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.

Like everyone else, my stock portfolio has taken a real beating the past 4 weeks. Like most seasoned investors who have been thru market corrections worse than this, I have not panicked or sold even 1 share. Instead I have been using these reduced stock prices as buying opportunities and locking in some once in a lifetime dividend yields moving forward. As a long time dividend growth investor and Real estate investor (over 30+ years) i have never concerned myself with my portfolios day to day value. Instead I focus on the passive income flows that my investment properties and stocks produce for me every year. Looking at your investments this way will help you stay the course and not panic when we get sharp sell offs like we are havin ...

It’s way way too early for me to speculate on the long term repercussions the Corona Virus will have on Vancouver Real Estate if any. We are in an unprecedented situation with things changing every hour. What I will do in this blog is give you a timeline of the past week, March 16-22. For me it was still business as usual and an active week of sales and offers. This could all come to a crashing halt soon or the market could continue to roll along but at a much slower pace?? Right now I have no idea what tomorrow may bring .. nobody does and anyone trying to make long term predictions on where this is going is simply guessing. What I can predict is we will get Corona under control and things will return back to normal.. How long it wi ...

Wanted to keep you updated on several tax situation updates. Buyers need to be cautious when writing an offer on a condo that is less than 1 year old as GST may be payable to the new buyer even though the seller had already paid GST on completion. The NDP has extended the exemption on the BC spec tax for Strata’s that have a rental restriction in place for another year.

Here is a follow up to the blog I did last month on the large insurance premium increases many Strata’s have been receiving recently. I have consulted several property managers and home inspectors and there could be solutions on the way.