Photos: These Vancouver homes for sale look like Bridgerton mansions

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East Vancouver cottage of 444 square feet sells for over $1.5 million

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• This one-bedroom rancher at 1280 East 33^rd Avenue was built in 1944.

The cottage is tucked at the back of its own lot in East Vancouver.

There’s no bigger house in front of this lodge that measures 444 square feet.

 

The small home at 1280 East 33^rd Avenue contains a bedroom, a living room that functions as dining area as well, kitchen, and a bath.

 

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It was built in 1944, and there’s a chance it will be replaced with a new development.

This is because the cottage was sold recently for $1,550,000.

The listing for the property noted that the site presents a “great opportunity to build a duplex in a fabulous location”.

 

The Straight sought the listing agent for more details about this Vancouver real estate, and will update this story when additional information is available.

The sold price equals $3,491 per square foot of the existing tiny home.

One interesting thing about this sale is that 1280 East 33^rd Avenue made more money than what the property next door to the west did last year.

On May 11, 2021, the property at 1260 East 33^rd Avenue sold for $1,325,000.

The house at this neighbouring site is 1,630 square feet, which means it’s about three to four times bigger than that of 1280 East 33^rd Avenue.

The two homes sit on 33-foot lots.

The Straight asked longtime Vancouver realtor David Hutchinson about what he thinks regarding the two properties.

“Although one house is larger than the other, detached house sales are mostly based on land value,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson noted that assessed values of both properties are about the same.

The property at 1280 East 33^rd Avenue has a 2022 assessment of $1,420,900.

That’s $1,412,000 for the 33-foot by 118.5-foot lot, and $8,900 for the cottage.

The property at 1260 East 33^rd has a 2022 assessment of $1,469,000.

This is broken into $1,409,000 for the 33-foot by 117.7-foot lot, and $60,000 for the rancher with basement.

“What a difference a year makes: the smaller house sold at a higher price because the market had gone up quite a bit,” Hutchinson said.

This property next door at 1260 East 33^rd Avenue sold in 2021 for $1,325,000.

The Sutton Group-West Coast Realty also noted that 1280 East 33^rd Avenue is the smallest detached house he’s ever run across in Vancouver.

“I don't know the complete history of the 78-year-old home, and whether it was always that way, or the structure at the front of the property was removed at some time,” Hutchinson said.

“But in any case,” the realtor continued, “it's absolutely amazing that a detached house like this even exists in the city.”

Another interesting thing is that 1280 East 33^rd Avenue sold on the same day as the property at its east side, 1294 East 33^rd Avenue on March 29, 2022.

The property at 1294 East 33^rd Avenue has a 33-foot by 118-foot lot, and a 2,443-square-foot house with three bedrooms and two baths.

This particular Vancouver real estate sold for $1,750,000.

Its 2022 assessment is $1,454,100, which is comparable to 1280 East 33^rd Avenue and 1260 East 33^rd Avenue.

This adjacent property at 1294 East 33^rd Avenue sold on the same day as 1280 East 33^rd Avenue for $1,750,000.

It’s also interesting to note that based on tracking by real-estate site Zealty.ca, the sellers of the three properties have one listing agency, Stilhavn Real Estate Services.

Here’s an aerial look at these properties.

The cottage at 1280 East 33rd Avenue is sandwiched by 1260 East 33rd Avenue (left) and 1294 East 33rd Avenue.GOOGLE

Carlito Pablo

 @carlitopablo

Staff writer Carlito Pablo lives in Vancouver. On sunny weekends, he and his family are usually found on beaches and in parks. A journalist who formerly worked in Manila, he's a proud new Canadian.

GO TO PROFILE

What came first, investor demand or a lack of supply? For many, the question of Vancouver’s affordability crisis is a lot like the old chicken-or-egg riddle. There are those who fiercely believe that local governments and homeowners have impeded the progress of new construction over the years, constraining supply and driving up prices. And then there are those who believe that a lot of the new housing that’s brought online targets investors who seek to maximize profit, turning housing into a game of real-life monopoly.

