Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Brentwood is miserable. It's nice maybe 2 or 3 months out of a year. In the winter it's wet. The way the buildings are laid out causes a funneling effect and the wind just whips around stronger than it should.

In the summer there's barely any tree cover and you are just getting cooked on the hot pavement.

All the town centres in Burnaby are interesting in theory - the architect drawings made it seem so nice - but in reality they are super shitty places to be around. While Vancouver city planners are super anal about things their Burnaby counterparts are just lazy - Vancouver creates walkable, people sized neighbourhoods while Burnaby just creates what will become ghettos in 50 years (the same could be said for Coquitlam's town centre - it's also terrible).

Highgate/Edmonds is the only one that's sorta ok - they put a community centre near the centre and there's lots of small ethnic businesses that still exist along Edmonds that give it some character.

[Hakkaboy]

Originally Posted by quasi

I received my property tax assessment, it went up $45 which is the smallest increase I've seen years, not sure I'd call it a win but I've been seeing $350-400 increases the last bunch of years.

Lucky. Ours went up by 9% this year and it's just a 30yr old TH in Richmond.

Since we purchased this TH about 5 years ago, our property taxes net of HOG has gone up 51%.

I'm going to guess that if condo values continue on their current trend, we might see an even higher % increase next year =(

[6793026]

Is that how it works? man the apartment trends are dropping, maybe it'll go down?

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by supafamous

All the town centres in Burnaby are interesting in theory - the architect drawings made it seem so nice - but in reality they are super shitty places to be around. While Vancouver city planners are super anal about things their Burnaby counterparts are just lazy - Vancouver creates walkable, people sized neighbourhoods while Burnaby just creates what will become ghettos in 50 years (the same could be said for Coquitlam's town centre - it's also terrible).

Highgate/Edmonds is the only one that's sorta ok - they put a community centre near the centre and there's lots of small ethnic businesses that still exist along Edmonds that give it some character.

I do not look forward to when they do the high street redevelopment of Metrotown. Station Square has been mostly a disaster as it suffers from the same funneling effect that Brentwood does. Traffic is terrible especially with all the speed bumps and the choke point that is Kingsborough and Silver.

I grew up going to Metrotown. I'm going to miss it dearly when they tear it down.

[unit]

not a fan of brentwood or any of these planned neighbourhoods like the river district, lougheed, surrey hub, etc...

nothing organic or culturally interesting about them at all, they were all made in a lab.

[GS8]

Originally Posted by supafamous

Burnaby just creates what will become ghettos in 50 years (the same could be said for Coquitlam's town centre - it's also terrible).

Coquitlam's is probably the worst because of land limitation / geography. They took a beautiful landscape and shoehorned glass and concrete phalluses in a small area and the area is nowhere near completion (will it ever be) ?

And ironically, the highest crime rate is there! Within walking distance of the RCMP / City Hall building

I grew up there too. Watched it change. Even 30 years ago, I asked myself 'wtf are they designing here?' It absolutely won't be sustainable in the long run. These buildings will get taken over by the successors to places like Atira and Hollyburn. The condo market has changed so drastically within the last year that all this new inventory going up with now outdated floor plans will just be laughed at if the prices don't plummet.

EDIT: Regarding River District, my friend has a 2 bed / 2 bath condo there. He's been living there for 8 years now and currently pays $1100 / month strata fees! All the foresight of Andrea Bocelli.

[unit]

$1100 is actually insane.. i know those townhouses attached to condos are usually 1k and up but for a box in the sky that seems so wrong

[Hondaracer]

lol 1100.. why even bother

[Badhobz]

wtf do they do with that 1k a month ?!? Cut grass ?!? They better come into your house and do the cleaning too for that kind of money.

[bcrdukes]

$1100/month? Is this Toronto?

