Property Management in Vancouver

False Creek North is home to very desirable and dramatic high rise residential buildings, which are home to many working professionals who pay top dollar to live in one of the most desirable locations in

Across the street from the park meets Richards Stand Azura I and II which feature the best facilities at Club Viva. Further along we come to Parkwest 1 and II and the lovely Strathmore Mews along street level.Next we come to Kings Landing, located right along the waterfront walk. At the very end of Beach Crescent currently under construction is the amazing new development project The Erickson; bringing property values in the area to new heights. There are several lovely parks located along the seawall including David Lam Park, and the Roundhouse Community Centre. As well as the new Elsie Roy Elementary school and daycare centre. These parks adjoin the neighborhood to Marinaside Crescent and Quayside Marina.

Housing Market Moderates for Spring-time Buyers

VANCOUVER, B.C. – April 2, 2008 – The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that while there were fewer housing sales in March 2008 compared to last year, residential prices continued to climb. Residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 2,997 in March 2008, a decline of 16.3 per cent from the 3,582 residential sales recorded in March 2007, and a decline of 25.7 per cent compared to the 4,033 sales in March 2006. New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties increased four per cent to 5,674 in March 2008 compared with March 2007, when 5,456 new units were listed.

“The market is continuing to balance, with sales and listings beginning to re-align with our 10-year averages,” says REBGV president, Dave Watt. “The selection of inventory hitting the market is wider than we have seen in the past few years, which gives prospective buyers more choices.” Sales of detached properties declined 20.2 per cent to 1,116 from the 1,399 detached sales recorded during the same period in 2007. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLS Link Housing Price Index®, for detached properties rose 12.1 per cent from March 2007 to $764,616. Sales of apartment properties in March 2008 declined 10.6 per cent to 1,370, compared to 1,532 sales in March2007. The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 11.5 per cent from March 2007 to $389,609. Attached property sales in March 2008 are down 21.5 per cent to 511, compared with the 651 sales in March 2007. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 10.6 per cent between March 2007 and 2008 to $473,543.

Craig Munn, Assistant Manager, Communications, REBGV

At Downtown Suites we keep in touch with all the news in the Vancouver market, and pass this information on to our clients.

Green building and green communities are changing the way we imagine housing, living and land use. I was pleased to come across this article by Nicholas Heap entitled, Hot Properties How Global Warming could transform BC’s Real Estate Market. It contains some very interesting information that I  wanted to share with you.

Building for the Future

British Columbians have embraced the construction of new green buildings in the heart of their cities. Since the early 1990s, there has also been a great upsurge of interest in “green” buildings.Green buildings are designed and built in the most environmentally friendly matterpossible every step of the way. Of particular interest to the land development community, perhaps, is the stress that green building approaches place on maximizing occupant health and comfort - objectives achieved through measures such as natural lighting, openable windows, and minimal use of petrochemical-based materials, since these emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Helped in large part by the establishment of the LEED green building standards, the present decade has seen an exponential increase in the visibility and demand for green buildings. Vancouver and Victoria are both home to a series of state-of-the-art green buildings in North America, including the C.K. Choi Building at UBC, the Vancouver Island Technology Park in Saanich, B.C.65, the LEED Platinum Dockside Green development on Victoria’s Inner Harbour 66, and what is described as the world’s greenest building – the CIRS complex now under development in False Creek Flats in Vancouver .67 There have also been an increasing number of developments with green attributes within the Interior of the province in recent years, including the use of ground source heat pumps for a number of large resort condominium developments in the Kamloops region. Even with this rapid growth, one large-scale study concluded that developers of green buildings may be hampering the growth of the sector by underselling the advantages of green buildings. Although the study confirmed that green buildings are indeed “quicker to secure tenants, command higher rents or prices, enjoy lower tenant turnover,” and usually cost less to operate and maintain, it concluded that the greatest financial benefits have been consistently overlooked by the real estate industry.