In the past few years, big money investors, also known as institutional investors, have moved into the Lower Mainland to take direct advantage of one of the world’s most lucrative real estate markets. The Vancouver Real Estate Forum, to be held this year on April 12 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, includes a panel discussion on the growing trend of institutional investors partnering with local developers. And experts from investment firms will talk on other panels that cover everything from government policies and the demand for rental housing to the affordability crisis.

“They are aligning with local developer talent that are good at sourcing opportunities and properties – the pension funds are happy to participate directly with guys like us,” said Brent Sawchyn, principal and chief executive officer of development company PC Urban Properties, and a Forum panelist. Mr. Sawchyn’s mid-size company has partnered with several such companies on projects in recent years.

He estimates that, globally, there are about a dozen markets for pension fund types to inject their money and Vancouver is a draw. They are looking for markets where population and business opportunities are on the rise. For developers, such investor partnerships have become more appealing because of the high cost involved in development.

“If you’ve got $10-billion of money that you want to put into real estate in certain markets in Canada – let’s say multifamily apartment buildings – you need to cast your net pretty broadly to be able to fill that need, to place that amount of money,” Mr. Sawchyn said.

“The pension funds and ‘near pension funds’ are all interested in participating in real estate so that they can, at the end of the day, attract an ongoing return for their investment – so they can go buy existing apartment buildings or they can participate with us, where we can build a brand new apartment building that is smack clean out-of-the-box brand new, with a lot less requirements for repairs and maintenance and then generate an attractive return for them.”

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Some housing advocates have accused the institutional investor of pushing prices higher because they snap up old apartment stock and seek healthy returns. Mr. Sawchyn and others argue that they are serving the opposite purpose, because rental apartments would be otherwise too risky to build. For big money investors, however, apartment buildings “are very well sought after and prized,” he says.

“Without institutional investment into, say, new apartment buildings, we wouldn’t be delivering any stock.

“Some argue, ‘this is a new building, rents are expensive, it’s not affordable.’ But if we’ve got 75,000 to 100,000 people moving here a year to the Lower Mainland, we need to build housing. And without pension funds participating in housing, we are not going to have any more stock. Rents will keep going up.”

But it’s also true that the big investor is in the Vancouver market expressly because growth is the expectation. Some argue that anything that gets in the way, such as government regulation that restricts rents, or building heights, or costly development fees, or public engagement that stalls projects for years, for example, impedes the delivery of supply. For some, less regulation of the housing system is the most effective way of meeting the future demand.

Simon Fraser University professor of finance, Andrey Pavlov, argues that institutional investors are generally better landlords than mom-and-pop landlords, and regulations and taxes designed to cool the market only add to their financial burden, making housing less affordable. We shouldn’t be just building for the current population – we should be building to house future populations, says Mr. Pavlov.

“We have constrained population growth in the Lower Mainland because of limits on housing,” he says. “There is that additional complication that maybe you have investment demand that has nothing to do really with current population growth. In my view, we should provide enough housing even for that, and it can be done, but there is a more difficult argument to be made there. However, in the rental market it is very, very clear.”

The residential rental vacancy rate, he says, should get to at least 3 per cent to adequately supply the population.

Patrick Condon, University of B.C. urban design professor and author of Sick City: Disease, Race, Inequality and Urban Land, argues that the housing crisis stems from the commodification of land, which is no longer based on its value for housing, but for its value as a global asset class. In order to solve the housing problem, he says, you have to control the price of urban land.

“Housing is no longer valued for its utility. It is now valued as a commodity, just like gold, Bitcoin or stocks and bonds,” he said in an e-mail. “We have moved from an economy based largely on wages to one based largely on investments, with investors now in the driver’s seat. It’s extra complicated, because most of us participate in it and benefit from it, with our RRSPs and our pension fund contributions, not to mention the baby boomers benefitting from a passive gain of $4-million for their Dunbar home.”

Developer David Fullbrook says that he’s not sure that a glut of new supply will bring prices down.

“I look at the paradigm and it has got too many opposing forces.”

There are a lot of constraints on available land, and land cost is high. He says it means that only a few major players with deep pockets can afford to play.

