British Columbia had Record Real Estate Sales in 2005

British Columbia had a record year for real estate sales in 2005, with realtors throughout the province, with 100,586 sales worth $33.3 billion. Those figures surpassed the 96,314 sales worth $27.8 billion made in 2004, B.C. Real Estate Association statistics show. The 2005 sales don’t include December figures, which are not available at this time. "That result is not a surprise," explained Cameron Muir, a housing analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. "Because when we look at housing demand throughout the province it's quite broad based." The demand, Muir explained, continues to grow due to B.C.'s improving economy, job growth, increasing wages, and immigration both from Canadian and International areas. B.C. unemployment fell to 4.9 percent in November, the lowest rate in 30 years, and Muir said the province will have 40,000 new residents by the end of this year. "It's not huge growth, but it's trending upward," he added, saying that projections are for 44,000 people to relocate to B.C. in 2006. Developer Jung Development broke ground on the first of five condo towers in its $350-million Infinity project in Surrey. B.C. saw a record price of $7.75 million for the penthouse of Two Harbour Green on Vancouver's Coal Harbour. That project, by Platinum Project Marketing, sold out with a median price of $2.5 million per unit. Lynn Hsu, CEO of Vancouver-based Macdonald Realty Group, said by early December that her firm had a record $2.5 billion in sales for 2005. "It was definitely a phenomenal year," Hsu said. She expects 2006 to be similar to 2005, due to low inventories and high demand. "Vancouver is increasingly becoming more and more visible worldwide," Hsu said. While not yet on par with the reputations of cities such as Hong Kong or New York, Hsu said it’s "certainly elevated our status as a world-class city." Elton Ash, executive vice-president of Re/Max realty in Western Canada, said 2005 should end with single-home prices around Greater Vancouver increase by 12 percent, with a median price of about $420,000. Ash added, "British Columbia is enjoying a tremendously positive economy at this point." "Several factors will contribute to that. The 2010 Olympics, and beyond that, China's growth is driving a tremendous amount of economic activity in British Columbia." The year also showed well for commercial real estate in Greater Vancouver. The year's largest transaction was September's sale by Colliers International of the HSBC bank building in Vancouver for $140 million to Cadillac Fairview Corp. Colliers also brokered the $85 million sale of the Riverport entertainment complex in Richmond to Ontario based TransGlobe Property Management Services Ltd. The Hotel Georgia sold for $65 million to a Seattle based developer, and a Westbank Projects and Peterson Investment Group partnership purchased the vacant Coal Harbour lot for $68 million to turn it into the Fairmont Pacific Rim, a condominium and hotel tower. "This is unchartered waters," explained Avtar Bains, senior vice-president of Colliers International in Vancouver. "We've never been in this territory before [with] such an insatiable appetite for commercial real estate." The market, Bains explained, is being led by institutional capital such as pension funds, which see real estate as a good long-term investment. The result, he said, is a market where property owners see income security, increasing capital values and liquidity in their assets. "Quite frankly, I don't see that dissipating in the near or medium term," Bains said. "There is just so much interest in commercial real estate." By Patricia Fuller Miami Real Estate - Aquablue Realty Sarasota Real Estate

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