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.
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.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.
