Property Management in Vancouver

New York Loft in Yaletown! #303 - 1230 Hamilton Street,Vancouver

Wow! Spectacular, gorgeous, New York loft in Yaletown. Large 1 bedroom plus den.

• 2 Balconies
• Vintage Oak Floors
• Exposed Red Brick Walls
• Crown Moldings
• Gas Fireplace
• Pre-Wired Surround Sound
• Dishwasher , Garburator & Water Tank
• Gas & Hot Water included
• Underground Secured Parking
• Storage Locker

Available June 1st

To view this suite click on the link below and fill in the boxes provided at the bottom of the add.

http://listings.downtownsuites.com/unfurnished/listingdetails.aspx?ID=394&RID=14

Managed by Downtown Suites Ltd.

Yaletown is the heart of Vancouver leading the way in in lifestyle and entertainment. Yaletown received  its name in the 19th century when the Canadian Pacific Railroad moved its rail yards and repair facilities from Yale, in theFraserRiver canyon, to the new Yaletown in the False Creek North area. 

Historically it has been known as Vancouver’s warehouse district. This is evident today in the warehouses that line the streets which are protected under Heritage status and still hold there old charm with  exposed bricks and beams in building such as Murchies. Along Homer Streetyou will also several sought after condominium buildings such as The Beasely,  Beresford, Domus, Bentley, 1180 Homer, Ellison, 1241 Homer, and H&H.

Canadian Pacific Railway built a roundhouse in the area, which is still utilized to today as the Roundhouse Community Centre, at the corner of Pacific and Drake. It features the famous Centennial train, which is an important part of our Canadian history. This was the first to cross train to cross Canada upon completion of the railroad.

Yaletown is  home a variety of successful business including fashionable boutiques, pet outfitters, architectural firms, galleries, hair studios, and designer furniture stores. World renowned for its variety of exciting restaurants including: Glowball, The Opus Hotel and Elixer lounge, Goldfish, Coast, Pinky’s, Cacutus club, Yaletown Brewery and of lateTequila Kitchen.  Aamong the many wonderful establishments on Hamiliton Street you will find the stylish residential New Yorker, and Alda.   

Yaletown is a very desirable area for locals and visitors to live and play. Self contained within a small radius of only a few city blocks between Drake and Smith it is a world within itself.  Whatever you are looking for you are sure to find it here with a lifestyle that is second to none which is why many choose Yaletown to call home.

For more information on properties in Yaletown please contact Victoria Farrell www.downtownsuites.com

No one has a crystal ball and the future of our real estate market remains to be seen. Many are predicting that April and May will be the deciding factor to our current market; which will it be? A healthy recovering market or further market declines? Keep posted to find out!

victoria@downtownsuites.com

As part of Yaletown’s lifestyle comes the benefit of health. The dense aspect of Yaletown living helps to keep its residents happy and healthy.”¹Study after study has found that residents of post war suburbs are more likely to be obese and to suffer far more chronic health problems than their counterparts in more walk able neighborhoods.” Health Canada recomends half an hour of exercise a day, people living in Yaletown are more likely to fullfill these requirements. People can walk to work, school, church, activities and to get groceries. All this movement creates endorphins, making residents happier and healthier at the same time.

In todays society, many people are concerned for the health of the planet. Dense living promotes a healthy environment. “Density is more efficient than sprawl. It gobbles up farmland, and wilderness.”¹There are less cars being used in dense areas like Yaletown. The Suburbs forced peopleto use cars because nothing was walkable. Dense communities like Yaletown promote walking as the means of transportation. This is a great thing for our well being, wallets and the health of Mother Earth. 

1.FUTUREVILLE. By: Montgomery, Charles. Canadian Geographic, May/June2006, Vol. 126 Issue 3 p44-60, 13p, 12c 

 

Yaletown has been a vital part of Vancouver since it’s birth over a hundred years ago. The Canadian Pacific Railway set up shop in Yaletown, bringing business and opportunity to this once empty forest area in Vancouver. It thrived in its warehouse days, then became deserted with the advent of the truck and trailers. Industry favoured the access of the highway, and preferred shipment with trucks. Expo 86 then sparkeda whole new era for Vancouver. It showed the world that Vancouver and Especially Yaletown was one of the best places to live in the world. It offered comfortable living encompassed between the great outdoors. Concord Pacific’s Li Ka Shing, a world known Asian developer and business man purchased the former expo lands. There was an immense amount of work put into developing the site. Concord Pacific worked closely with the City of Vancouver to master plan the area to make it as nature friendly and liveable as possible. The public was greatly considered a part of this planning. They were included in discussion and debate surrounding the parks, zoning, recreation, planning and other issues affecting the public.

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.

Housing starts move higher in February The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 256,900 units in February, up from 222,700 units in January, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).“New home construction in February was boosted by the significant rise in multiple-family starts,” said Bob Dugan, Chief Economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre. “The robust results achieved this month are mainly attributed to increased condominium starts, which reflect strong condominium sales over the past year or two. Despite this sizeable growth in February, we continue to expect that the trend in housing starts will decrease gradually between now and the end of 2008.”In February the seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased 18.0 per cent to 223,700 units compared to January. Urban multiples jumped 30.3 per cent to 140,700 units in February, while singles rose 1.8 per cent to 83,000 units.The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased in four of

Canada’s five regions in February. Urban starts registered an increase of 45.2 per cent in British Columbia, 26.2 per cent in Quebec, 16.9 per cent in the Atlantic region and 16.4 per cent in

Ontario. The Prairies bucked the trend and registered a decline of 9.6 per cent in February. Urban multiple starts were up in all regions except in the

Atlantic and the Prairies. Urban singles were up in all regions except

British Columbia and the Prairies.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 33,200 units in February.  Actual starts, in rural and urban areas combined, were up an estimated 8.1 per cent in the first two months of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. In urban areas, actual total starts increased by an estimated 10.4 per cent year-to-date. Actual urban single starts from January to February 2008 were down 11.0 per cent compared to the same period in 2007, while multiple starts grew by approximately 25.9 per cent over the same period.

victoria@downtownsuites.com