How about a Canucks poncho?
There are more drugs available without prescriptions here than along Hastings Street!
People are so conditioned to believe a good deal is a time share come on...
Honest, this isn't a time share promotion either!
Trust me, these speed bumps are much more effective than stop signs!
Why use asphalt for a road when there are so many pebbles lying around?
Why fix a road when you can simply put up a sign and tell people it's dangerous!
I have been thinking about this sign during the past week as I lounged about a Conchas Chinos beachside condominium and wandered the streets of Puerto Vallarta. This is my first visit to PV in twenty years; however, my wife has been coming here annually with two friends for the past ten. One of them liked the place so much she and her husband purchased a condominium above us and her daughter recently got married here.
As I write, the Canadian government is warning tourists about travel to Mexico. In addition to the gangland slayings that regularly occur, (an estimated 50,000 deaths over the last 5 years), there have been a couple of tragic and unusual incidents involving Canadian tourists.
Of course, anyone who knows the country knows that PV is about as far away from Mexican drug lord violence as Ambleside Village. However, this hasn’t stopped many tourists from cancelling travel plans, even to this part of the country. Sadly portions of the beach outside all-inclusive resorts were quite deserted when I recently visited. I’m also told that flights in and out of Puerto Vallarta are less than full, which was not the case in the past.
Puerto Vallarta is a city of contrasts. In recent years the old town has seen some major upgrading with an attractive new waterfront walkway known as the Malecon and wide new sidewalks along some streets. However, there are also many streets that are difficult to navigate due to uneven surfaces, high curbs, garbage and debris.
While there are many attractive hotels and resorts, there are also signs of abandoned resort developments visible along the main thoroughfares.
The buildings are also very mixed. There are many upscale shops, galleries and restaurants. However, they are often interspersed with decaying or partially renovated buildings, vacant storefronts, and scenes that one does not generally find in tourist brochures.
The neighbourhood where I am staying is just south of the town centre. Conchas Chinos is generally regarded as an upscale area with many expensive hillside villas and condominiums overlooking the ocean. While the condominium market has been in the doldrums over the past few years, due in large part from the disappearance of American buyers, a surprising number of new projects are underway. Prices range from under $100,000 for a new studio to well over $1million for penthouse suites. A good quality, two bedroom, two bathroom condominium apartment in a well maintained older building will be in the mid $300’s.
North of the old town is Nuevo Vallarta, in the neighbouring state of Nayarit. A master planned resort community, now being branded as Riviera Nayarit, it includes a number of large all-inclusive resorts, hotels, condominiums, timeshares, marinas and golf courses. I was surprised to learn that one of the larger new community developments, Paradise Village, has a Vancouver connection. It was started by Graziano Sovernigo, a Canadian-Italian developer from West Vancouver who according to the Paradise Village website has spent the past 22 years developing resorts in Mexico.
It's an impressive development, with a number of new projects underway. Sadly, the one thing it is missing is 'a village centre'. Instead, it has an enclosed mall with too many vacancies.
Since I had never heard of Sovernigo, I Googled him and was interested to discover his involvement with a charitable undertaking known as Families at the Dump.
For many years, visitors to the area were increasingly aware that there were families living amongst the garbage in the city dump. A partnership was formed between Sovernigo and concerned community residents which has led to the provision of support services and other community amenities for these people.
More details about this initiative can be found here: http://www.pvrpv.com/blog/families-at-the-dump-celebrates-5-years-in-puerto-vallarta/
For those of you who are wondering whether it is safe to come to Puerto Vallarta and similar resort areas in Mexico, I would say most definitely. While at first I was 'on my guard', I quickly realized this is a reasonably safe place to be. However, if, as reported in this week's PV News someone tells you there is a ketchup stain on your shirt and pants, don't let them take you into the washroom to clean you off...because what they really want to do is take your wallet and clean you out!