“By and large, it’s more the commodification of housing that is fundamentally a problem, that we just haven’t identified as being a real thing. We haven’t allowed that to happen for health care and we have allowed it to happen for housing – and now that die has been cast it’s going to be very hard to unwind that, I would guess,” he said.

Mr. Fullbrook, who has been in the industry for 30 years and spent most of his career in the U.S., partners with investors and builds mostly commercial developments in B.C. and Alberta, including some multifamily residential.

“When the dot.com collapsed in 2000, that sort of released a lot of capital and that money began to flow into commercial real estate. I’m talking globally. … When that money started to flow, it never stopped and it began to accelerate. So what you’ve got now … is really institutional capital that is driving predominantly home development.

“I think the big collapse was obviously the Liberal government’s lack of attention to housing and the value that was created for them politically by this Chinese inflow of capital, this foreign investment money that really protected Vancouver from some of the cyclical swings that were happening throughout North America.

“I always look at Vancouver investors as being rewarded for speculation. They buy property and they may over pay. They don’t really know what a downturn looks like. So there has always been money to be made, and the province is constantly trying to manipulate the system to drive or incentivize capital to behave in a certain way – and we are just too late.

“Since Expo, there has been 30 years of unprecedented demand for B.C. real estate and it doesn’t seem to be impacted by typical market swings that would make people a little more cautious, particularly the speculative venturers who don’t really add a lot of value to the process, in my own view.”

Mr. Fullbrook finds the increasing rents worrisome and is concerned about his own children’s futures. He said he just priced a 128-unit, 20-storey concrete tower at $650 buildable per foot, not including land, profit and interest to cover the financing. The means the consumer is looking at about $500,000 for a 500-square-foot condo. That’s about 10 times the average salary, compared to when he was starting out and a home might be three times the average salary. That creates a “vicious circle of haves and have-nots,” Mr. Fullbrook says.

And investors are, by necessity, driven by profit.

“We had a deal we were quite interested in, and there was an investor group that was interested in the project, and putting capital in, and what they wanted us to do was something that I just would not do. I would not undermine a community that was thriving, and in a good place, to make a quicker yield.

“That was really what they were driven by: ‘we want to make that money in three years and get it out and then get it back in.’

“I don’t judge it,” he adds. “I just recognize it as being a factor of the market, that there is an avaricious quality to investors.”

Your house is your most valuable asset. We have a weekly Real Estate newsletter to help you stay on top of news on the housing market, mortgages, the latest closings and more. Sign up today.

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Empty five-acre land parcel available on Vancouver's prestigious Belmont Avenue

Three-lot parcel for sale at $81 million, with yearly property taxes of $280,000, but cannot be stratified

Article content

An extraordinary opportunity exists for a developer willing to spend $81 million buying up Vancouver’s most valuable parcel of vacant detached home lots, says local historian John Atkin.

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Atkin said the three side-by-side lots on Belmont Avenue in West Point Grey comprise a total of five acres. One has never been developed, while two homes that sat on the other lots are long demolished. The three have been sold as a parcel since at least the 1970s and are recorded as lots one, two and three in 1909 subdivision records.

“It’s extraordinary that you would find such an amazing piece of property that’s not developed in that location, given some of the extraordinary houses and architecture that you find out there, both the older stuff that’s been kept and well loved and some of the new houses. Those three lots are just sitting there,” said Atkin, adding that one of the demolished homes was occupied by former Canadian Prime Minister John Turner as a teenager after his widowed mom married Lieut. Governor Frank Mackenzie Ross, who owned the house.

Article content

The prestigious Belmont heights neighbourhood north of 4th Avenue is bounded by Blanca Street, the Spanish Banks Creek ravine and NW Marine Drive.

Atkin said the area was subdivided around the same time as Shaughnessy with similar-sized lots (some 200-feet wide and 400-feet deep). However, the Shaughnessy lots needed at least $5,000 to be spent on the new home and had to be developed as soon as possible and so attracted a different buyer than the Belmont heights neighbourhood, that was then considered remote.

