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REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE Surrey animal sanctuary a victim of land values
by Carlito Pablo
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Anonprofit that offers a healing place for humans and animals is at risk of losing its home, again.
This comes as Kindred Community Farm Sanctuary’s lease at its temporary location in Surrey runs out by the end of summer.
Moreover, the 1144 184 Street ranch has been put up for sale. The landowner is asking $7.5 million for the property.
This will be the second time in less than a year that Kindred may have to move.
In September 2021, the nonprofit formerly known as the Semiahmoo Animal League departed its old Surrey spot at 1965 176 Street.
Kindred had to leave its previous home as it could not meet demands for higher rent and to pay the owner’s property tax.
The group, founded by Keryn Denroche, provides a “forever home” for unwanted animals. The nonprofit uses its rescue animals to deliver therapy programs for children, teens, and adults who have witnessed violence or experienced trauma.
Its therapy animals include horses, cows, sheep, turkeys, chickens, ducks, rabbits, cats, guinea pigs, and others.
Kindred has been raising funds to buy what it calls online a “fur-ever home” of about four hectares (10 acres).
“Something more permanent is what the goal is, and owning property is the ultimate goal,” board president Karen Conyers told the Straight in a phone interview.
Conyers and her husband, Winston, are agents with Sotheby’s International Realty. She has been on the Kindred board since 2012 and has been president of the organization since 2015.
Conyers learned about Kindred when then–White Rock mayor Catherine Ferguson introduced her to Denroche in 2009. The realtor has a soft spot for animals, and she has been involved with the nonprofit ever since.
“I have always been a firm believer that animals enhance our lives,” Conyers said. She said that belief has to do with the way animals relate to people. “They love unconditionally, and you can trust them because they don’t go blabbing your secrets,” she said.
Conyers also explained the Kindred approach of using animal-assisted therapies.
“Children, adults—everybody in between, people in general, it doesn’t matter the age—often respond well to an animal much more so than a person because they’ve been hurt by people,” she said. “They’ve learned not to trust people at all.
“So in order to rebuild their sense of well-being, their sense of self-esteem, their sense of worth, animals come a long way to establish that initial contact, and they start to break through the barriers,” Conyers continued. “And once you start to break through the barriers, then it’s easier for people who have good intentions to help those who need it and get them on a different path.”
Kindred started working with children, especially kids on the run with their mothers from abusive husbands and fathers. The group later expanded its scope to include teens and adults.
“Even the volunteers, they say they get way more out of it more than it gives,” Conyers said about the experience that Kindred brings.
The nonprofit stayed at its former 176 Street location for six and a half years. Conyers said that the property was acquired by its owner in 2011 for $1.8 million. The value of the property has increased to more than $12 million in 10 years.
Kindred was asked to pay a higher rent as well as shoulder the property taxes of about $48,000 a year, according to Conyers. When the group indicated that it was unable to come up with more money, it was told to leave. “We’re a nonprofit, but they didn’t care,” Conyers said.
Kindred had to look for a temporary home, and it found its current location on 184 Street.
Conyers said the owner had told the organization that he had no intention of selling the property for at least several years as it was going to be an investment for his kids. But she noted that all that changed in January 2022 when the property was listed for $8.3 million.
A new listing on March 10 reduced the price to $7.5 million. Kindred is leasing about four hectares of the more than 17-hectare property.
The organization will have its annual general meeting in June this year, and Conyers will be retiring as president during that time. Conyers said she hopes that by that time, Kindred will have raised enough funds to get a mortgage for a property that will serve as its permanent home.
It wants to build a community farm, where it can expand its programs and bring in more animals.
Kindred needs $1 million, an amount that is less than the typical price of a de tached home in Metro Vancouver. g -
Kindred Community Farm Sanctuary is looking for a permanent home for its menagerie of rescue horses, dogs, rabbits, cats, and other animals that it uses to deliver therapy programs.
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HOUSING Interested in buying half a condo? Get a lawyer
by Carlito Pablo
Awoman and her son own a Vancouver condo downtown.
