According to those in the know, Penticton is quickly becoming the next major investment hub in the Okanagan.
Western Investor magazine ranks the city at number four on its list of five top towns for real estate investors in 2023, and an article by Vancouver real estate firm Maude, MacKay and Co. calls the region a property “hotspot.”
Both entities point to Penticton’s location, surrounded by lakes and mountains, and growing housing and economic opportunities as just some of the reasons to invest in the South Okanagan community.
“We’ve been seeing, really for the last two years, that Penticton is our favourite market in the valley,” says Shane Styles, president of Epic Real Estate Solutions.
A recent call from a Vancouver client, who vacationed in Penticton as a child and is now looking for property opportunities, confirmed to Styles that the area is on many investors’ radar.
“I tell you I can mix and repeat that story a hundred times. Penticton has all the amenities of a larger centre but with a small town feel. Demand drives interest.”
One of the areas that interests Styles, in particular, is the North Gateway Plan in the northeast corner of the city. Penticton has invested more than $200 million to create the South Okanagan Events Centre Campus which features an aquatic centre, ice rink, convention centre, casino and curling club. There is also the future opportunity for two new NHL-sized rinks next to the convention centre.
On the housing side, the city’s plan is to increase the density that currently exists, around 300 residential units, up to 2,200 new residential units at full build-out.
“Buy where the demand is going to be the greatest in the future,” adds Styles. “Where a city is putting recreation and entertainment amenities, parks, beaches and active transportation corridors.”
He illustrates his point by referencing Kelowna’s investment along the Abbott Street corridor.
“Anybody who purchased in or along Abbott in advance of the city adding new beaches, the largest recreational corridor, they have all benefited from that because it draws people to that area. The North Gateway Plan will be the same experience in Penticton.”
Styles says he also sees better opportunities in Penticton than in Kelowna for a wide range of investors.
“There’s a wider bandwidth of approachable prices to get into the market. You can still get housing in the mid $200,000 to low $300,000 range. Those opportunities don’t exist anymore in Kelowna. If you’ve got $1.2 million and want to buy a house…and subdivide into a couple of lots you can do that in Penticton as well.”
The opportunities in Penticton are drawing many, generally younger people, to the city, according to Styles.
“New people are coming from bigger cities because Penticton has all the assets of a larger urban centre, but they can get their foot in the door.”
He also points out that it’s just a great city to be in.
“It punches above its weight for a small community with entertainment, an events centre, lakes, wineries and brewpubs. There is a whole food, wine and culinary culture in Penticton that I think is unique to the entire valley.”
Styles adds that Penticton does remind him of Kelowna eight to 10 years ago.
“It’s not going to be Kelowna. It’s always going to have its own feel, flair and flavour. It’s a market that’s forecast to be one of the fastest growing in the valley. There are a lot of eyeballs on Penticton.”
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.
