Stay in touch with NIHO!

2007

Americans Leaving the B.C. Housing Market

Derek Penner, Vancouver Sun, November 19, 2007

The flip in the Canada-U.S. currency advantage is encouraging some American owners of B.C. real estate to take an exchange-rate gain by selling their properties, realtors are beginning to notice.

“We are seeing some activity that is the result of people assessing the exchange-rate situation and deciding to [sell] now rather than later,” said Patrick Kelly, president of Whistler Real Estate.

Read more »

Potential Appreciation for Properties around Golf Courses

Joyce Li, GolfNerve, September/October, 2007

(Note: This article was originally in Chinese, and has been translated.)

Before most investors invest in real estate, the stock market or other businesses, they need to collect necessary information. Now days, the internet is one of the tools which may help you. But if you want to get systematic and complete information, you need professional help.  Today, I have the opportunity to interview Rudy Nielson,

Read more »

B.C. Penturbia Booms

Charlie Smith, Georgia Straight, July 19, 2007

About 20 years ago, Jack Lessinger, a retired University of Washington professor, introduced the term penturbia to readers of the Atlantic Monthly. Penturbia was the fifth great region of colonization in the United States. This followed the movement into the central and southern colonies, then into the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys, then to the great industrial cities, and next into the suburbs of America.

Read more »

Alexis Creek comes with an airstrip

Derek Penner, Vancouver Sun, July 18, 2007

For someone who wants land, lots of land with starry skies above and doesn’t want to be fenced in, the Alexis Creek Ranch may be just the property.

It will have to be a rich someone, however, with a $23.5-million US list price for a working ranch of 104,000 hectares (4,000 hectares deeded and 100,000 acres of range leases) that begins about 80 km west of Williams Lake.

Read more »

Choice Spots

Jeani Read, Vancouver Province, June 24, 2007

Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and the Okanagan remain the most popular buyer targets in B.C. for recreational and retirement property. But buyer attention is going a lot farther afield than these traditional Big Three. Here is a rundown of choice choices, according the experts.

– Interest is increasing in the likes of even the once-distant Queen Charlotte Islands — one of the best buys still available,

Read more »

Easier access makes BC hot all over

Jeani Read and Ashley Ford, with files from Alex Frasier-Harrison, Vancouver Province, June 24, 2007

From the shores of Tofino to the mountainside resorts of the Columbia Valley, B.C. buyers seek out new areas for their recreation properties, and B.C. continues to attract buyers not just from this province, but also from Alberta and the U.S.

“The world has discovered B.C. It really has, and that is not going to change,”

Read more »

BC recreational market is hot, but investors must buy carefully

Frank O’Brien, Western Investor, June 2, 2007

Rudy Nielsen, considered the largest individual owner and developer of recreational land in British Columbia, has been choppering above the province this year searching for prime real estate deals.

While the legendary investor remains bullish on the future of BC’s recreational real estate, he said research is more important today than ever.

The founder and president of NIHO Land &

Read more »

Getaway Prices Go Way Up

Frank Luba, Vancouver Province, May 2, 2007

Lots of baby boomers have lots of money and they’re buying lots of recreational property for, you guessed it, lots more money.

That’s the bottom line in the 2007 RE/MAX Recreational Property Report issued yesterday.

The realty company surveyed 39 markets from Newfoundland to B.C. and found starting recreational prices topping $500,000 in 31 of those locales.

Just seven of the markets surveyed had waterfront property available for less than $250,000.

Read more »

Rising Demand Boosts Property Values

Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun, May 2, 2007

In the market for a waterfront cabin on Windermere Lake? It will set you back about $2.5 million, if you can find one, according to Re/Max Realty’s latest recreational property report, which makes the east Kootenays resort spot the most expensive recreational property in Canada.

The catch, added Invermere realtor Wende Brash, is that lakefront is extremely rare — maybe two or three 50- to 75-foot lots will sell in a year.

Read more »

Lands taken from tree farm licenses

Wendy Stueck, Globe & Mail,  February 2, 2007

VANCOUVER — With the removal of some of its privately owned lands from provincial tree-farm licences, Duncan-based Western Forest Products Inc. now has the right to subdivide and sell wooded properties that in some cases are within an hour’s drive of Victoria.

And although those parcels account for a small portion of the lands freed up under an agreement with the province this week,

Read more »