The NDP Government just released there new budget and housing strategy for the province. In an attempt to try and cool the red hot Real Estate market and make homes more affordable they have introduced some new tax changes. They include: - Increasing the the foreign buyers tax from 15 to 20% and making it provide wide. - Increasing the PTT from 3% to 5% on homes over 3 Million. - A new speculation tax on home owners who do not file taxes in BC

My quarterly market update for 2018. Not much has changed over the past 3 years. Inventory remains ultra low and we continue to be in a strong sellers market for condos and townhomes. Until inventory levels start to build I’m not expecting much in the way of price relief. I also touch on how the new mortgage qualification rules are only perpetuating the problem.

This is a follow up blog to one I did entitled “Mixing millionaires with social housing” and why the city of Vancouver continues to build social housing in some of Canada’s and N. America's most expensive neighbourhoods for Real Estate. Would it not be better for the city to sell this expensive land to a developer... then take that money and build 3 times as many units in an area like Surrey?

A common question I receive from new real estate investors is "Should I hire a property manager to run my investment property or should I do it myself?" In this video I will go thru the advantages and disadvantages of both. I will also post links below to some of the other videos I have done on finding tenants and managing investment properties.

As I have been blogging about the last 4 months we are seeing a divergence in prices between condos and detached homes right now in the Greater Vancouver area. Downtown Vancouver condos, especially units priced under 1 million, continue to be at or near record setting prices, while detached homes are well off their highs from Spring 2016. I’m starting to see many younger and middle aged buyers moving away from the dream of owning a detached home in the suburbs and instead buying a condo in the downtown core and being more attracted to the lifestyle as opposed to the space and sq footage of a detached home. It will be interesting to see how this trend plays out over the next 5 to 10 years.

In this blog I forecast what I see playing out for the Vancouver condo and detached market in 2018. What effect will the new mortgage stress test have on demand as well as what’s in the cards with the NDP housing strategy due in February 2018.

Part 2 on my recent trip to NYC and the investment conference I attended. Another one of the key takeaways was the power of simply buying and holding quality assets and the fact that good things happen when you're in the market and simply stay in the market for long periods of time. From an equity standpoint some of the good things that happen to me on a regular basis are: Quarterly dividend payments Dividend increases Stock splits Stock buybacks Mergers and acquisitions, and Regular quarterly earning beats In Real Estate it’s things like: Monthly rent checks from my tenants Rent increases Land assemblies Re-zoning Strata buyouts and Overall long term appreciation on the properties I hold. I like to call it getting rich slowly ...

Sometimes I feel people take for granted how good we have it living in a city like Vancouver and the quality of life we enjoy here. Sure it’s expensive but I don’t know of any city in Vancouver's league that is cheap! You get what you pay for... Clean air and water, incredible mountain views, amenities at your doorstep, Stanley Park, the Seawall, mild winters, warm dry Summers, world class restaurants and outdoor sports. I could go on and on. The bottom line is if you want to live in one of the best cities in the world don’t expect Real Estate prices to ever be cheap. Vancouver has been discovered by the world and I only see that popularity growing over the coming decades.

In this blog I'm going to give you a late Christmas gift by discussing some of the mistakes I have made over the past 27 years as a Vancouver Real Estate investor. I’m under the belief that if you're not making mistakes you're not working hard enough. The key is that you learn from your mistakes. Here I hope you can learn from some of mine. Happy New Year!

In this blog I discuss the unprecedented demand for 1 bedroom units in Downtown Vancouver and why they have driven prices up dramatically over the past 2 years.