Vancouver Real Estate Outlook

September 21st, 2009 Categories: Real Estate

Every Fall I attend Ozzie Jurock’s “Real Estate Outlook” . On Saturday it was held at our new Convention Centre, which is truly a beautiful and very impressive building on the waterfront in Coal Harbour.

This is a quick summary of what I heard from Ozzie and Cameron McNeill of MAC Marketing Solutions The outlook for Vancouver real estate is cautiously optimistic, not full steam ahead yet, but bullish in the longer run. It’s a good time to be buying the right deal now.

“Real estate values grow where jobs and people go” said Ozzie and Vancouver had 17,000 net migration in the first quarter. Our population will double in the next 15-25 years, the largest growing city in Canada. The City is clean, safe , culturally diverse, has a limited land supply and is geographically astounding. It is now the second most dense city in North America – after Manhattan. We have surpassed San Francisco.

Cameron said the International buyers he deals with tell him that “Vancouver is the Swiss Bank account of International Real Estate”. Whose found Vancouver real estate? Asia Pacific, India, Iran, Russia and Mexico! The Hong Kong wave of the late ’80s was the first set of international buyers. We have since seen great wealth from Korea and Iran and currently China.

The activity leading up to and after the 2010 Olympics will be mostly local. The Olympics will at least double the number of people in the world that have heard of Vancouver and this will result in the growth going forward.

The next 10 years will be more exciting than the last ten as we see escalating demand. Five to seven years out you’ll be glad you bought today. Vancouver real estate is expected to benefit more from the Olympics than Whistler or recreational property.

What’s your opinion about the Olympics and its impact on our real estate?

The above photo is taken from my listing at Shangri-la, on the n.e. corner of the 53rd floor, 4500 sq.ft., listed at $5,890,000. Contact me for a showing.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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davers said:

“Our population will double in the next 15-25 years, the largest growing city in Canada.”

How could anyone possibly know that? Sure perhaps if the pace keeps up and nothing changes within that time it will happen but there is no way anyone could know that for sure. He seems to be saying that as if it is a hard fact that no one can deny.

“Five to seven years out you’ll be glad you bought today.”

I also have a very hard time believing this as interest rates will likely be higher than they are now. When someone goes to renew their mortgage in 5 years they could find themselves in a heap of trouble if interest rates return to a historically normal 8%. Even a low 6% renewal will still dramatically increase the average persons mortgage payemnt from what they are today.

# 28 September 2009 at 9:32 am

Bearish Since 2004, Looking For A Semblance Of Sanity in Vancouver RE « Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive said:

[...] [consider these quotes from realtor Maggie Chandler's website]: “Vancouver is the Swiss Bank account of International Real Estate”, “The Olympics will at [...]

# 28 September 2009 at 2:36 pm

Heinz Skitzvelvett said:

“second most dense city in North America”

unfortunate wording, given how much Vancouverites are willing to spend on real estate.

According to the 5th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, Vancouver is the 4th most unaffordable city in the world as measured against household income.

But keeping selling the promise of Vancouver despite this, as there are always people willing to listen.

# 1 October 2009 at 7:25 am

satv_not said:

second most dense city in North America

According to the 2006 census, Vancouver isn’t even the second most dense city in Canada!

City Density/sq. km
Toronto 866
Montreal 853
Vancouver 735

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/hlt/97-550/Index.cfm?TPL=P1C&Page=RETR&LANG=Eng&T=205&SR=1&S=10&O=D&RPP=33

# 1 October 2009 at 11:56 am

satv_not said:

Our population will double in the next 15-25 years, the largest growing city in Canada.

Ooooops. Wrong again… ☹

From above link, population growth rate from 2001-2006 census:

Calgary, AB 13.4%
Edmonton, AB 10.4%
Toronto, ON 9.2%
Vancouver, BC 6.5%

# 1 October 2009 at 12:02 pm

“I talk to builders and they are still going knocking at doors asking owners if they want to sell, so they can tear down and build a new house and sell it for a profit.” « Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive said:

[...] been highlighted in prior posts, as voiced by James Schouw, ‘Vancouver Rocks’, Bob Rennie, and Maggie Chandler, amongst others. [...]

# 20 January 2010 at 7:42 pm