It’s only the mother who lives in the apartment, but she now has other plans.
“She just wants to go back to Hong Kong,” the woman’s realtor, Cass Lao, told the Straight in a phone interview.
On March 7, Lao listed the woman’s share in the two-bedroom and two-bath condo on the market. Her client is asking $280,000 for what Lao described as half of the property.
This piece of Vancouver real estate at 1608–63 Keefer Place is part of Europa, the high-rise and townhouse complex that represents the residential component of the International Village mall.
Lao’s listing is straightforward. It states that the “seller sells her share which is 50% of the interest”.
The listing urges potential buyers to “please ask for independent legal advice for the purchase”.
On the phone, Lao said that a buyer would need to enter into “some sort of agreement” with the woman’s son.
It’s what lawyer Ron Usher calls a coownership agreement. Usher is the general counsel of the Society of Notaries Public
On the 16th floor of the Europa complex is a twobedroom condo with one bedroom for sale. of B.C.
He explained that a co-ownership agreement lays down the obligations of all parties in the agreement. “You really got to get clear on things,” Usher told the Straight in a phone interview.
He pointed out that these responsibilities include, among other things, share in the mortgage, maintenance of the property, and an understanding about what happens when one or all of the parties want to end the agreement.
These things are “not just good ideas but legal obligations”.
“It just becomes much more important to get it in writing,” Usher said.
Usher noted that one advantage of entering into a co-ownership agreement is that it provides a way to get into the real estate market. Pooling resources make it more affordable for different households to own a home.
Usher said that the provincial government of Ontario has prepared a good guide about co-ownership agreements.
In addition to affordability, the document notes that this type of ownership arrangement also makes more efficient use of the housing stock. This means that “smaller households can maximize the space available in larger houses and heritage properties by co-owning them with others”.
Co-ownership also “enables groups of people to voluntarily create a community environment with facilities, indoor and outdoor common spaces and services that meet their needs”.
In the interview, Usher recalled an example involving two households that bought a detached home with separate entrances at 539 West 14th Street in North Vancouver.
The families lived in the same property for eight years, and during that time, their relationship deteriorated to a point that in 2016 one party asked the courts to dissolve their co-ownership agreement.
The property, which they purchased in 2008 at a price of $1,028,000, was eventually sold. The North Vancouver home has a 2022 assessment of $2,030,000.
“The market went up during the time they owned it, and even though it didn’t work out for them living together, in the end it was probably financially good,” Usher said.
Meanwhile, Lao—an agent for Sutton Group-West Coast Realty—said that she has received a number of inquiries regarding the half-condo at 1608–63 Keefer Place.
“It is a very good price,” Lao said about the $280,000 price tag. Plus, Lao noted that a buyer can move into the property.
But interested parties first have to consult a lawyer to “create an agreement that might work”.
As of February 2022, a typical condo on the East Side of Vancouver costs $678,900. On the West Side of the city, the benchmark price of a condo is $871,300. g
S
tudio SELLS FOR HALF-MILLION
d IT ISN’T BIG, so there’s “no wasted space” at this West End condo in Vancouver.
The listing stated that the 405-squarefoot studio is actually “spacious”.
“Stylish living area features cozy gas fireplace and Juliette [sic] balcony from which you’ll be able to soak in the vibrant downtown views,” the listing said about 1205-1003 Burnaby Street. (A Juliet balcony is a very narrow strip designed to give the appearance of a full balcony.)
The property forms part of the Milano, an 18-storey strata development by the Cressey Development Group.
It was listed on February 22 by Engel & Völkers Vancouver as a “perfect first home or investment”. The asking price was $498,000, and the studio unit sold this month for $514,000. That’s equivalent to $1,269 per square foot.
The 405-square-foot piece of Vancouver real estate has a 2022 assessment of $470,000
For perspective about sizes, a City of Vancouver staff report on a rental development in East Vancouver referred to the units as “relatively small”.
The units referenced included two-bedroom rentals with area measurements ranging from 532 square feet to 733 square feet. g by Carlito Pablo
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