The Vancouver Real estate market continues to be in a holding pattern with sales and activity levels still down about 80%. Real estate is considered an essential service but Open Houses are still not allowed and there are a number of restrictions on how Realtors are permitted to show properties. There have also been a number of changes to the Tenancy Laws in BC. The main one being that a tenant is no longer required to vacate the property with 2 clear months notice. This makes trying to sell a tenanted property a very difficult task and can also expose the seller to legal risk when trying to show the property.

As we move into 2020 I’m starting to receive more strata insurance renewals. Most of the Downtown strata’s I’m following are seeing their premiums going up between 75-100% and their deductibles doubling. There are some outliers that have had claims that are much much higher including one in Brentwood that had a 345% increase. This brought the strata’s annual insurance bill up to $500,000 and a tripling of their deductibles to $150,000 for water damage.

Well it's started... we're only 30 days into the current COVID-19 lockdown and I'm already seeing articles calling for the collapse of the Vancouver Real Estate market. My advice is to ignore these types of fear inducing articles that are short on facts and often written by people who have strong biases towards seeing the market go down.

Disclaimer We are in unprecedented times with the current COVD-19 lockdown and its effect on the world's economies. At this point I’m quite certain that most of the world including Canada will be put into a recession that could last many many years. Some people are going to be heavily impacted financially others will be less effected. I’m confident that like all the other previous recessions and financial meltdowns, we will get thru this. People are still going to be saving for retirement, buying homes, and investing. In this blog I will highlight some of the benefits in simply buying and holding high quality equities that not only pay a quarterly dividend but also raise it every year by 2-3 times more than the current rate of inflat ...

Right now the Vancouver Real Estate Market continues to be in a holding pattern with all the major brokerage offices closed, open houses banned and activity levels down 80-90%. For that reason, I have taken most of my listings off the market and I'm not listing any new homes or condos until we start to see activity levels increase.

Bank of Montreal said on Saturday it will temporarily reduce credit card interest rates to 10.99 per cent for personal and small business customers receiving payment deferrals due to the outbreak. Bank of Nova Scotia announced the same change on Friday. They joined Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, National Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, who announced similar measures. TD Bank said it will cut credit card interest rates by 50 per cent for customers experiencing hardship, and Royal Bank said it will reduce the charges by the same extent for clients receiving minimum payment deferrals. Even with these reductions to clients who are making minimum payments these rates are insane!

The March 2020 statistics were just released by the Vancouver Real Estate Board, and as expected they are showing a very strong market that heavily favours sellers with both sales and prices up. Inventory continues to be low and most good condos are receiving multiple offers. I think this is about to slide off a cliff moving forward. We are currently in a state of emergency and lock down with all the brokerages currently closed until further notice. For the next 30-60 days we are going to see very few homes listed or sold. I do see the market and activity to pick up quickly once we are not in a state of emergency and social distancing is relaxed.