting, which started on Oct. 10.

More than 180,000 voters cast their votes Wednesday — the most ever on an advance voting day in B.C., beating the record set just days earlier on Oct. 10 of more than 170,000 votes.

Environment Canada says voters in the area of the atmospheric river can expect around 70 millimetres of precipitation generally and up to 100 millimetres along the coastal mountains, while parts of Vancouver Island could see as much as 200 millimetres of rainfall for the weekend.

An atmospheric river system in November 2021 created severe flooding and landslides that at one point severed most rail links between Vancouver’s port and the rest of Canada while inundating communities in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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No shortage when it comes to B.C. housing policies, as Eby, Rustad offer clear choice

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British Columbia voters face no shortage of policies when it comes to tackling the province’s housing woes in the run-up to Saturday’s election, with a clear choice for the next government’s approach.

David Eby’s New Democrats say the housing market on its own will not deliver the homes people need, while B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad saysgovernment is part of the problem and B.C. needs to “unleash” the potential of the private sector.

But Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, said the “punchline” was that neither would have a hand in regulating interest rates, the “giant X-factor” in housing affordability.

“The one policy that controls it all just happens to be a policy that the province, whoever wins, has absolutely no control over,” said Yan, who made a name for himself scrutinizing B.C.’s chronic affordability problems.

Some metrics have shown those problems easing, with Eby pointing to what he said was a seven per cent drop in rent prices in Vancouver.

But Statistics Canada says 2021 census data shows that 25.5 per cent of B.C. households were paying at least 30 per cent of their income on shelter costs, the worst for any province or territory.

Yan said government had “access to a few levers” aimed at boosting housing affordability, and Eby has been pulling several.

Yet a host of other factors are at play, rates in particular, Yan said.

“This is what makes housing so frustrating, right? It takes time. It takes decades through which solutions and policies play out,” Yan said.

Rustad, meanwhile, is running on a “deregulation” platform.

He has pledged to scrap key NDP housing initiatives, including the speculation and vacancy tax, restrictions on short-term rentals,and legislation aimed at boosting small-scale density in single-family neighbourhoods.

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, meanwhile, says “commodification” of housing by large investors is a major factor driving up costs, and her party would prioritize people most vulnerable in the housing market.

Yan said it was too soon to fully assess the impact of the NDP government’s housing measures, but there was a risk housing challenges could get worse if certain safeguards were removed, such as policies that preserve existing rental homes.

If interest rates were to drop, spurring a surge of redevelopment, Yan said the new homes with higher rents could wipe the older, cheaper units off the map.

“There is this element of change and redevelopment that needs to occur as a city grows, yet the loss of that stock is part of really, the ongoing challenges,” Yan said.

Given the external forces buffeting the housing market, Yan said the question before voters this month was more about “narrative” than numbers.

“Who do you believe will deliver a better tomorrow?”

Yan said the market has limits, and governments play an important role in providing safeguards for those most vulnerable.

The market “won’t by itself deal with their housing needs,” Yan said, especially given what he described as B.C.’s “30-year deficit of non-market housing.”

IS HOUSING THE ‘GOVERNMENT’S JOB’?

Craig Jones, associate director of the Housing Research Collaborative at the University of British Columbia, echoed Yan, saying people are in “housing distress” and in urgent need of help in the form of social or non-market housing.

“The amount of housing that it’s going to take through straight-up supply to arrive at affordability, it’s more than the system can actually produce,” he said.

Among the three leaders, Yan said it was Furstenau who had focused on the role of the “financialization” of housing, or large investors using housing for profit.

“It really squeezes renters,” he said of the trend. “It captures those units that would ordinarily become affordable and moves (them) into an investment product.”

The Greens’ platform includes a pledge to advocate for federal legislation banning the sale of residential units toreal estate investment trusts, known as REITs.

The party has also proposed a two per cent tax on homes valued at $3 million or higher, while committing $1.5 billion to build 26,000 non-market units each year.

Eby’s NDP government has enacted a suite of policies aimed at speeding up the development and availability of middle-income housing and affordable rentals.

They include the Rental Protection Fund, which Jones described as a “cutting-edge” policy. The $500-million fund enables non-profit organizations to purchase and manage existing rental buildings with the goal of preserving their affordability.

Another flagship NDP housing initiative, dubbed BC Builds, uses $2 billion in government financingto offer low-interest loans for the development of rental buildings on low-cost, underutilized land. Under the program, operators must offer at least 20 per cent of their units at 20 per cent below the market value.

Ravi Kahlon, the NDP candidate for Delta North who serves as Eby’s housing minister,said BC Builds was designed to navigate “huge headwinds” in housing development, including high interest rates, global inflation and the cost of land.

Boosting supply is one piece of the larger housing puzzle, Kahlon said in an interview before the start of the election campaign.

“We also need governments to invest and … come up with innovative programs to be able to get more affordability than the market can deliver,” he said.

The NDP is also pledging to help more middle-class, first-time buyers into the housing market with a plan to finance 40 per cent of the price on certain projects, with the money repayable as a loan and carrying an interest rate of 1.5 per cent. The government’s contribution would have to be repaid upon resale, plus 40 per cent of any increase in value.

The Canadian Press reached out several times requesting a housing-focused interview with Rustad or another Conservative representative, but received no followup.

At a press conference officially launching the Conservatives’ campaign, Rustad said Eby “seems to think that (housing) is government’s job.”

A key element of the Conservatives’ housing plans is a provincial tax exemption dubbed the “Rustad Rebate.” It would start in 2026 with residents able to deduct up to $1,500 per month for rent and mortgage costs, increasing to $3,000 in 2029.

Rustad also wants Ottawa to reintroduce a 1970s federal program that offered tax incentives to spur multi-unit residential building construction.

“It’s critical to bring that back and get the rental stock that we need built,” Rustad said of the so-called MURB program during the recent televised leaders’ debate.

Rustad also wants to axe B.C.’s speculation and vacancy tax, which Eby says has added 20,000 units to the long-term rental market, and repeal rules restricting short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo to an operator’s principal residence or one secondary suite.

“(First) of all it was foreigners, and then it was speculators, and then it was vacant properties, and then it was Airbnbs, instead of pointing at the real problem, which is government, and government is getting in the way,” Rustad said during the televised leaders’ debate.

Rustad has also promised to speed up approvals for rezoning and development applications, and to step in if a city fails to meet the six-month target.

Eby’s approach to clearing zoning and regulatory hurdles includes legislation passed last fall that requires municipalities with more than 5,000 residents to allow small-scale, multi-unit housing on lots previously zoned for single family homes.

The New Democrats have also recently announced a series of free, standardized building designs and a plan to fast-track prefabricated homes in the province.

A statement from B.C.’s Housing Ministry said more than 90 per cent of 188 local governments had adopted the New Democrats’ small-scale, multi-unit housing legislation as of last month, while 21 had received extensions allowing more time.

Rustad has pledged to repeal that law too, describing Eby’s approach as “authoritarian.”

The Greens are meanwhile pledging to spend $650 million in annual infrastructure funding for communities, increase subsidies for elderly renters, and bring in vacancy control measures to prevent landlords from drastically raising rents for new tenants.

Yan likened the Oct. 19 election to a “referendum about the course that David Eby has set” for housing, with Rustad “offering a completely different direction.”

Regardless of which party and leader emerges victorious, Yan said B.C.’s next government will be working against the clock, as well as cost pressures.

Yan said failing to deliver affordable homes for everyone, particularly people living on B.C. streets and young, working families, came at a cost to the whole province.

“It diminishes us as a society, but then also as an economy.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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