Budget disappointment
BC NDP Finance Minister Carole James appears to have played it safe across the board in last week’s budget.
While affirming Victoria’s ambitious investment of more than $7 billion in 114,000 affordable housing units in the next decade, online infographics from the government tout just 800 units built in the current fiscal year. A further 6,650 are under construction while 15,200 are in the planning stages.
Just how many will get built remains a question, however, because as rosy as it all sounds, the province’s own estimates – in the words of the Urban Development Institute (UDI) – forecast a “dramatic collapse” in housing starts.
Provincewide, the call is for starts to drop from 40,857 last year to 30,519 in 2022, with most of the drop happening this year.
“It’s difficult to see how government will be able to meaningfully improve the vacancy rate, while building fewer rental homes,” said UDI president Anne McMullin in a statement.
While she was relieved that the NDP added no new taxes to housing, McMullin and the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of BC (ICBA) both criticized the lack of incentives to spur development through the projected downturn.
“Instead of cutting red tape and trying to turbocharge housing starts to drive down costs, the NDP is quietly choking out the market,” remarked Jordan Bateman, ICBA vice-president of communications.
Nevertheless, B.C.’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing will get a 7% boost to its housing budget in the coming fiscal year. The increase will lift funding for housing programs to nearly $472 million.
The budget also allocated an extra $289,000 to support the activities of the Agricultural Land Commission.
The latest trend
Remember when the opening of a Starbucks heralded a lift to neighbourhood property values?
During the mid-2000s, vineyards became a selling feature for many residential developments. A decade ago, growing interest in local food saw some developers incorporate urban farming, and more recently microbreweries have been tipped as the must-have amenity for the hip new development.
It was, therefore, only a matter of time before co-working space was incorporated into projects. Appropriately, Concord Pacific, which in 2007 pursued a vineyard-oriented development at Greata Ranch in the Okanagan (due to various hurdles, it never completed), is leading the way. Park George condo development in Surrey will include co-working space for project residents.
The space will allow home-based entrepreneurs to tap into the hive mind of the condo tower, leaving the apartment without leaving home.
Co-working providers like WeWork and Spaces now claim more than a million square feet of space across Metro Vancouver, primarily in the region’s core.
$900,000 millstone
B.C. securities regulators have imposed sanctions on three B.C. men who undertook real estate projects in Edmonton and committed fraud to the tune of $450,000 against two of their investors.
The BC Securities Commission (BCSC) announced the penalties last week against Alan Braun, the former pastor of Royal Heights Baptist Church in Delta, his son Jerry Braun and associate Steven Maxwell, as well as the three companies they controlled: Braun Developments (B.C.) Ltd., 8022275 Canada Inc. and TerraCorp Investment Ltd.
“They led the investors to believe that they were purchasing real estate investments in Edmonton that would yield very high returns in a short period,” states a BCSC case summary. “But the Brauns and Maxwell used the investors’ money for other purposes, including their own personal living expenses.”
A commission panel ordered Maxwell to repay $120,500, his share of the funds obtained, as well as a $300,000 administrative penalty.
Alan Braun was ordered to repay $323,500, with Jerry Braun and Braun Developments liable for $157,000 of the amount.
The elder Braun must also pay an administrative penalty of $450,000, for total penalties of $616,500. His son owes an administrative penalty of $200,000.
Besides the projects in Edmonton, the Brauns also pursued several church redevelopment projects in B.C. through LionRock Developments Corp., a company not named in the recent BCSC decision.•
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