But of course, this could happen almost everywhere...except perhaps Ambleside Village!
This week, Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr proposed a motion that the city look at its 'unused zoning capacity'. Some might argue she did this because she has been told that thousands of new multi-family housing units could be built all over the city, especially along the commercial arterial roads, without the need for disruptive rezonings.
Frances Bula reported on this on her blog http://www.blogger.com/www.francesbula.com, and I couldn't resist writing some comments since I remember quite vividly a similar conversation a few decades ago. Since the motion has passed, I thought I might set out some of my comments, with a few modifications.
Goodbye HST, hello GST…again!
By Michael Geller
When the voters of British Columbia recently rejected the HST in favour of the GST, I was reminded of some little known events from twenty years ago related to the introduction of the then much hated GST.
The Goods and Services Tax was introduced on January 1, 1991. I remember it well since I was President of the Urban Development Institute of Canada (UDI) in the period leading up to its inception. Canada’s homebuilding industry was very concerned about the impact of the pending GST on new development, since the tax was initially proposed at 9%. Once it became apparent that the federal government was determined to bring it in, the Board of UDI Canada proposed what I considered at the time to be a ridiculous idea. To ensure that GST would not deter purchasers of new homes, UDI Canada proposed that it apply not only to new homes, but all resale homes as well!
Moreover, if the GST applied to all housing, the rate could be reduced from 9% to 7%.
As President, I presented this idea to Don Blenkarn’s House of Commons Finance Committee. And when his committee’s findings were released, I was astounded to learn that Blenkarn, whose Mississauga riding was home to much new development, agreed with the UDI recommendations, and announced that the GST would therefore be reduced to 7%.
The Canadian Real Estate Association, representing realtors across Canada, was outraged. It publicly chastised UDI, and I privately agreed with every one of its concerns. Eventually, the government sided with the realtors, and GST applied only to new construction. However, a rebate program was put in place to minimize the impact on new homes. Somewhat coincidentally, the 7% figure remained, until subsequently reduced to 5%.
Eighteen years later, when the BC government announced the HST program, the local development community was again alarmed, since instead of a 5% tax, many new homes would be subject to a 12% tax. Although a rebate program would be put in place for some units, a new $1 million dollar home would be charged an additional $120,000. Not to mention the additional Property Purchase Tax.
For this reason, BC homebuilders watched the outcome of the HST referendum with great interest. While many, including myself, genuinely believed those economists who argued that the harmonized tax was good for the economy, we could not help but be pleased with the prospect of a 5%, rather than 12% tax.
Now that the tax is to be repealed, with a proposed date of March 31, 2013, what we do not know is what will happen to projects now under construction, or about to get under construction. Will HST apply, or will GST apply. Does it make a difference if units completed after March 2013 are pre-sold now? I am personally caught in this predicament since I am about to commence construction this fall on a small project in West Vancouver, with completion scheduled for Christmas 2012.
Unfortunately, neither UDI nor CHBA have received any answers from the Minister of Finance. So I posed these questions to Kelly Lohn, of Lohn Caulder, a highly respected firm of Chartered Accountants whose practice includes many real estate developers.
Not wanting to speculate on what the government will do, Kelly did wisely point out that when the government introduced the HST there was a somewhat complex ‘phasing in period’. He therefore thought it was reasonable to assume that there might be a similar phasing out period for the HST. Otherwise, Kelly agreed with me that there could be turmoil in the homebuilding industry if a $1 million dollar house or apartment attracted $120,000 tax one day and $50,000 tax the following day (subject to certain deductions).
As I write this article, representatives of UDI and the Canadian Homebuilders’ Association are trying to get some clarification from the Provincial Government as to what rules will apply, especially for new housing under construction and likely to be sold with or without pre-sales over the coming twelve to eighteen months. In my opinion, if there is not a carefully designed transition period, the reintroduction of the GST could be even more disruptive and harmful for both homebuilders and purchasers than the initial imposition twenty years ago.