The scale of productivity and health benefit is potentially enormous, and may exceed the value of all real estate expenditures (not just energy, operations and maintenance but other costs such as rent/mortgage as well). If developers, owners and valuers can understand how to tap this benefit, the commercial advantage that they would gain would become the most significant aspect of Green Value. To date, the rapid development and growth of the green building phenomenon has largely come about through voluntary and market forces, albeit with the active support of the building and planning professions and government regulators. Formal regulatory support for energy-efficient and/or “green” buildings by the provincial government has been limited to measures such as the province’s Energy Efficiency Act (which serves more to prohibit the use of grossly inefficient appliances or building components), and provincial sales tax exemptions for some energy efficient equipment. With its own municipal charter, the City of Vancouver was able to adopt the ASHRAE 90.1 (1989) energy-efficiency standard in 1991, and the City subsequently adopted the stricter ASHRAE 90.1 (2001) standard in 2004.69

Beyond this, one of the most remarkable lifestyle transitions within the past generation has been the reinvention of the downtown core in many of B.C.’s larger urban centres. High density, high-amenity urban neighborhoods are now starting to emerge throughout the Lower Mainland, on Vancouver Island, and in the Okanagan. These fast-growing urban areas are being populated by large numbers of people attracted to a completely different set of Hot Properties. Lifestyle ideals than those used to sell the old ideal of the large lot detached suburban home.

While the expert marketing of these “smart growth” ideals has been a significant factor in the success of B.C.’s emerging new urban form, it is also true that many B.C. residents are independently motivated to live within vibrant and diverse mixed-use neighborhoods in which the use of a car for transportation becomes a choice rather than an obligation.

Hot properties: How global warming could transform B.C.’s real estate sector is © 2007 David Suzuki Foundation ISBN 1-897375-12-3 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data for this book is available through the National Library of Canada

Author, Nicholas Heap

http://www.reibc.org/Conference/Hot_Properties.pdf

It seems the old dream of living in the suburbs with 2.5 kids, a large yard and white picket fence is not as rewarding as imagined. All the extra time sitting in traffic, wasting money on gas and spending time away from family has lead to a demand for city living. Many people come to realize what they want is the close proximity of work, family and leisure. With the high price of real estate, only some people can afford to buy a home close to all the action. Some people choose to rent and some have no choice. Whatever the reason, Downtown Suites Ltd. helps renters get into that perfect pied-a-terre.

Here is the typical tenant process for renting a suite with Downtown Suites Ltd:

We post all available rental suites on our website at www.downtownsuites.com. If a suite is posted on our website, it is available. Keeping an eye on our rental listings is a good idea, we have new listings being posted frequently. Once you are interested in viewing a suite follow the instructions on the listing. This involves providing your contact information on the form provided. Due to the volume of response, we do not take phone calls. All correspondence is through email. Make sure to send separate emails for each interested suite. We will email you back with the time for the arranged showing. If you are able to come to the showing please confirm.

When you arrive at the showing we ask you to wait at the front entrance of the building. Please arrive on time as this shows respect to the Property Manager and interest in the suite. If arriving late, you may be unable to view the suite. One of our Property Managers will let you in to view the suite. If you like the suite, an application will be provided at the showing. Viewing the suite prior to applying is mandatory. Applications will only be handed out at the viewing and all questions about the suite will be answered by our Property Managers. This is not a first come first serve basis, our approval process is based upon the merit of your application.

The application must be fully filled in. The information that the application asks for is; employment, previous employment, address, previous address, if you have any pets, email, phone number, birthdate and social insurance number. We ask for all this information so we are able to do complete checks from your current salary to your references and credit checks. We guarantee complete confidentiality, and will never divulge your information unless permitted. A good feedback from your references and a credit score of over 600 is required. This ensures minimal problems in the suites we manage.

We will inform you if you have been the successful applicant or not. If you have been chosen, you will be asked to bring in a damage deposit of half a months rent to hold the suite. All damage deposits must be in the form of bank draft, certified cheque or cash. If you have pets that will be an additional charge of a half months rent in case there is any damage from your pet.

