The many ways to own or live on properties

Firstly let us look at freehold properties. Freehold ownership is the most common in Vancouver. It entitles the homeowner to have their name on title as full owner of the land and the improvements (house) on the land. If it is a condo that is being purchased, a freehold ownership gives you full ownership of your unit and a portion of the land and common areas depending on your unit of entitlement in the building. Basically, the larger the unit, the more land and common area you own.

Next we have leasehold properties. Leaseholds comprise a much smaller percentage of home sales in Vancouver and can be found in strata properties on leasehold land, co-operatives on leasehold lands and even mobile homes on rented pads. For the purposes of this column, a leasehold is a home where the land is being leased usually from the government or as is also common in Vancouver, a native band, for a defined period of time. When purchasing a leasehold,

Condo-mania returns as buyers seek bargains in Metro Vancouver

Sales agent Cam Good said the 55 units on offer were part of a series of several hundred units to be sold across Metro Vancouver by the developer.

"Everyone you see in line here is guaranteed a 25 per cent discount and some other people that come to our Wednesday night event at Cedar Brook will get even deeper discounts," said Good.

All the units were snapped up in less than three hours, and the new owners will get to move into their homes next month, the company said.

Vancouver realtor live-streams online

Forget the pretty calendars, ditch the property cards dropped through the mailbox. Today's real estate digerati are turning to the virtual world to find real-world buyers.

Vancouver realtor Kye Grace is part of the trend, turning to social media to sell in a downturned market with a 72-hour open house to be video-streamed live over the Internet, starting Friday.

In cyber-twist on the old-style afternoon open house, Grace will lock himself up in an almost $1-million Gastown apartment and broadcast over the Internet for three straight days and nights.

Big sale as developer liquidates local units

Onni’s liquidation sale comes as the once hot Lower Mainland real estate market cools down amidst a global economic downturn. According to the company’s media release, the financial benefits of selling the properties at reduced prices outweigh the costs of holding on to the properties in hopes of getting a higher price.

At the Suter Brook development in PoMo, two-bedroom apartments once valued at $453,900 will now sell for $340,000 while 655 foot studio apartments, originally priced at $319,000, will now sell for approximately $240,000. In PoCo, a 1,000 square foot unit at South Verde, originally expected to fetch $389,000 will now sell for approximately $280,000.

The sale will also include other properties in the Metro Vancouver area, totalling more than 375 condominium suites worth close to $150 million.

Vancouver to borrow $360M for Olympic village

VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) — The city of Vancouver will borrow more than $360 million to ensure the $800-million athletes village will be built for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

British Columbia politicians voted unanimously Sunday to support legislation that allows Vancouver to borrow the money without going to a public referendum.

Politicians debated the bill for about 20 hours straight. Opposition New Democrats had accused the government of hiding the costs of the Vancouver Olympics.

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said the legislation will allow 2,000 construction workers to keep their jobs and continue a building project that will enhance the city's waterfront.

House sales come tumbling down

The flood of grim economic news continued yesterday as the B.C. Real Estate Association reported that home sales tumbled 33 per cent last year.

Residential sales across the province plunged to 68,923 units in 2008, the lowest level since 2000 when 54,179 transactions were posted, the association said.

The average home price in 2008 was $454,599, up 3.5 per cent from 2007.

Metro Vancouver to see deepest property-price dip nationally

Metro Vancouver's home prices rose the highest in Canada's property boom and will fall the farthest in its correction, real estate firm Royal LePage has forecast.

Royal LePage Real Estate Services, in its 2009 market survey forecast released today, predicts that Metro's average home price will decline nine per cent in 2009 to $540,100 from a 2008 forecast of $593,500.

That will be almost three times deeper than the national average decline for 2009 of three per cent, which should bring the average home price down to $295,000 nationally.

Metro Vancouver home equity takes a huge hit

The decline of the Lower Mainland's real estate market continued in October with the fall in prices erasing any equity gains homeowners saw in the first part of 2008, the region's real estate boards reported Monday.

Battered consumer confidence, despite B.C.'s better-than-average economic performance, kept buyers on the sidelines with the Greater Vancouver region recording less than half the number of Multiple-Listing-Service sales and the Fraser Valley experiencing an almost 50-per-cent decline from October 2007 sales levels.

"It's not like the market has disappeared and people aren't buying," Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate at the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C., said in an interview.