Stay in touch with NIHO!

Water’s Edge: Eye-popping property values on Metro Vancouver’s waterfront

Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun, May 12, 2016

When we think of waterfront homes, we often think big: The palatial mansion on the expansive lot with the eye-popping price tag.

And while there are many teeny tiny places squeezed onto precious seaside land, there are indeed some impressively large homes to tell you about.

There are 275 oceanfront homes bigger than 5,000 square feet — 16 of them condos.

Read more »

Water’s Edge: Mud, marsh and ‘menace’ seals from Wreck Beach to Steveston

Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun, May 11, 2016

I awake to the sound of a gull and crows scrounging through my gear for food.

The gull thinks it has something, but it’s just a plastic baggie containing my pocket matches.

“Get out of here,” I scream. It obliges by flying away with the matches and landing out on the salt chuck.

So much for morning coffee.

Read more »

Water’s Edge: Cafes, hotels and other commercial properties sitting on pricey Metro Vancouver land

Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun, May 11, 2016

Commercial properties may only take up two per cent of the land lining Metro Vancouver’s oceanfront, but this includes nearly 600 businesses that will feed, entertain and pamper you along the shoreline.

There are at least 77 office buildings, 73 hotels, 37 stores, 12 restaurants and five theatres directly on the Pacific Ocean between Lions Bay and South Surrey. (There are likely even more stores and restaurants that would not have been listed separately if,

Read more »

Water’s Edge: A fresh look at Vancouver’s postcard locations

Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun, May 11, 2016

It is a calm sunny morning at Third Beach in Stanley Park and not even an introduced eastern grey squirrel is bouncing around for free peanuts.

About the only thing stirring in the corner parking lot is me, hauling my kayak off the back of my pickup truck and dragging it across the grass down a small bluff to the seawall to be hoisted onto the salty shores of English Bay.

Read more »

Water’s Edge: Fun facts on oceanfront park life in Metro Vancouver

Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun, May 10, 2016

You can skimboard at Jericho Beach, ride your bike along the Richmond dikes and hunt for crabs at Ambleside park in West Vancouver.

How has Metro Vancouver done at keeping access to the ocean open to the public? How much of our waterfront is blocked off by condo walls or industrial gates?

According to real estate data provided by Landcor Data Corp and analyzed by The Sun,

Read more »

Water’s Edge: Shapes, sizes and values of oceanfront condos revealed

Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun, May 9, 2016

Along Metro Vancouver’s tony waterfront, condominiums are no longer the poor man’s starter home.

Many are now the rich man’s mansion, minus the grass and plus the concierge.

There is a condo at the foot of Thurlow Street, with unrestricted views of Vancouver Harbour, which is more than 8,000 square feet and has five bathrooms. Its price tag is a cool $22.3 million,

Read more »

Water’s Edge: Industry versus nature in Canada’s busiest port

Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun, May 9, 2016

When we look out at the craggy industrial face of the Port of Vancouver, we see freighters from around the world, piles of sulphur and coal, grain unloaded from rail cars into silos, commercial float planes, tugs, ferries and gantries moving container cargo.

Much less obvious is the natural world that defies the odds and makes its home within the bustling waters and unyielding infrastructure of the inner harbour.

Read more »

Water’s Edge: Waterfront industries and their property values on Metro Vancouver’s oceanfront

Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun, May 8, 2016

While the romantic vision of the waterfront is of waves lapping the shore or decks on which to view the setting sun, the reality in Vancouver is that 47 per cent of the land along our oceanfront is used for industry, business or services.

That is most evident in cities like Delta, Richmond and North Vancouver, where industry on the water’s edge is most prevalent.

Read more »

North Shore real estate: The new gold rush

Jane Seyd, North Shore News, May 7, 2016

For the past 13 years, freelance writer Alex Rose and his family have lived in a neighbourhood of gentle green hills in West Vancouver, on the corner of St. Denis and Palmerston. Rhododendrons and roses bloom in gardens and there’s a view across Burrard Inlet from the deck.

“It’s a very modest house with a lovely bit of land,” said Rose – similar to other older homes that used to make up the neighbourhood.

Read more »

Water’s Edge: Paddling Metro Vancouver’s scenic shores

Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun, May 6, 2016

One does not embark on a 10-day paddling trip without considering those who went before.

First Nations plied these waters for millennia in dugout cedar canoes described by the Bill Reid Centre at Simon Fraser University as the “single most important physical manifestation of Northwest Coast culture” existing at the “nexus between technology and living beings.”

Then came the Spanish and British in their sailing ships in the later 1700s,

Read more »