When you bring in the damage deposit the listing will be taken off our website and the suite will be guaranteed for you. A Property Manager will then schedule a time for you to come in and sign the lease.

Jocelyn Fougere are Cissy Lei took part in Viewing many Agents Opens today Friday April 4th, 2008.

This is a new thing we will be doing every Friday to get familiar with the realtors and all new listings in the downtown core, Yaletown, West End (English Bay), Coal Harbour, Gastown and False Creek North areas. There are many buyers looking to invest in the Downtown Vancouver Market. Downtown Suites Ltd. is a great help to investors, we do all the work for you. At the moment we charge a half months rent to get new tenants then 8% each month (12% for non Canadian residents, due to the extra work). The realtors at the opens were very curious to know about the service our company offers, and our opinion on the rental market.

There are many reasons why owners would want to rent out their suites. To name a few reasons: Owners may be away and wanting to return to their suite in the future, owners may be holding their suite as a revenue producing investment or keeping the suite for future retirement plans.  Whatever the case may be, Downtown Suites Ltd. will deal with any suite needing to be rented. There is no need to worry about renters as we only rent to tenants who have a great track record and credit score of over 600.

We recently did a video session introducing Victoria Farrell, who has just joined our Downtown Suites team specializing in real estate sales. Here’s the first of three:

Taken from Legally Speaking 417 (March 2008) “Copyright British Columbia Real Estate Association. Reprinted with permission.”

Many licensees own condominiums; some also serve on strata councils. Strata property managers regularly encounter strata council members. Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada had the last word on the liability of some strata council members (the Members) for conflicts of interest.

The Strata Property Act requires a council member to fully disclose whether the member has any interest, direct or indirect, in any transaction involving the strata corporation. The Act prohibits the
member from voting on the matter and requires the member to leave the meeting.(1)

Dockside Brewing Co. v. Strata Plan LMS 3837 involved a strata hotel in Vancouver.(2) The Members were part of an owners’ group that wanted to lease the strata corporation’s common property. When a competitor obtained the lease rights, the owners’ group sought the rights. The group took control of the strata council by electing their members to eight of nine council seats. Using their control of the strata council, the owners planned to cause the strata corporation to sue to attack the competitor’s lease rights so the owners’ group could acquire them.

Meanwhile, the owners’ group also made certain commitments to others concerning the leases. If the owners’ group failed to get the lease rights, they potentially faced a $600,000 claim.

The Members executed their plan to obtain control of the strata corporation’s affairs, for their own benefit, and to use the corporation’s funds for that purpose. While they didn’t personally take the strata corporation’s money, they spent those funds for legal services intended to benefit their owners’ group. They benefited by sharing the legal expenses with the other members of the strata corporation who were not part of their owners’ group. At general meetings, and at council meetings, the Members did not disclose the true use of the legal expenses incurred by the strata corporation. They didn’t disclose their conflicts of interest, including their potential $600,000 liability if the owner’s group failed to get the lease rights. They didn’t leave the meetings when the relevant resolutions were discussed and they didn’t abstain from voting.

Ultimately, other owners asked the court to order the Members to reimburse the strata corporation for the legal fees improperly spent pursuing the objectives of their owners’ group.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia found that the Members breached the statute’s conflict of interest provisions. They also failed to meet the standard of care expected of council members.(3)The court ordered the Members, jointly and severally, to compensate the strata corporation for approximately $190,399 in legal expenses and to pay, in addition, special court costs of roughly $150,000.(4)

The British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld the decision against the Members. When the Members asked the Supreme Court of Canada to hear their appeal, the court dismissed their application, bringing this legal story to an end.

Whether a licensee serves as a strata council member, or advises the council as its strata manager, the licensee cannot ignore the Strata Property Act’s conflict of interest requirements. Simply put, each
council member must:

1. Disclose a conflict, immediately,
2. Leave the meeting (unless asked to stay to provide information), and
3. Not vote.

