Video Blog – New Feature on Balasabas.com for Investors searching for Rental Properties
Blog #9 – November 30, 2009
Rob Balasabas of the Balasabas Real Estate Team video blogs about the new tool on www.Balasabas.com that will make it easier for Investors searching for Rental Properties in the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley area.
If you agree or disagree with our take on this Vancouver Real Estate issue, send your email to rob@balasabas.com or visit http://balasabas.com/video-blogs.html for all of our Real Estate Video Blogs.
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Blog #8 – November 29, 2009
Rudy Balasabas of the Balasabas Real Estate Team blogs about the Harmonized Sales Tax (which is set to take effect on July 1, 2010) and what it means for Vancouver Real Estate.
If you have any questions or would like more information on the HST or any other taxes concerning Real Estate, send your email to rudy@balasabas.com or visit http://balasabas.com/video-blogs.html for all of our Real Estate Video Blogs.
Investors brave the rain for shot at a pre-sale
The buzz is back.
In scenes rarely seen since the Vancouver real-estate market peaked in early 2008, a horde of hungry investors lined up for hours in a downpour Saturday to get first dibs on pre-sale condo units in a tower to be erected in Yaletown.
Cam Good, who is heading up marketing for “The Mark” by Onni, said some investors even slept outside Friday night to ensure prime line-up positions.
“We’re blown away by the turnout,” Good said from inside the downtown pre-sale centre as about 50 investors scrambled around a model of the building.
He said 190 units in the first 26 floors of the tower, to be completed in 2013 and located at the corner of Pacific and Seymour, were offered in the release, and prices ranged from about $320,000 to more than $900,000.
Developers hope to get approval for 41 floors, Good said, with top-floor sales targeted at international investors expected to be in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics in February.
While the global debt and credit crisis continues to haunt developments in former real-estate hotspots like Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Good said Vancouver is back in boom times.
“The [real-estate] strength in Vancouver is unlike anything in the world,” Good said.
Mayur Arora, who told The Province he hoped to land a top-floor unit, and his realtor K.D. Dhaliwal, said location and scarcity make the site an attractive investment.
“I’m here because they are selling Yaletown at today’s prices, but the speculation is [that] prices will go up after the Olympics,” Arora said.
Steve Dhana was amazed by speculator interest as he watched investors rushing to place bids on units.
“The prices went up $50,000 last night,” Dhana said. He hoped to buy a unit in the $500,000 price-range, and also expected prices to surge in February 2010.
The City of Vancouver will also be banking on an Olympics-fuelled condo boom at the $1.2-billion Athletes Village on southeast False Creek. Marketer Bob Rennie decided to take project units off the market until after the 2010 Games. The city hopes to recoup taxpayer dollars on the property by selling about 730 market condos.
According to the latest benchmark figures from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, October 2009 prices for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver increased 6.8 per cent to $553,702 from $518,668 in October 2008.
Residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 3,704 in October 2009, an increase of 4.1 per cent from the 3,559 sales recorded in September 2009, and an increase of 171.6 per cent compared to October 2008.
scooper@theprovince.com
© Copyright (c) The Province
By Sam Cooper, The Province
A pilot project involving RIM, BMO and MasterCard Canada could result in cellphones one day replacing credit cards.
MasterCard Canada has partnered with BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion and Bank of Montreal to try a contactless payment technology called PayPass that allows a shopper to simply tap their enabled phone against a sensor to make a purchase.
MasterCard is the second Canadian credit card company to run a pilot project on a mobile payment system.
In June, Visa partnered with Royal Bank and Rogers Communications to test a mobile pay system in the Toronto area, using Visa’s payWave technology. Rather than tapping a sensor, the Visa method involves waving an enabled cellphone in front of a sensor. The cellphone is enabled after an application is downloaded.
“We believe this will revolutionize payment,” Scott Lapstra, vice-president of market development for MasterCard Canada, said in an interview Thursday with CBC News.
“People are more likely to leave their wallet at home than their mobile phone.”
Global trend seen
MasterCard’s four-month pilot project will involve 200 employees from MasterCard, RIM and BMO. Their experiences with the technology will be evaluated and refined. Other banks and phone types would be included before the new pay system is launched.
There is a global trend to paying for goods and services with a mobile phone. Pilot projects are underway in numerous countries, including Australia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
The U.K. market research firm, IMS Research, predicted in a report earlier this month that by the end of 2013, there will be 12.5 million locations accepting contactless payments around the world.
“Card vendors and banks are now issuing more and more contactless cards and consumer awareness is starting to grow in a number of countries,” according to the IMS report.