There are still homes in the neighbourhood that were built in the early 1910s — the Vancouver real-estate market collapsed in 1913 — including one on West 2nd Avenue that was built for mattress manufacturer Robert Hunter and is now occupied by former politician, physician and Olympic basketball player Pat McGeer.

Article content

Atkin said there was another surge in development in the neighbourhood in the 1920s and 1930s, as people moved from the West End to get away from pollution due to sawmills in False Creek and the Burrard Inlet.

The three side-by-side lots (4883/4889/4899 Belmont) have been on the market since June 21, 2021 and are priced at $38.9 million, $29.9 million and $11.9 million for a total of $80.7 million.

They are being marketed by Sutton Group Realtor Danny Deng.

Deng’s listing states that if the three lots are purchased together as a 5.06-acre parcel, the buyer will have the potential to “apply for redevelopment”.

According to a City of Vancouver spokesperson, the lots are zoned RS-1, which permits one and two-family dwellings through a development permit process.

Article content

“There are no policies that would allow a strata-titled condo/townhome project, or a market rental development,” the spokesperson said.

“If however, the purchaser wanted to develop social housing, the West Point Grey Community Vision supports rezoning for social housing developments owned and operated by non-profits.”

Deng did not respond to a request for interview. A photo illustration that showed 27 residences on the combined parcel was removed from the listing on Monday.

The three lots were bought in 2015 for $26.5 million by three numbered companies — all with directors Luijan Shao and Edison Washington. The following year they were listed for $68.5 million combined but never sold.

According to land title records, they were purchased as a parcel in 1978 for $980,000.

Article content

A 2016 article by former The Province reporter Sam Cooper reported that Edison Washington is also known as Qiang Wang and that with his wife had purchased $152 million worth of Vancouver property since 2011 — including the Belmont Ave properties and parcels on Cambie Street that have since been redeveloped.

The property listing showed the owner of the undeveloped lots would have to pay around $280,000 a year in property tax.

dcarrigg@postmedia.com

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Buying a Vancouver home: 5 tips if you end up in a bidding war 

Buying a home: 5 tips if you end up in a bidding war

There are a few things you can do to try to lessen the stress of buying when you’re not the only one who thinks they’ve found their dream home.

Realtor Amy Trebelco says it's important to keep your cool in Vancouver’s housing market. Trebelco offers a few tips to lessen the stress of buying when you’re not the only one who thinks they’ve found their dream home. PHOTO BY NICK PROCAYLO /PNG

Article content

You’ve finally found the home of your dreams. So have 15 other people.

Article content

 

 

5 tips if you’re in a bidding war

Competing offers are the buyer’s bane in a market where demand far outstrips supply. The Lower Mainland has had more than its fair share of bidding wars as emotions run high and home-hungry buyers get caught up in the thrill of the hunt. As they say, it’s a jungle out there.

That’s why in Vancouver’s housing market it’s important to keep your cool. There are a few things you can do to try to lessen the stress of buying when you’re not the only one who thinks they’ve found their dream home. Local realtor Amy Trebelco provided us with some tips on surviving the Greater Vancouver bidding wars.

1. Work with a realtor who knows the area

Any realtor worth their license will provide their client with a market analysis for the property. But it also helps to work with someone who knows the area beyond what they see on feature sheets. That way they can provide an assessment of what a property is worth in terms of the real world, rather than what’s on paper.

Article content

“Neighbourhoods and locations have different nuances,” says Trebelco, a realtor with the Mary Cleaver Group. “An agent who is an expert in the area is aware of the activity levels of the market and has likely seen or been in many of the recent comparable units or buildings, which helps to really understand the market value of a property. They may also be able to say, ‘Oh that building has a big project coming up, that’s why it’s priced this way’ or ‘That unit got a premium because it’s really well maintained and fiscally responsible.’”

2. Know thy self

A buyer might have a reason for wanting a property that goes beyond the range that the agent recommends.

“Maybe your best friend lives across the street or you grew up in this neighbourhood or this is your absolute dream home and you’re going to live there for the next 35 years,” she says. “Then the value to you as a buyer could be a little bit higher than what my range of market value is. It’s the balance between those two things. As long as the buyer is educated regarding both values, then they make the ultimate decision about the price.”

