With new legislation that requires an 80% vote to dissolve a strata as opposed to a 100% unanimous vote I’m starting to see listings on the MLS that have this built into their price as if it’s going to happen in the near future. People need to realize that it’s still quite difficult to dissolve an entire strata and sell it to a developer at a nice premium. The sale still needs to obtain court approval and any holdouts can state their case as to why they don’t want to sell. In my opinion we are not going to see many strata's sold for at least another 10 years. It’s certainly nice to buy into a strata that’s sitting on a large parcel of land in a prime location however I would never pay a premium on that unit today for something that ...

I'm starting to see many new luxury Vancouver condo developments containing a mix of social housing and market price units. Several new high rise towers approved for the west end will contain 60% social housing on the lower floors and 40% luxury units on the top floors. Call me old fashion but i’m not a fan of these types of developments. I would much rather see the city build social housing only developments and leave the luxury towers at 100% market price. How this mixing of millionaires and people on social assistance will work is yet to be seen. Stay tuned for future updates.

I’m advising my clients in most cases to avoid buying a Vancouver Pre-sale condo until further notice. The buying opportunities on pre-sale open and close all the time the last prime buying window was Fall 2015. Since then the window has slammed shut and I would stay away. The current pre-sale offerings are in my option overpriced. Many are in poor locations and there is simply too much risk in buying today and not getting the keys for 3 years. Remember a pre-sale purchase is only as good as what’s available in the tangible move-in now market. In my eyes I see far better values in the tangible market right now.

In the Summer of 2016 I did several blogs on steps the Federal Government should take to start levelling the playing field between local and foreign buyers in Vancouver. There are a number of problems I have been seeing over the past 2 or 3 years. The main one is one principal buyer (wage earner) buying multiple homes and designating them as principal residence in family members names. My simple solution is, if you buy a house in Canada then you have to file a Canadian tax return and purchase the house with after tax income. This would eliminate the abuse of the principal residence exemption and put billions of dollars into the general tax coffer for things like roads, schools, hospitals and social housing.

In this blog I’m going to address some recent comments from my Youtube channel. I will also discuss the current state of the Vancouver market and why, when we finally do get a correction it won’t be as a result of lack of demand or desire to own a home. It will more than likely be a temporary correction as a result of the provincial and federal governments implementing more restrictions to curb that demand. I would look at any short term pullbacks as excellent buying opportunities provided you have a long term holding period which you should always have when buying your principal residence.

We are proud to announce that this Nov 12th, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM we will be hosting an Open House at 24 6110 138 STREET in the Sullivan Station neighborhood, Surrey. This is an opportunity to visit this excellent Townhouse for sale in beautiful Sullivan Station.Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Sullivan Station Townhouse for sale.As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604 889-1118 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.Owen BiglandMacdonald Westmar

There was a recent story in the Vancouver Sun of a buyer who purchased a pre-sale condo in the Trump Tower and put down her first deposit payment of $275,000. For whatever reason prior to the second deposit being due, the buyer decided they did not want to go thru with the purchase and decided to not pay the second deposit. This was a critical mistake! By doing this she was in breach of the contract and immediately forfeited the deposit. She should have consulted a lawyer who would have explained her legal liabilities and her options. The lesson to be learned is never buy a pre-sale unit directly from the developer. Always use a Realtor who will give you fiduciary duty and legally represent you in the transaction. Remember, once you ...

There are plenty of good reasons to sell a home. There are also plenty of bad ones. The one I see the most is investors selling good investment properties after only holding them for a year or two. In my new book "Along for the Ride", I call it playing small. You're only in the first inning of a nine inning game. Why not keep the property rented and wait for the BIG payday in 20 or 25 years? Here is a short excerpt from Chapter 3 where I talk about avoiding the temptation of playing small: Leverage means being able to do things with your money that would normally be impossible. Real estate gives you ample opportunities for leverage. Chapter One demonstrated this with the example of buying a condo. We saw that you could pay 5% of a co ...

We are proud to announce that this Nov 5th, 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM we will be hosting an Open House at 24 6110 138 STREET in the Sullivan Station neighborhood, Surrey. This is an opportunity to visit this excellent Townhouse for sale in beautiful Sullivan Station.Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Sullivan Station Townhouse for sale.As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604 889-1118 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.Owen BiglandMacdonald Westmar

Are you wondering how it’s possible that Vancouver condo prices just keep going up and up? Local agent Owen Bigland says it’s all to do with the huge demand and lack of inventory, leading to multiple-bid scenarios with offers over asking – and then agents using comparative pricing on the units that follow. Speaking on the September 16 edition Real Estate Therapist show on Roundhouse Radio 98.3FM, Bigland explained that there’s an upward spiral effect on prices in a competitive market. He cites a real-life example of a series of condos in the same New Westminster building, each selling for higher than the last over just a few months. Here's a link to the show where Owen discusses this and other real estate topics: http://bit.ly/2xOEZl ...