91原创 is in the middle of one of the biggest building booms in its history, yet it can鈥檛 build housing fast enough.
鈥淧rices are rising because of the lack of supply,鈥� said Peter Warkentin, CEO of Quadra Homes.
And local realtor Deanna Horn doesn鈥檛 anticipate the prices coming down any time soon, regardless of a recent 0.25 per cent interest rate hike by the Bank of Canada.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 see that being a big effect,鈥� Horn said. Interest rates are still very low.
The average price of a single-family home in 91原创 passed $1 million earlier this year and has not retreated.
Meanwhile, prices for condos and townhouses are rising even faster, as more young buyers turn to multi-family housing as an alternative to buying a detached house.
Horn noted that previous efforts to cut down speculation in property haven鈥檛 had much of an impact.
The foreign buyers tax imposed by the previous B.C. Liberal government caused a brief blip in home sales, but didn鈥檛 affect mid-level, average houses, said Horn.
鈥淭he major impact was to larger properties,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e had maybe four or five transactions in this office that were affected.鈥�
Getting prices down means a change in what gets built, said Horn.
鈥淚 think we need more multi-family,鈥� she said. Smaller, less expensive single family could also be a part of that, she said.
Are 91原创 housing prices being driven up by speculation?
鈥淭here鈥檚 a certain amount of investment going on,鈥� said Horn. Some people are buying properties just to re-sell later for a profit. But it鈥檚 a small amount of the total, she said.
Horn and Warkentin cite 91原创鈥檚 lower prices as the reason people keep coming here, which drives up costs.
Warkentin believes that single family houses and acreages have leveled off in 91原创 in terms of price.
鈥淲e expect prices for condos and townhomes to continue to rise in the Fraser Valley, but they may be peaking in Vancouver and Burnaby,鈥� Warkentin said. 鈥淧rices in Vancouver and Burnaby are so high, that it makes the Valley seem affordable by comparison.
If supply is the problem, the 91原创s are trying to remedy it.
The 91原创s are both in the middle of a building boom, with the bulk of that coming from multi-family housing.
91原创 Township鈥檚 statistics showed that from January to June this year, 1,211 homes were built, compared to 856 in the same period last year.
Of those, 797 were condos or townhouses.
Just Quadra Homes is developing or actively constructing 1,000 condo units in 91原创 Township right now, Warkentin said. Several other developers are also mid-project or about to start construction.
91原创 City is currently handling more than double the usual number of projects. It was also rated the easiest place to develop in the Lower Mainland in terms of red tape by a Fraser Institute report earlier this year.
The Township has also made a regulatory change that developers say will cut months off of condo and townhouse development 鈥� allowing a sales centre to be built before land is fully rezoned. If the Township council decides not to rezone, a bond takes care of the cost of removing the sales centre.
The change could cut three to four months off the time it takes to build a condo or townhouse project.
Warkentin said that as a developer, he finds both 91原创s good to work with. But the logjam is a lack of staff to keep up with the number of applications for new housing.
There are also some constraints on the builders鈥� side.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a shortage in some trades,鈥� said Warkentin. 鈥淔ramers are hard to come by.鈥�
Workers moving from Alberta have been adding to the local skilled trades pool.
Horn doesn鈥檛 believe there will be a crash in housing prices.
In Toronto, which had an even hotter market than Metro Vancouver, prices slid by 18.8 per cent from April to July. But they are still higher than they were a year ago.
鈥� Watch for more articles about how 91原创 is responding to the housing crunch.