Article content

3. Be prepared

In the Lower Mainland, the seller signs a Direction Regarding Presentation of Offers (DRPO). The document says that the seller is not going to look at any offers until a certain time.
“Then you know when your offer is due and you have until that time to do your due diligence,” Trebelco says.

This includes:

1. Checking in with your mortgage broker to ensure that they have the documents they need.
2. Reviewing property documents, including strata documents.
3. Doing a pre-inspection.
4. Ensuring your deposit funds are readily available.

“Traditionally you would do all of this after you’ve secured the property. In the case of multiple offers, you try to do all of this ahead of time so you come in as clean as you can.”

Article content

David Fairbairn, of Fairbairn Home Inspectors, recommends a pre-purchase inspection. “It’s a great deal. It’s cheap insurance. You spend $500 and you could save thousands. We’re seeing the inspections pre-purchase are going by the wayside right now and it’s very unfortunate.

“A good deal of my business is going to properties after the buyer has already taken possession. Unfortunately, in many of these cases, we’re finding the buyer has purchased a home with a hidden issue. That’s a very unpleasant surprise especially after you’ve got your keys and moved your furniture in and discover there’s a foundation leak.”

Occasionally Trebelco will tell a client that they can skip the inspection, which can happen sometimes on strata properties, “if the building has well-documented maintenance histories, the depreciation report is recent, or we may be familiar with the building. We sell a lot in Mount Pleasant and the East Side, so we have clients who have bought in various properties. So, if you have the documentation and knowledge about the building, you may choose — depending on your own risk tolerance — to go ahead with or skip an inspection.”

Article content

4. Be available

This applies to both buyer and agent. “If we get the phone call where the buyer is in the top two or three and you want to revise the offer, if you’ve gone out for a dinner or a movie you may miss your opportunity. You have to block off that time and sit by the phone in anticipation of what might happen.”
That’s what Trebelco does. “Monday and Tuesday nights, I sit at home. I’m never more than 10 feet away from my phone and computer.”

5. Know your budget and stick to it

“Bidding wars can be emotional,” Trebelco says, “especially if you have lost a few properties.” A buyer might be ready to up their offer by an unrealistic amount. Trebelco said that’s when it’s their job to be the calm in the storm, and to say, ‘the broker approved you for a certain amount, we talked about the value and it was this.’

Article content

“We can help balance the emotions,” Trebelco said.

Trebelco has seen enough homes slip away from dreamers to become philosophical about missed opportunities.

“It’s hard to take the emotion out of multiple offers when you fall in love with a home and envision living there. At the end of the day there will be another one. Once you get one or two under your belt it becomes a little easier to ride the wave. I’m a firm believer that you get the property that you’re meant to get to make it a home.”

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

1. 

   Metro Vancouver’s first-time homebuyer‘s guide

2. 

   10 terms first-time B.C. homebuyers need to know

3. 

   Buying a condo? Watch for these red flags in the strata minutes

4. Buying a home: 5 tips if you end up in a bidding war

5. Q&A: First-time homebuyers face sticker shock from hidden costs

6. 

   A look at financial help and incentives for first-time homebuyers in B.C.

7. 

   Old, newer, or newest? The pros and cons of purchasing an older versus newer condo

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Metro Vancouver’s first-time homebuyers' guide

Looking to purchase your first home but don't know where to start? We curated a first-time homebuyer's guide just for you

Article content

Real-estate prices continue to soar across much of B.C., and home ownership is out of reach for far too many people. It can take years of sacrifice to scrape together enough money for a down payment on a modest first home. Then what?

Article content

 

 

Hidden costs for first-time home buyers | Vancouver Sun

Anyone poised to plunge into the most expensive housing market in Canada faces myriad questions and choices, such as:

• What real-estate lingo do I need to know?
• How do I find my first realtor?
• How do I win a bidding war?
• Should I buy a new condo or older condo?
• What red flags should I look out for in a condo building?
• What extra costs will I have to pay when I buy a home?
• Do I qualify for financial help to buy my first home?

