West Coast waterfront lifestyle ›› p.5 Charter Pacific and Degelder Group offer new homes in New Westminster’s Marinus at Plaza 88. With a transit urban village at the doorstep and sweeping water and mountain views, homes are selling fast.
April 1, 2010
Home sales strong across Canada: report Housing market likely not as active in second half of 2010 TRICIA LESLIE
Sales manager Laura Cavanagh enjoys a flex space at Polygon Homes’ Wedgewood in North Vancouver. Flex spaces are increasingly popular in new homes and can be used in many ways, including as a home office, library, media room or display space . Rob Newell photo
Flex the usable space at home Allow your home to grow and change with your family MAGGIE CALLOWAY Flexible space, or flex space, is becoming common in new housing in Metro Vancouver. People are living in their homes in dif-
ferent ways than they did in previous years and homeowners need the freedom to adapt to different circumstances. Today’s flexible rooms mean more than the ability to turn an office quickly into a guest room by opening a sofa-bed; though the convenience of this ability is not lost, today homeowners need to be able to repurpose rooms as family needs change. Young families need space for a nursery and
playrooms that, as the children grow, need to change. A scary statistic reveals that 50 per cent of adult children return home within 30 months, sometimes with a spouse and child in tow, so room to grow and change becomes mandatory. At the other end of the spectrum, CONTINUED ON P.2
The Canadian housing market’s momentum has carried through into early 2010, with the sales transactions volume of January and February coming in only slightly below the near-record levels of late 2009, says a new Scotiabank report. The bank’s Global Real Estate Trends report, released last Tuesday, notes that Canada “still leads the pack” in housing market recovery among major developed countries. The average home listing price will reach a record level this year, the report predicts, and seller’s conditions will persist in most major centres across the country. Continued strong demand and high pricing is expected through the spring, especially given an expected rush of buyers hoping to pre-empt stricter qualifying criteria for insured mortgages effective April 19 as well as the July 1 introduction of the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) in B.C. and Ontario. The volume of home sales transactions will increase by 10 per cent compared to last year, the report speculates, and both prices and housing starts are expected to increase. But more subdued activity is expected in the housing market in the second half of the year, as higher interest rates and higher home prices erode affordability, the report says. Scotiabank expects lower sales volume, lower prices, and a decrease in new construction in 2011, and overall, a tamer market during this decade. “It is time for Canadians to reset their housing market expectations,” the report says. “We expect 2010 will mark a transition year as the boom of the ‘aughts’ gives way to a sustained period of more subdued housing activity for the coming decade.”