Chains like McDonalds, Tim Hortons and Second Cup have signed on to the MasterCard pay-tap system, which should speed up lines that are slowed by people having to root around for change for a coffee, said Lapstra.
“We built PayPass for that express purpose, where lines can be long and intimidating. With the PayPass, you’re not fumbling to count out change for that egg McMuffin with a long line behind you.”
The new mobile pay system essentially adapts technology already in use in MasterCard PayPass credit cards. These cards are embedded with a chip and an antenna and people use them to pay for a product by tapping on a sensor.
MasterCard has adapted it for BlackBerrys with a “self-adhesive device” resembling a small piece of foil, that is attached to the BlackBerry.
Once a purchase is made, a customer would receive an email notifying them of the cost, time and place of their purchase.
Source: CBC News, Last Updated: Thursday, November 26, 2009 | 6:43 PM ET
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Home ownership costs in Canada have become more expensive for the first time in six quarters and affordability will continue to deteriorate in the coming months, a study said Wednesday.
Costs have increased across all housing segments, according RBC’s quarterly housing affordability report.
Rising house prices and a small increase in mortgage rates were the key reasons, the bank said. Prices in Canada’s resale housing market have jumped 12 per cent on a weighted average basis from last year, according to Canadian Real Estate Association figures released earlier this month.
“Home affordability deteriorated in all provinces and major markets in Canada due to a slight rise in key mortgage rates and appreciation in property values,” said Robert Hogue, RBC’s senior economist.
While homeownership has gotten costlier, affordability is still better than it was a year ago, it said.
The bank’s housing affordability report tracks the proportion of pretax household income needed to service the costs of owning a home. All types of housing have gotten pricier, with the biggest percentage increases in standard two-storey homes.
Demand in the housing market has outgrown supply since the rebound started last winter, the report said, leading to a much more competitive market and widespread price increases across much of the country.
Housing will likely get pricier in the coming months, it said.
“With such strong momentum in the housing market and the cyclical low in mortgage rates behind us, it seems unlikely that affordability will improve in the near future,” Mr. Hogue said.
“The housing market still faces obstacles, as mortgages have become more difficult to handle for many Canadians amid challenging labour conditions. This is likely to persist until the economic recovery is well established and job creation is sustained next year.”
Source: Tavia Grant, Globe and Mail, Published on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 8:25
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Blog #7 – November 24, 2009 Rob Balasabas of the Balasabas Real Estate Team video blogs about the reasons why he doesn’t advise his Buyers to buy a previous grow-op home, unless you’re planning to knock it down and build a new home.
If you agree or disagree with our take on this Vancouver Real Estate issue, send your email to rob@balasabas.com or visit http://balasabas.com/video-blogs.html for all of our Real Estate Video Blogs.
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Blog #6 – November 22, 2009 Rudy Balasabas of the Balasabas Real Estate Team video blogs about Vancouver Real Estate, with a little bit of Hollywood Entertainment.
If you have any thoughts or comments on what we said, send your email to rudy@balasabas.com or visit http://balasabas.com/video-blogs.html for all of our Real Estate Video Blogs.
Blog #5 – November 21, 2009
Rudy Balasabas of the Balasabas Real Estate Team video blogs about getting pre-approved for a mortgage and making this your first step in the buying process.
If you have any thoughts or comments on what we said, send your email to rudy@balasabas or visit http://balasabas.com/video-blogs.html for all of our Real Estate Video Blogs.
Blog #4 – November 19, 2009
Rob Balasabas of the Balasabas Real Estate Team video blogs about the importance of De-Personalizing you home for showings and open houses.
If you have any thoughts or comments on what we said, send your email to rob@balasabas or visit http://balasabas.com/video-blogs.html for all of our Real Estate Video Blogs.
OTTAWA — New home prices rose more than expected in September as the country real estate market showed more signs of recovery.
Statistics Canada said Thursday its price index rose 0.5 per cent during the month — the biggest monthly increase since January 2008 — following a 0.1 per cent gain in August.
Economists had forecast an increase of 0.2 per cent in September.
Prices rose the most in Vancouver, up 1.4 per cent from August, followed by Ottawa–Gatineau, up one per cent. Calgary was 0.6 per cent higher, and Toronto, Oshawa, Ont., and Saskatoon were all up 0.5 per cent.
The biggest declines were in Windsor, Ont., down 0.7 per cent, Sudbury, Ont., and Thunder Bay, Ont., both down 0.5 per cent, Victoria, off 0.2 per cent, and Edmonton, where prices were 0.1 per cent lower.
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