[Hondaracer]

A guy I did some work for at one of those older developments on quayside drive had a huge appartment in one of the 4 storey low rises, was like a 2000+ sq fr appt 3 bedroom it was huge

I asked him how much he paid in strata and he said $800 like 5 years ago and the only “amenity” they had was a massive broken fountain in the middle of the property that leaked into the parkade lol..

[EvoFire]

River District was already ridiculous when it was in pre-sale. We went to take a look at it as we were in the market and they wanted something like 6x cents per sqft for strata fee. Let's say at 65cents, a 2 bed 700 sqft unit would cost you almost $500 to start, and it'll only go up from there.

Parking was limited as most units only has 1 spot, some had no spots at all. Again a ridiculous development decision considering there's no way out of River District if you don't have a car.

The developer was promising buses at the presale. I still don't think it has a bus, and the 100 doesn't stop near there either. The developer also tried to sell the buyers that there'll be an elementary school. So far CoV has shown no plans to build a school in that area for the foreseeable future. We are in the Oppenheimer catchment, together with Cook, and Champlain Heights Annex, lots of kids are thrown to out of catchment schools.

They are building a community center though, which would be very much needed for the amount of kids that are in that little community.

[bcrdukes]

Are there any schools serving that community? I imagine (with limited knowledge) parents have to haul their kids up the hill to neighbouring schools. Would the closest high school be David Thompson or Killarney?

[Mikoyan]

There's supposed to be plans for a HS in The River District plans.

The issue is the city won't build anything till they absolutely have to. They're finally building an elementary school for Olympic Village... Due to open in 2029.

[Mikoyan]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

Are there any schools serving that community? I imagine (with limited knowledge) parents have to haul their kids up the hill to neighbouring schools. Would the closest high school be David Thompson or Killarney?

The parents do a group walk from River District up the hill to the Champlain. I hear they call it the Walking School Bus.

[6793026]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

River District was already ridiculous when it was in pre-sale. We went to take a look at it as we were in the market and they wanted something like 6x cents per sqft for strata fee. Let's say at 65cents, a 2 bed 700 sqft unit would cost you almost $500 to start, and it'll only go up from there.

Parking was limited as most units only has 1 spot, some had no spots at all. Again a ridiculous development decision considering there's no way out of River District if you don't have a car.
.

There was an article in Van Sun - developer paying city back for not being able to build social housing... so good luck with that.


65 cents 2 bedroom 700sq for $500 is not bad.
You have to build contingency .. so I sucked it up before.
Now if you have a pool + gym + basketball court / golf stimulation machine + concierge well that's what's you / owners are paying for.

Can't complain on that. You get what you pay for.
If you don't use it.. well then that's ur problem.

You think you have it bad? You know the burrard location? Sen̓áḵw band is building 4 stories and because they are 1st nations, they don't have to abide to nothing. I was told there are limited parking spaces (to be confirmed) - as in 3 units to 1 spot.. HOLY F.

[unit]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

A guy I did some work for at one of those older developments on quayside drive had a huge appartment in one of the 4 storey low rises, was like a 2000+ sq fr appt 3 bedroom it was huge

I asked him how much he paid in strata and he said $800 like 5 years ago and the only “amenity” they had was a massive broken fountain in the middle of the property that leaked into the parkade lol..

new west tends to be a lot higher strata all around. not sure why

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by Mikoyan

There's supposed to be plans for a HS in The River District plans.

The issue is the city won't build anything till they absolutely have to. They're finally building an elementary school for Olympic Village... Due to open in 2029.

The city has no money to build schools. The schools are almost entirely dependent on development fees.

We have some friends that live by Kingsway and Fraser, and they are proposing sky scrapers where there used to be only zoning for townhomes. The community has pushed back hard on the idea and a huge part of it is the lack of schools for the number of units being built. The answer is always the same, the schools will be built AFTER the developments are.

[GS8]

My other friend who lives at River District said they built a rental building for the low income people and it's 'changed' the atmosphere a little. He said he doesn't let his kids out anymore because of the needles, more dog shit (there was plenty before but now there's way more apparently) and these new tenants tend to yell a lot. Have to take the kids to the park to get their energy out (when it's not pissing rain).

