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Friday 28 October 2011

The Real Estate Round-Up - October 31, 2011

UDI-BC Snapshot Poll finds developers stalling projects due to lack of clarity around HST

Ultimately the old GST & PST system will reduce the cost of buying a new home, but the transitional period is already hurting the development community, and the economy.

A recent snapshot poll conducted by the Urban Development Institue found that 36/50 developers or 72% have put projects on hold due to the lack of clarity surrounding the transitional period. Developers fear that without clear guidelines, potential new home buyers will hold off until the old tax system is back in place.

BC is not alone, as a recent Ontario poll conducted by the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) has shown significant confusion still exists surrounding what the HST is applied to in terms of buying a home.

Conference Board of Canada calls Vancouver housing market "balanced"

"It must be that the sales-to-listings ratio is balanced," conference board spokeswoman Yvonne Squires told Business in Vancouver in their recent article.

This contrasts from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), who describes Vancouver's housing market as a buyer's market.

Although home prices in Metro Vancouver dipped 0.37% in September, the conference board expects Vancouver home prices to rise 5% by September 2012.

Know Your New Home Warranty Insurance Coverage


A recent article published in the Chilliwack Times attempted to shed some light on some of the finer points to new home warranty insurance coverage in British Columbia. A while back, we attempted to do the same thing but found it alarmingly difficult; you can read the blog post here.

Although most areas of the Homeowner Protection Act in BC are relatively straight forward, where it pertains to routine maintenance, it can get quite confusing. Because coverage under new home warranty insurance in some cases is dependant on owner's doing routine maintenance, one would expect that all manufacturer documents for installed products in the home would be provided to homeowners when they take occupancy. Section 14, "Consequences of not providing information" is vague in definition however, leaving the topic open for interpretation.

Until this section is defined more clearly, the potential for misunderstanding between builder and homeowner will exist.
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