Yesterday the Mayor announced the composition of the Task Force he and Olga Illich will co-chair to explore how the City can address housing affordability. Below is the announcement and the names of the people who have been appointed. I am pleased to have been asked to chair a separate Working Group on how the form and design of new housing affects affordability, which will liaise with the Task Force.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson announced the members of the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability today, having assembled a diverse team of industry and community leaders with expertise ranging from non-market housing and sustainable urban planning to finance and real-estate development.
“The members of the Housing Affordability Task Force bring a broad and diverse array of experience, leadership, and vision to our work on the pressing challenge of affordability,” says Mayor Robertson. “Vancouver must be a city where our children can afford to live and raise their families. This is not a simple challenge but it is one that we have to address – and I believe this Task Force has the ideas and expertise to provide new affordability solutions for Vancouver.”
Co-chaired by Mayor Robertson and Olga Ilich, a former BC cabinet minister with extensive experience in the real estate sector, the Task Force is set to identify ways the City of Vancouver can better protect existing affordable housing, as well as to enable and create new affordable housing stock in Vancouver.
The Task Force’s members include:
Alan Boniface Principal, DIALOG & Urban Land Institute BC Chair
Nathan Edelson Senior Partner, 42 Street Consulting
Leonard George Director, Economic Development, Tsleil-Waututh Nation
Marg Gordon CEO, BC Apartment Owners & Managers Association
Mark Guslits Architect, Principal, Mark Guslits & Associates Inc.
Colleen Hardwick Founder and CEO, New City Ventures
Howard Johnson CEO, Baptist Housing
Kenneth Kwan Chair, Building Committee, SUCCESS
Michael Lewis Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Community Renewal
Eric Martin VP, Bosa Development Corp.
Karen O’Shannacery Executive Director, Lookout Society
Al Poettcker President & CEO, UBC Properties Trust
Peter Simpson President & CEO, Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association
Bradford Tone President, Tone Management
As well, there will also be a separate working group working with the Task Force on how the form and design of new housing affects affordability, led by local architect and planner Michael Geller.
“To address a challenge as complex as affordable housing, we need a team that is representative of all of the stakeholders in Vancouver’s housing industry,” said Task Force Co-Chair Olga Ilich. “The members of our Task Force bring a variety of perspectives and backgrounds, which is essential if we are to address the challenge of Vancouver’s affordability crisis.”
The creation of a Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability was the first order of business for Mayor Robertson at the start of his second term of office.
The Committee will provide an interim report by March 12, 2012. To ensure the greatest amount of input from citizens, the interim report will seek public input March through to May. A final report will be completed by June 30, 2012 or earlier.
To view the motion that created the Housing Affordability Task Force, click http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20111213/documents/motionb1.pdf
Homebuyers with moderate to low incomes in other Canadian cities are getting a mortgage booster through shared-equity programs that proponents see as one solution to the housing affordability problem in B.C.
Shared equity offers cash-strapped buyers a chance to buy into the market in exchange for a future share of equity they can normally expect to earn in a rising market, participants at the Housing Affordability Symposium in Richmond heard on Friday.
But attempts by a non-profit model successful in Toronto for almost 20 years have yet to work in B.C.
In Calgary, however, those earning between $53,000 and $80,000 can apply to the city-run Attainable Housing Calgary Corp. for a free down payment, said spokeswoman Tara Cooney.
Homebuyers who qualify for a mortgage and have a $2,000 down payment would receive, in one example, a five-per-cent down payment of $11,000 as a forgivable loan for a $220,000 home in an Attainable Housing complex, leaving them with a $207,000 mortgage.
When they sell, they would forfeit one-quarter to three-quarters of any earned equity to Attainable Homes, said Cooney.
For instance, if they sold after four years and the home rose to $254,700, the couple would keep 75 per cent of the $45,700 equity, or $34,275.