Lastly, the strata council member and the strata manager should ensure the minutes of the meeting record that the council member did these things.

Mike Mangan
B.A., LL.B.

1 Strata Property Act, S.B.C. 1998, c. 43, ss. 32, 33.
2 Dockside Brewing Co. v. Strata Plan LMS 3837 (2005), 46 B.C.L.R. (4th)
153, 34 R.P.R. (4th) 113, 2005 BCSC 1209 aff’d (2007), BCCA 183, [2007]
B.C.J. No. 583, leave to appeal to S.C.C. dismissed with costs (without
reasons) September 27, 2007 [2007] S.C.C.A. No. 262.
3 Strata Property Act, s.31.
4Dockside Brewing Co. v. Strata Plan LMS 3837, 2007 BCCA 183, at para. 84.

The POMARIA! Award winning architecture of Rafi Architects, incorporating the POMARIA’S signature SKY GARDENS and one of the first buildings in Vancouver to use LEED standards [Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design] including geothermal heat to reduce costs and impact.

Air conditioned suites, Robert Ledingham designer interiors, 8′ stained oak entry doors, 9′ over height ceilings, imported Italian porcelain tile for the entry, bathrooms and kitchen, gourmet appliances including Grohe, SUBZERO & GE MONOGRAM appliances and fixtures. The building features 24 hr concierge, spa, yoga room, outdoor terrace an much more! Award winning building for 2007!

To view the available suites at The Pomaria got to www.downtownsuites.com

1201 & 1801 - 1455 Howe Street,Vancouver Downtown, BC

Beautiful two bedrooms, two bathrooms, 919 square footage, for $2300 a month for #1201 & $2400 a month for #1801.

Suite Features include: dishwasher, gas stove, built-in microwave, Air Conditioning, Separate bath tub & shower, Hot water & gas included, Suite is West-facing, In-suite laundry, and One underground parking stall

Building Amenities: Bicycle storage, 24 hour Concierge, Steam room & Sauna, Gym with change rooms, Rooftop garden, Children’s playground

In this location you have it all, you are just steps from the restaurants, markets and outdoor life of False Creek and English Bay. Also just a few blocks away from the shopping centres and business district of Downtown.

Just moments away from the Seawall where you can catch the Harbour Ferry to sail across the water Granville Island.

To schedule a viewing of the Pomaria suites go to www.downtownsuites.com

Brand New Luxury Suites in Coal Harbour steps away from Stanley Park and the Seawall.

Downtown Suites Ltd. has 4 new available suite rentals, ranging from $3000 - $3500, 1240 - 1310 square feet.

Two bedrooms, two gorgeous bathrooms, stunning open kitchens with 6 appliances, large balcony, beautiful fireplace, in-suite laundry, storage room and 2 parking stalls. Breathtaking Rooftop with state of the art gym equipment, large hot tub, sunbathing, BBQ and Fire Pit areas, Urban Fare at street level, small library, playground/ocean view relaxing area on second floor. One Year Lease, please no pets and no smoking.

Cielo - 1205 West Hastings Street

Please view the Cielo listings at www.downtownsuites.com

Vancouver Realtor Les Twarog

In the Property Management field, we’re grateful for the referrals of investment clients from our realtor colleagues. At Downtown Suites we are especially pleased to be working with Les Twarog in relation to his condominium sales. Les is one of Vancouver’s most successful realtors, who has placed in the top 1% of all realtors in the Lower Mainland for many years. He has been consistently producing high results through all the fluctuating market conditions and is often asked by media for his views and comments on real estate issues in the media. His most recent acknowledgments in 2007 include ReMax Chairman’s Club list of achievers and a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his over $3,000,000 earnings in paid commissions to date. At the age of 8, Les came to Canada from Poland with his family, and his real estate career reveals a rapid rise to success. And check out Les Twarog’s comprehensive website.
(originally posted July 30, 2007)