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Western Canada’s cheapest recreation land is in B.C.

By Frank O’Brien, Business in Vancouver, Aug. 9, 2017

The benchmark price of a detached house in Metro Vancouver is now $1.3 million and a typical condominium apartment is $600,000, so $50,000 will buy less than 80 square feet of housing in the city.

But it is much different in the recreational market of vast British Columbia, where a day’s drive can lead to lakefront acreages for less than $40,000,

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Who owns B.C. recreational property?

B.C. Business, Summer 2017

2,577

That’s how many recreational properties changed hands in B.C. in 2016—a 75 per cent surge over the previous year and up almost threefold from 2011. Vacationing Lower Mainlanders may dream of ownership as they snooze on rented lakefront decks this summer, but British Columbians aren’t driving sales, says Rudy Nielsen, president of Niho Land & Cattle Co. Ltd., one of the province’s largest recreational property dealers.

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Cheapest recreational properties in Western Canada

Frank O’Brien & Geoff Kirbyson, Western Investor, July 19, 2017

The benchmark price of a detached house in Metro Vancouver is now $1.3 million and a typical condominium apartment is $600,000, so $50,000 will buy less than 80 square feet of housing in the city.

But it is much different in the recreational market of vast British Columbia, where a day’s drive can lead to lakefront acreages for less than $40,000,

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Residential investing: Time to look at limited partnership

Frank O’Brien, Western Investor, July 11, 2017

The average price for a detached house in Metro Vancouver is now $1.54 million and the average condo apartment is selling for $524,600, according to Landcor Data Corp. You need a large down payment – starting at $100,000 – to make even condo rental payments work at covering your costs, which must include a property manager.

But there is a quieter,

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Prominent philanthropists Joe and Rosalie Segal list Point Grey mansion for $63 million

Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun, June 22, 2017

The air of Vancouver real estate is rarefied for ordinary purchasers, but prominent philanthropists Joseph and Rosalie Segal are reaching for the top of the luxury market with a $63-million asking price for their palatial Point Grey mansion.

That price would set a record for Metro Vancouver, according to a statement from Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.

The Segals’ home isn’t listed on the real estate industry’s Multiple Listing Service,

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Cabin Fever

Melissa Edwards, BC Business, July/August 2017

2577. That’s how many recreational properties changed hands in 2016 – a 75 per cent surge over the previous year and up almost threefold from 2011. Vacationing Lower Mainlanders may dream of ownership as they snooze on rented lakefront decks this summer, but British Columbias aren’t driving sales, says Rudy Nielsen, president of Niho Land and Cattle Co. Ltd., on of the province’s largest recreational property dealers.

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As Metro Vancouver’s affordability gap widens, a search for answers

Kerry Gold, The Globe and Mail, Jun. 09, 2017

Last year, a series of government interventions was implemented to cool Metro Vancouver’s runaway property market and increase affordability. And yet, the market is hotter than ever, and the gap between house prices and incomes is growing wider in unexpected parts of the region.

Greater Vancouver reached a record benchmark price of $967,500 – an 8.8-per-cent increase from the year before.

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Chilliwack the last bastion of housing affordability in the Lower Mainland

Paul Henderson, Abbotsford News, June 7, 2017

Chilliwack may be the last bastion of single-family home affordability in the Lower Mainland from here to Vancouver Island.

A report on housing affordability issued June 6 by Vancity of 30 municipalities found the ability for families to purchase homes in the suburban areas outside Vancouver is getting worse, but Chilliwack is still one of the most affordable.

“Buyers looking for affordable housing options used to be able to look to municipalities around Vancouver to find affordable options,” said Ryan McKinley,

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Growing house unaffordability in B.C. hits suburbs hardest: Vancity report

Rattan Mall, The Indo Canadian Voice, June 6, 2017

A new report by Vancity has found that over the past year, housing affordability in most municipalities in the Lower Mainland and Greater Victoria has gotten worse, decreasing in some by as much as 38 per cent.

The report, “Home Stretch: Comparing housing affordability in B.C.’s hottest markets,” tracks the affordability of 30 municipalities over a one-year period ending on February 28,

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Speculators target B.C. farmland after foreign buyer tax introduced for residences

Sam Cooper, Vancouver Sun, May 26, 2017

Sales of farmland in B.C. surged and prices jumped immediately after the provincial government announced a foreign buyer tax on residential land in July 2016, a Postmedia investigation shows.

The surge in agricultural land sales and prices — on property that is not subject to the 15 per cent foreign buyer tax — was largely driven by record-setting sales in the Fraser Valley,

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