Postmedia reporters and editors in Metro Vancouver and cities across the country have created a First-Time Homebuyer’s Guide to assist with these and many other questions. In addition to local journalism, you’ll find explanatory stories about the housing market and home-buying process from reporters at the National Post and Financial Post.

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This comprehensive collection of stories and videos is intended for those contemplating the most expensive purchase of their life.

10 terms first-time B.C. homebuyers need to know

From selecting a realtor and scrolling through the MLS to checking your bank account, buying a home for the first time can be an intimidating prospect. Then there’s all the lingo to learn, such as amortization and variable mortgage rate.

Here is a list of 10 terms that first-time homebuyers should know before wading into the Lower Mainland real estate market.

We asked Bridgewell Real Estate Group’s Mariko Baerg to help us separate our deposits from our down payments, and our completion dates from our possession dates.

Article content

How to find your first realtor: 3 things to look for

Buying a home for the first time can be an overwhelming experience. Choosing a realtor is one of the first steps to make it less scary. With more than 14,000 real estate agents to choose from in the Lower Mainland, how do you find the right one?

“It’s a very intense relationship for the time you’re working together,” said Mary Cleaver, a realtor since 2011. “There’s a lot at stake.”

The process can take weeks or months as the buyer and the realtor meet for an introductory session, visit open houses, review and discuss documents, and write offers. Rapport is crucial.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s your first or 10th time buying, the things you’re looking for are the same,” Cleaver said. “Competence, as in can they do the job; capacity, can they take you on; and connection.”

Article content

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Old, newer or newest? The pros and cons of purchasing an older vs newer condo

For some homebuyers, it’s all about the laundry.

“In-suite laundry can be a deal-breaker for some people,” Stillhaven Real Estate Services’ Kristi Holz said.

If a buyer is thinking about a condo in a newer building it’s no problem. But older buildings likely have shared laundry — one of the things to be aware of when considering whether to buy old, newer, or newest.

From amenities to location, here are some things to consider when deciding between buying a condo in a new building versus an old building.

5 tips if you end up in a bidding war

You’ve finally found the home of your dreams. So have 15 other people.

Competing offers are the buyer’s bane in a market where demand far outstrips supply. The Lower Mainland has had more than its fair share of bidding wars as emotions run high and home-hungry buyers get caught up in the thrill of the hunt. As they say, it’s a jungle out there.

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That’s why in Vancouver’s housing market it’s important to keep your cool. There are a few things you can do to try to lessen the stress of buying when you’re not the only one who thinks they’ve found their dream home. Local realtor Amy Trebelco provided us with some tips on surviving the Greater Vancouver bidding wars.

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Buying a condo? Watch for these red flags in the strata minutes

When it comes to buying a home in a strata property, some detective work is in order.

With more than 1.5 million British Columbians living in strata housing, it’s important for homebuyers to know what they’re getting into. Parsing building reports and strata minutes can help avoid future pitfalls, such as special assessments and levies, or worse.

Here are some tips on reading strata minutes, what documents to look for, and how to spot red flags.

Q&A: First-time homebuyers face sticker shock from hidden costs

First-time homebuyers are often surprised at all the extra costs involved in purchasing a home. Along with the minimum deposit, there are fees on top of fees — before, during and after the actual purchase.

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We talked to Michelle Comens, who left the city’s VFX industry for the Lower Mainland real estate world 12 years ago, about these hidden costs.

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How to get financial help to buy your first home in B.C.

At first glance, it seems that first-time homebuyers have options when it comes to financial help and government incentives. But dig a little deeper and what looks like a good deal for cash-strapped buyers is either not much of one or based on unrealistic conditions.

To break it down, we talked to Abdul Safi, a mortgage specialist who works for TD in Guildford.

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Other resources for first-time homebuyers

• CMHC calculators: Mortgage | Affordability | Debt Service
• B.C. property transfer tax exemption for first-time home buyers
• CMHC’s first-time home buyer incentive
• CMHC’s condo buyer’s guide
• Condominium Home Owners Association of B.C