Mission record
Avison Young reports that the Fraser Valley has become the Lower Mainland’s “most active industrial market,” with 105 sales worth $185 million in the first half of 2019.
This represents a quarter of the $740 million worth of industrial transactions Avison Young reported for B.C. in its report on investment sales in the first half of the year. Those transactions included 39 valued at $5 million and up, for a total of $391.6 million, as well as 243 transactions worth less than $5 million that added $348 million to the total.
With relatively few large industrial assets changing hands, thanks to a tight supply of available properties, the balance shifted in favour of smaller properties offering infill potential.
“Vacant industrial land that is development-ready is increasingly scarce with most land acquisitions being infill sites or requiring rezoning,” notes Colliers International in its own report on the region’s industrial market.
The available sites were often further out from the core, hence the rise of activity in the Fraser Valley.
The strength of the market is shown in a recent transaction that Frontline Real Estate Services Ltd. handled at 33519-33527 Thompson Avenue in Mission.
Mission isn’t the most active industrial investment market in the Fraser Valley; that honour, according to Avison Young, goes to Surrey, which saw 62 transactions worth $92 million in the first half of 2019. By contrast, there were just four deals worth $5 million in Mission during the period.
But as activity shifts eastward, new records are being set.
According to broker Kyle Dodman, the deal on Thompson Avenue set a new record in per-acre pricing for Mission. The 0.82-acre site fetched $989,000, or $1.2 million an acre.
The site has industrial zoning and is conveniently located off the north foot of the bridge connecting Mission with Abbotsford via Highway 11. The Sumas border crossing is a 20-minute drive south.
Platform pledges
By the time you read this, O reader, the makeup of the next federal government will more than likely be known.
What’s less certain is which planks of the winning party’s platform the new government will have to walk (politicians should walk their talk, after all).
Housing promises seem to hold the most interest in B.C., where candidates of all stripes have foregrounded the housing crisis in presentations to voters (by contrast, housing has been hardly a factor in the spiels of candidates making their cases to this columnist’s family and friends back east).
While continuing with the 10-year national housing strategy introduced during its term just ended (tagged at $55 billion), the Liberal Party of Canada’s platform promises “a consistent national tax on vacant residential properties owned by non-Canadians who don’t live in Canada.” This could raise $217 million in its first year, and up to $256 million in the 2023-2024 fiscal year if implemented. This compares to B.C.’s anticipation of $187 million this year from its own speculation and vacancy tax.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party of Canada has said it will replace the existing “Housing Supply Challenge” (saving $315 million over five years) with a “Build More Homes Competition” (costed at $300 million in 2022-2023). “This competition will reward municipalities that have proven to reduce red tape that stands in the way of new home construction,” according to the platform.
Watch for changes to mortgage rules if the Conservatives are in power when you read this, too, including allowing 30-year amortization periods for government-insured mortgages.
The federal NDP platform chimes in with national construction commitments, promising 250,000 homes nationwide in the first five years of its mandate, and an extra $5 billion for affordable housing in the first 18 months. It will also extend amortization terms on insured mortgages – for first-time homebuyers only – and introduce a “foreign buyer’s tax” on the purchase of homes by those who aren’t Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
The Green Party also plans to start spending, with $1.7 billion in housing initiatives planned for its first year.
Whoever forms the next government, the biggest question may be who gets taxed to fund housing – locals, or foreigners.
