Real Estate in qathet

Real estate season 2024 begins

1. A new flipping tax

20% of profits: that’s how much you’ll be charged by the BC Government starting April 1, if you sell a home within a year of buying it. The long-awaited tax was included in the BC Budget 2024. Flip it during year two and you’ll still lose money, but less.

2. Half off that basement suite

Again, the big spenders at the Province of BC are offering homeowners 50%, up to $40,000, when you build a basement suite. Applications open April 17. There are some conditions, of course, but not as many as you might guess. See bchousing.org.

3. Interest rates are still the big story

From 0.25% in Feb 2022 to 5% in July 2023, these hikes, combined with skyhigh prices, are crushing ownership dreams from coast to coast. Some economists are predicting they’ll plummet to 2.5% by the end of 2025.

Property taxes vs. gas prices

BY PIETA WOOLLEY | LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

You can save thousands by living outside the City limits. But commuting in a gas guzzler will eat your wallet.

Drive off the ferry at Saltery Bay, and the first house you’ll see is Sunny Dawn Kostelnik’s. You can tell it belongs to the Realtor because it has a huge sign on the front lawn advertising her business: 2% Realty.

Every day, she drives to her office at Marine and Alberni and back home again - sometimes twice in a day, if her clients need her.

Even with the price of gas at $189.9 at press time, it’s still cheaper for her to live 31 kilometres south of town and commute, than for her to live in Westview.

Why? Because of the taxes.

“Living in the Regional District we don’t have the taxes or the services,” said Sunny Dawn. “We pay for garbage. Insurance is higher. There’s no fire protection. If there’s a fire, we take care of it or we let it burn.”

Where Sunny Dawn lives, in Area C, taxes are the lowest of any area on the mainland of qathet.

For a $600,000 home in Saltery Bay, if the owner lives there and is 65 or over - as Sunny is - property taxes are just $892 a year. That’s about a quarter of City taxes for the same-value property, which are $3,669.

Both the Regional District and the City of Powell River are currently in the process of figuring out how much they’ll have to charge homeowners for property taxes for 2024.

Sunny Dawn says the lower-taxes-more-driving formula works for her, where she is, and given what she pays for property taxes (which she is not sharing). But it’s not a calculation that’s the same for everyone shopping for a home.

“For people who are retired, it doesn’t get a lot cheaper than living outside the city,” she said, noting that the seniors grant makes a big difference.

However, how people choose homes really comes down to lifestyle. “A lot of people want to be able to walk to the store or park. If they’re living in town, they can save money by losing a car, buying a bike.”

No potential qathet residents have ever decided to not move here because taxes are so high, Sunny Dawn says. And although it’s a consideration, most homebuyers don’t make their decisions based on taxes, either.

That’s not true, however, with those seeking commercial real estate. After she moved here from the Yukon, she helped several of her old neighbours search for potential storefronts to buy or rent, to open small businesses here.

They bristled at the price of commercial taxes in the City, she said. The building she owns at Marine and Alberni was assessed at $264,000 last year. Her property taxes on it were $6,100 – or about $500 per month.

“I’m not pointing fingers. I know we need taxes to support our way of life,” she said. “But prospective investors take a deep breath in when we’re talking local taxes.”

|| pieta@prliving.ca