Winners announced for the 2021 Georgie Awards®  BURNABY, BC (March 20, 2021) – The Canadian Home Builders' Association of British Columbia (CHBA BC) is pleased to announce the winners for the 2021 Georgie Awards®. Open to all CHBA BC member companies in B.C., the awards celebrate excellence in home building and renovation in the residential construction industry. To be eligible for a Georg ...

Commercial real estate activity slowed as pandemic hit and regained momentum to conclude 2020   Sales activity in the Lower Mainland’s commercial real estate market slowed in the first half of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and rebounded in the second half of the year.   There were 1,582 commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland in 2020, a 0.6 per cent decrease from 1,59 ...

Email as a Method of ServiceLandlordBC has long advocated that landlords and tenants should be allowed to use email as a method of service. It has been a topic we have raised repeatedly and echoed again to the 2018 Rental Housing Task Force who included it in their list of recommendations. In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in BC we saw it successfully implemented as a measure t ...

Bill 7 Receives Royal AssentJust a few days ago Bill 7 – Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act received Royal Assent; the final step in its legislative process. This bill included updates to several sections of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) and while a few aspects still need some policy work and regulations to come into effect, several changes are effective now.Changes that are in ...

March home sales and new listings set records in Metro Vancouver   Home buyer and seller activity reached unprecedented levels across Metro Vancouver in March.  The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 5,708 in March 2021, a 126.1 per cent increase from the 2,524 sales recorded in March 2020, and a 53.2 per cent increase ...

Home buyer competition intensifies across Metro Vancouver’s housing market   Competition amongst home buyers is putting upward pressure on home prices across Metro Vancouver’s* housing market.    The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 3,727 in February 2021, a 73.3 per cent increase from the 2,150 sales recorded in Feb ...

Among Canada’s Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), the overall vacancy rate increased from 2.0% in 2019 to 3.2% in 2020 for all bedroom types, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) Rental Market Survey (RMS) released today. The national average two-bedroom rent across CMAs increased by 3.6% to $1,165. New this year, we have included rent arrears data. The COVID-19 pande ...

November home sales outpace seasonal norms and long-term averages   Housing demand in Metro Vancouver* continues to outpace historical averages with November sales eclipsing 3,000 for the first time since 2015.    The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 3,064 in November 2020, a 22.7 per cent increase from the 2,498 sal ...

Home sale and listing resurgence extends into the fall   Home sale and new listing activity remained at near record levels across Metro Vancouver in October.   The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 3,687 in October 2020, a 29 per cent increase from the 2,858 sales recorded in October 2019, and a 1.2 per cent increase ...

Government Update - BC NDP Announces Rent Increase Freeze As many of you have heard, the BC NDP have indicated in their election platform that they will extend the rent increase freeze that had been implemented during the COVID-19 period. In September 2020, they announced that the rent increase freeze implemented during the COVID-19 period would end December 1, 2020. If the BC NDP are re-elec ...