Streamlining on-stream
Speaking to the Vancouver Real Estate Forum last month, Jeff Fisher, senior policy adviser with the Urban Development Institute (UDI), expressed concern at the negative effect community amenity contributions and municipal building code requirements have on housing costs.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve read a report where it says [some policy] will only have an impact of 0.05% on the cost of new housing,” he said in a session on density and affordability. “Eventually it adds up.”
The comment brought to mind B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman’s pledge at a UDI luncheon in November 2010 to develop a single, provincewide building code that would eliminate differences between municipalities and reduce the costs they impose. The differences, he said, hit everything from the cost of social housing to commercial development, which prompts some developers to avoid municipalities rather than bear the extra costs.
“It shouldn’t be the psyche that we’ll just add regulatory burden and cost for the sake of having one more thing on the document or paper that we need to have checked off before we’ll approve a building permit,” Coleman said at the time. “We have to change that attitude.”
Change is coming. Fisher is spearheading the UDI’s submission regarding changes to the province’s building code in a comment period that ended this week. The changes include a uniform building code, e-filing of permits and post-inspection audits of new buildings. A government white paper summarizing the changes proposes funding the new system through levies on construction or user fees.
“We are especially supportive of the government’s plans to streamline building code interpretations,” Fisher said. “Interpretations can vary between jurisdictions, which results in confusion, costs and delays.”
But the UDI is also concerned about the plans for post-inspection audits and the proposed funding model. Given the extra expense they entail, the institute questions the need for both.
“We want to discuss with the government their proposal on funding this initiative – given the $200 million to $300 million in property transfer tax revenues that the province receives from new construction,” Fisher said.
Tracing sources
According to Bill Binnie, broker and owner of Royal LePage Northshore, when he recently asked an executive with one of the major banks why some of his clients were having trouble getting mortgages, the banker confided that it was because Canada’s banks have been scrutinizing foreign cash sources more closely. While the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac) requires disclosure of all cash transactions above $10,000, greater scrutiny occurs only if the paper trail raises concerns that the individual is a suspected fraudster, criminal or terrorist. But Binnie said scrutiny has tightened at the behest of federal authorities.
“There’s increased scrutiny and enforcement of our own regulations for transferring money in, and that’s by the Canadian banks as a result of pressure from our own government,” Binnie said. “The federal government told them to smarten up. So now it’s harder for some of these people to be bringing money in.”
Binnie wouldn’t name the bank, but a few calls to banks indicate the scrutiny isn’t widespread.
BMO Financial Group’s “Anti-Money Laundering Office” responded to a query saying there’s been no change in its handling of foreign transactions.
“There continues to be a robust adjudication practice and processes that our bankers are required to follow when it comes to any transactions [real estate or otherwise] from foreign locations,” local media relations manager Laurie Grant said.
RBC Financial Group didn’t respond to the question, while Ann De Rabbie of Scotiabank said the sole change she’s seen has been a loosening of standards.
“Where funds were coming in from overseas, we used to require funds remain on deposit for 90 days prior to closing and now it’s 30,” she said. “We’ve kind of gone in the other direction from what you’re hearing.”
Plus ça change …
“Vancouver is the Swiss bank account of real estate,” opined condo marketer Cameron McNeill of MAC Marketing Solutions as he closed the firm’s recent Golden Cube awards honouring the most successful real estate agents at developments MAC has handled over the past year. “We’re really not that expensive when you consider [Vancouver] is the world’s most liveable city.”
Sure, the comments might be great for a pep talk to star realtors or anxious developers wondering where the market’s heading, but consider what the late Barry Broadfoot wrote 36 years ago in his introduction to The City of Vancouver (1976), which featured photos by the celebrated Fred Herzog and others.
Broadfoot noted that Vancouver was deemed the world’s fourth most livable city by readers of the Christian Science Monitor in 1975. This, despite the West End having been, “highrised almost out of recognition.” Sound familiar?
Then, foreshadowing the “living first” policy that launched the transformation of the rest of the downtown peninsula in the 1990s, Broadfoot tells readers not to pity West Enders: “They live there because they want to – high rents and all – so they can walk to another highrise to work, or stroll down to feed the ducks on Lost Lagoon.”
With further densification on the city’s agenda, Broadfoot’s comments still sound fresh – even if the Seawall has replaced the ducks as Stanley Park’s key attraction for downtown condo dwellers. •
