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Competition heats up for multi-family sites in the region — locals say new offshore bidders part of it. But are they?

September 9th, 2015 · 7 Comments

Fresh off the UBC beat, I seem to have gotten embroiled in a few real-estate stories the last few days.

The talk of the town the last few months (well, really, since the Cambie corridor exploded from single family to multi-family, but even more so now) has been the intense competition for multi-family sites around town. I heard about it when I was working on the story I did about land assembly a few months ago. Brokers and developers in Surrey and Vancouver were talking about a new wave of investors. Then an architect mentioned the land assembly going on in North Vancouver, being done by some very young new offshore investors who were buying up homes around lower Lonsdale.

My stories this week explored some of that. Colliers came out with a report today about the jump in sales values of multi-family sites.

I also went looking for one of the “offshore” buyers being talked about. It turned out he was not quite as offshore as I’d imagined. Yes, Kevin Cheung is getting his equity stake from his dad’s development business in Shanghai. But he lives here, went to Churchill and UBC, and he and his wife just had a baby at St. Paul’s last week. So … a kind of new Vancouverite, with a foot each in two worlds. The story here.

I’m sure you all have a lot of thoughts about this. If we could keep it civil and factual, much appreciated.

 

 

Categories: Uncategorized

7 responses so far ↓

  • 1 peakie // Sep 9, 2015 at 11:43 am

    “multi-family” means land assembly of 3 or more lots, it seems.
    I see several in the East Side too, evident in their promotional real estate signs such as Nanaimo, 41st etc.
    New Coast ( 新海 ) RE agency off Kingsway Metrotown seems to be doing the same

    How much is washing money, or actual invesment, isn’t obvious.

    In an office along the shore of Lake Washington, a Chinese family considered whether to buy one of the new units under construction just next door, Saturday morning.
    If they decide to purchase, and it looked like they would, they’ll join a growing number of Chinese investors (some of whom are paying entirely in cash) who can’t seem to get enough real estate in the Seattle region, according to Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty.
    “We’ve been discovered as a relative value compared to the other West coast gateway cities, so this is on the rise,” said Dean Jones, CEO of Realogics.

    king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/08/29/chinese-investors-buy-into-local-real-estate/71401824/

    See many stories in Seattle Times by Sanjay Bhatt who covers real estate.
    seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/chinese-firm-local-partner-start-bellevue-apartment-project/

    Beijing-based Create World Group is developing the two-phase residential project north of Bellevue Square in a joint venture with Seattle-based Daniels Real Estate. While Chinese investors have bought commercial properties in the region, this is one of the first large projects in which a Chinese firm is developing real estate here.
    The first phase, a $65 million apartment building at 1019 103rd Ave. N.E. known as the Mirador, will be financed with cash from Chinese institutions and private-equity funds, officials said. The project’s second phase is a 17-story, 120-unit condominium tower that will be financed partly by wealthy individuals through the federal visa program known as EB-5.
    ….Since the early 1990s, wealthy immigrants have been able to obtain permanent-residency visas, also known as green cards, by investing in a U.S. commercial enterprise that creates at least 10 full-time jobs. Chinese immigrants now dominate that visa process.
    “This is the first EB-5 project in Bellevue,” Daniels said Monday.

    Canada is the main “culprit” in the U.S. for multi-housing.
    Foreign Flight Capital Favors U.S. Multi-Housing By Poonkulali Thangavelu, Contributing Editor Aug. 18, 2015
    multihousingnews.com/features/foreign-flight-capital-favors-u-s-multi-housing-investments/1004125645.html

  • 2 Ted Danton // Sep 9, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    living in a real estate mad city is a downer

  • 3 Lysenko's Nemesis // Sep 9, 2015 at 9:37 pm

    Great link!

  • 4 Roger_Kemble // Sep 15, 2015 at 11:02 am

    Multi family . . . http://www.theyorkshirelad.ca/towers/towers.html . . . is this multi-family?

  • 5 peakie // Sep 15, 2015 at 12:17 pm

    It seems that Mr. Kemble has been reading Monday’s Globe on new proposed residential towers in Coal Harbour with sheer sides.

    “Vancouver’s new condo proposals a stark break from past low-key style” by Frances Bula VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
    Last updated Sunday, Sep. 13, 2015 9:48PM EDT
    (In newspaper on Monday 14 Sept 2015)
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouvers-new-condo-proposals-a-stark-break-from-past-low-key-style/article26350057/

  • 6 Bill_McCreery // Sep 15, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    OK, and young, and many not so young Vancouverites want affordable housing…

  • 7 The Goat // Sep 15, 2015 at 5:56 pm

    Open question to any mayor who wants to answer: Please explain to me in detail how I personally am better off if I own a home (which I have no intention of selling) assessed at a little over $1 million while my grandchildren live in Chilliwack because that’s the best my kids can afford?

    I didn’t get my first house till I was 35 but I see little chance of my kids getting that opportunity in the next 10 years (which is about where they’ll be then)