Chad Skeleton, Vancouver Sun, January 4, 2006
Whistler homeowners saw the average value of their homes drop last year — making it one of the few places in the province to see property values decline in 2005, according to figures released by BC Assessment Tuesday.
An analysis of assessment figures by Landcor Data Corp. indicates the average single-family home in B.C. increased in value by 18.8 per cent over the past year,
Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun, December 6. 2005
Former premier Bill Vander Zalm owns a lakefront acreage near 100 Mile House that boasts peace and quiet, water views, forest shade and riding trails. Thursday, he’ll hand it over to the highest bidder.
Vander Zalm, in an interview, said he took over the 34-hectare parcel on Tatton Lake, north of 100 Mile House, in the late 1970s as partial payment for a business deal,
Timothy Taylor, Enroute Magazine, October 2005
The curling rink in the abandoned mining town of Kitsault, uninhabited for almost a quarter-century now, offers a very particular variety of isolation, of aloneness. An hour north of Prince Rupert by air, up the tendril end of Alice Arm, there is manifestly nobody around. Here inside, the Maple Leaf Pub is dark. In through the lobby, pas the “Sunny Kitsault 2nd Annual Mixed Bonspiel” sign,
Peter Mitham, Western Investor– September 2005
A quiet night on the Thompson River after several trips back and forth to Kamloops clinched Toronto developer Ted Snider’s decision to make the move to B.C.’s Interior.
“I would leave Kamloops and I’d be sitting on the flight back to Toronto and I noticed I was really relaxed,” said Snider, who was born and raised in Toronto and never thought he would consider living anywhere else.
Paul Harris, Western Investor, July, 2005
A business plan is taking shape to transform a B.C. mining ghost town into a magnet for corporate retreats and ecotourism.
Kitsault in northwestern B.C. was recently purchased for a reported $7 million in cash by Indian-born entrepreneur Krish Suthanthiran. The deal includes approximately 90 houses and duplexes, seven apartment buildings, an equipped hospital, a large works yard, a local dock, a 22,000 square foot shopping centre and two recreation centres.
Peter Mitham, Business in Vancouver, June 21-27, 2005
Some consider them the lenders of last resort, other the drivers of the current real estate boom.
But regardless of who you speak to, the angel investors are active in B.C.’s property market are a low-key lot who would rather keep quiet about their dealings.
Angel real estate investors, like the angel financiers to whom the startups of the information economy turned to in the late 1990s are typically experienced hands in the market with cash to invest in the next new project with promise.
CanWest News Services, Victoria Times Colonist, June 16, 2005
Vancouver Island residents looking for recreational property are quickly becoming aware of the cost of a piece of paradise. But it’s no different across the province, where costs are soaring as well.
“Today is the hottest recreational market it 40 years,” says Rudy Nielsen, the fit 64-year-old founder of Niho Land & Cattle Co, Ltd., a recreational firm specializing in B.C.
Joanne Hatherly, Victoria Times Colonist, June 16, 2005
A lone adirondack chair sits at the end of a dew-flecked wooden dock. An early morning mist wafts over the lake, its feathery fingers vanishing in the evergreen forest on the far shore.
Got the picture?
It’s the classic cottage scene, portrayed in art, magazine ads, television commercials and cottage shows with such regularity that it has take on icon status.
In the 45 years I have spent hiking and camping in the great outdoors, I have encountered many animals of various species. My father was a trapper in the early thirties and he taught me at an early age what to watch out for at different times of the year regarding the feeding habits and moods of animals in the wilds. So over the years I have developed a sixth sense as to when and what animal I’ll meet and which animal wants to have its picture taken and which one wants to be left alone.
P.J. Wade, Realty Times, June 14, 2005
Residential real estate is hot stuff these days, but it represents only a fraction of available Canadian acreage. Home and cottage owners sometimes forget that there’s a lot more real estate out there to consider if they are looking for good investments. Here’s an example that may inspire some buyers to think as big as this country is.
One Canadian has earned a reputation for buying towns.