The remaining 25 per cent of the equity would remain with Attainable Homes, which uses it to fund down payments for other homebuyers.
Options for Homes, a non-profit in Toronto, offers shared equity under a complicated formula that prevents speculation and provides even those living below the poverty line a chance to own a unit in their housing co-operatives with no down payment, president Mike Labbe told the conference.
"It's using the problems of housing affordability to solve the problem of housing affordability," he said in an interview with The Province.
Options has since 1994 built nine developments in Ontario and has three more in the works, some in trendy downtown Toronto areas.
Some 75 per cent of the suites are bought by people with enough money to afford a regular mortgage, while 15 per cent is reserved for the working poor and another 10 per cent goes to those below the poverty line.
It reduces construction costs, mostly by slashing traditional high marketing costs and cutting costly features such as pools or saunas, making high-end finishes optional and by negotiating for cheaper land or other deferred developer construction costs from the municipality.
The non-profit corporation in essence subsidizes the down payment for the low-income buyers and it is only repayable when they sell. That repayment in theory will be paid for by the equity built up over the years, considering the market rises in value.
"There is some risk," said Labbe. But he said shared equity is a good way to turn renters into owners, freeing up rentals for others.
"Seventy-five per cent of people who buy into our developments used to be renters," he said.
Labbe said the model could work here but needs to be spearheaded locally by someone with knowledge of housing development. He said one local gave up after five years because he was unable to secure the land for a development. A second attempt is in the works.
University of B.C. business professor Tsur Sommerville challenged Labbe for boasting his model doesn't receive government subsidies when its success relies on below-market land and deferral of development costs.
Vancouver urban planner Michael Geller said the "concept of shared equity definitely has a place in Vancouver" and can be as simple as a relative or friend agreeing to lend a down payment or portion of the house price for a percentage of the eventual gain, a kind of "silent second mortgage."
Geller said Verdant, at Simon Fraser University's UniverCity, offered nofrills lower-cost housing to faculty and staff with the proviso they sell only to other staff and at 20 per cent below market value at the time of the sale.
He suggested Vancouver could offer the North False Creek land for a shared-equity community.
He acknowledged there are risks if owners are forced to sell during a market downturn.
"But that's the same risk with any form of home ownership," he said.
And, he said, if the programs are city-run, such as in Calgary and in Saskatoon, cities have to guard against favouritism in the selection process.
Shared equity was included in a list of 17 suggestions he presented to the conference to increase housing affordability in Metro Vancouver, most based on the solution of building "smaller houses on smaller lots."
More than half the 150 participants raised their hands when asked if they grew up sharing one bathroom. None could remember the last time they saw a single-family home with one bathroom.
"Our families are getting smaller and we're building bigger houses," said Geller.
And more expensive ones. He said homebuyers have to be prepared to lower expectations and cut costs by living without granite countertops, fireplaces, frameless shower doors, double paved driveways and other costly fixtures.
His solutions and those of most speakers at the two-day symposium included calls for higher density neighbourhoods, including more row housing, semi-detached houses, secondary suites, suites within suites and laneway houses, to name a few.
Even in Surrey, where community planning manager Don Luymes said there exists relatively affordable housing and plenty of land on which to build, the city was turning from a car-dependent low-density model to prevent a problem of a lack of affordability in future.
slazaruk@theprovince.com twitter.com/susanlazaruk
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Would you consider giving up a future share of equity for help with a down payment on a home?
Comment online at theprovince. com or email us at provletters@ theprovince.com.
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I spent Thursday afternoon and Friday at a symposium organized by the Canadian Home Builders of BC that was designed to identify actions that the public, private and non-profit sectors could undertake to improve housing affordability in different regions of the province. This was the second event of its kind, and a very good publication and various presentations from the first event are on line. More information can be found here: http://withinyourmeans.ca/symposium.html check out the 'Resources' link for some excellent background documents.