As for my friend paying $1100 / month, he lives in a smaller building with fewer units. My first friend I mentioned is in a TH and his strata is $700, but he paid a little over mill for it 1.5 years ago. He has no choice but to rent an extra parking stall and is paying $120 / month for it

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

The city has no money to build schools. The schools are almost entirely dependent on development fees.

We have some friends that live by Kingsway and Fraser, and they are proposing sky scrapers where there used to be only zoning for townhomes. The community has pushed back hard on the idea and a huge part of it is the lack of schools for the number of units being built. The answer is always the same, the schools will be built AFTER the developments are.

My understanding about school construction is that the forecasting model is based strictly on existing population versus projected growth thus schools always come late. Some of it is bullshit but it's also reflective of the conservatism of public infrastructure projects - we build Skytrain lines and highways after demand has been proven (this wasn't true for the OG Expo or OG Millennium line but has been true ever since)

[Hondaracer]

Like in a way it kind of makes sense.. but at the same time when has there ever been a new school constructed that isn’t instantly at capacity. Seems like the type of thing you could “risk” building and sooner than later it would fill up

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

River District was already ridiculous when it was in pre-sale. We went to take a look at it as we were in the market and they wanted something like 6x cents per sqft for strata fee. Let's say at 65cents, a 2 bed 700 sqft unit would cost you almost $500 to start, and it'll only go up from there.

...

They are building a community center though, which would be very much needed for the amount of kids that are in that little community.

I generally hate the idea that the River District exists for all the reasons stated - super car centric, no transit, no schools, lack of parking, out of the way etc but I will admit that the core of it has turned out pretty decent. It's got a solid offering of restaurants, a Save-On, a great liquor store, Shoppers etc and it's quite walkable (could use more tree cover though) and does have decent views.

If they ever add a proper bus line (the 30 and 80 are kinda useless) through there and get a school in place I think it'll actually turn out to be a decent neighbourhood.

FWIW, the Joyce/Collingwood area has turned out to be a pretty good neighbourhood minus the lack of street level retail along Vaness. Nice big park space in the middle, decent amenities, and great transit. Everything up to Kingsway should have been rezoned though to allow for at least low rises.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Like in a way it kind of makes sense.. but at the same time when has there ever been a new school constructed that isn’t instantly at capacity. Seems like the type of thing you could “risk” building and sooner than later it would fill up

Yeah, population growth forecasting is one area that we generally are pretty good at making so there's very little reason we couldn't build for future capacity and not too be too far off. Vancouver is the only city (and most on the west side) where they're seeing shrinkage in the number of kids attending school (families are priced out of the west side) but otherwise population growth is pretty consistent with expected number of children.

[carsncars]

Schools are one (of several) reasons we started looking in North Burnaby/Willingdon Heights but then ended up in Marpole. Alpha Secondary/Burnaby North are already over capacity and there does not appear to be any sort of plan to increase capacity, despite the huge increases in density in the area. I'm sure Churchill will face the same with the Marine Gateway and Oakridge density but to a lesser extent as Vancouver has more numerous secondary schools to spread the load.

Other reasons we decided against North Burnaby: you get the suburb style need to drive everywhere but still have a Vancouver style lot/house, relatively poorer transit once you're away from the Skytrain line, and the SFH values were only slightly more affordable than e.g. Marpole.

[Badhobz]

Who cares about schools. All public schools are garbage anyways. Even the local secondary institutions are garbage. Watching parents clamour on and on about schools like it’s a big deal makes me laugh every time.

Either your kids can get into an Ivy League school and then props. Or they should go to bcit, grab a red seal, and get working asap. Anything else is horseshit and useless.

Take it from a guy who went to stupid fuckers university with a BA in history and philosophy. Me educated gud.