In unaffordable Vancouver, we need to start thinking small.

Tiny houses, lock-off suites, laneway suites, houseplexes are necessary housing options.This was the theme of a recent conference organized by Small Housing BC (SHBC), a non-profit organization created to promote smaller homes throughout the province.

Read what Michael Geller has to say about small spaces:

https://www.vancourier.com/opinion/in-unaffordable-vancouver-we-need-to-start-thinking-small-1.23505368?utm_source=Vancouver+Courier+Headline+News&utm_campaign=25d7834aaa-Vancouver_Courier_Headline_News6_26_2015_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3dc23cf6d7-25d7834aaa-96569025

At Vancouver City Hall, new councillor Colleen Hardwick was attempting to get council’s support to send the bylaw passed Sept. 19 to another public hearing with the aim of rescinding it.

Hardwick pointed out her NPA colleague Melissa De Genova and Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr rejected Vision’s duplex plan for single-family neighbourhoods in the previous sitting of council.

Learn more...

https://www.vancourier.com/real-estate/npa-councillor-blasts-colleagues-for-failing-to-rescind-duplex-vote-1.23500120

VANCOUVER — The City of Vancouver says it has collected $18 million from the first year of its empty homes tax and another $12 million could still flow into its coffers.

The city says in a news release that it expects to generate a total of $30 million from the first year of the tax which is applied to vacant residential properties in a bid to ease Vancouver's near-zero vacancy rate.

Learn more...

https://www.vancourier.com/real-estate/vancouver-expects-30-million-in-first-year-of-empty-homes-tax-1.23490742

Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr drafting motion to rescind vote of previous Vision Vancouver-led council.

• Generally, a new council is free to reconsider previous bylaws and resolutions of its predecessors.
   
• If the new council wanted to take steps to reverse some or all of these [duplex zoning] amendments, council would need to hold a public hearing prior to approving an amendment to reverse the amendments that are currently proposed.
• If (as is the case here) the matter being reconsidered is a zoning bylaw amendment, then a key issue is what to do with the applicants who have sought to develop their properties in accordance with the impugned amendments.
• Section 570 of the Vancouver Charter authorizes a method of preventing or withholding such applications.
• The new council could also be amenable to have the city issue permits for duplexes until it revises the bylaws to forbid them. No resolution would be needed under section 570 if council was not concerned about the approval of some duplexes.

 Areas covered by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver include: Whistler, Sunshine Coast, Squamish, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and South Delta.

The real estate industry is a key economic driver in British Columbia. In 2017, 35,993 homes changed ownership in the Board’s area, generating $2.4 billion in economic spin-off activity and an estimated 17,600 jobs. The total dollar value of residential sales transacted through the MLS® system in Greater Vancouver totalled $37 billion in 2017.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is an association representing more than 14,000 REALTORS® and their companies.

Where are Western Canada's biggest hotspots for real estate investment in 2019? If you have some funds burning a hole in your pocket, you would be advised to take a look outside of the usual suspects of Vancouver and the Capital region.

Here are our sister publication Western Investor's picks for the top five Western Canadian cities to invest in real estate over the next year.

Read on to find out!

https://www.vancourier.com/real-estate/2019-s-top-five-real-estate-investment-towns-in-western-canada-1.23479665