Frank O’Brien, Western Investor, February 10, 2021
Evidence is mounting that tales about more city dwellers rushing to buy rural real estate during the pandemic are more than anecdotal.
In the past eight months, more than 62,000 Vancouver residents searched for property through Landquest Realty, a New Westminster company that specializes in B.C. rural and recreation real estate, part of an avalanche of 458,000 new users who have jammed the site since June 2020.
Frank O’Brien, Western Investor, Aug 11, 2020
BC Parks has purchased four properties totalling 520 acres in the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) region of the province and on northern Vancouver Island for below the asking price of more than $1.5 million.
The deal represents the first addition of lands for provincial parks in the Haida Gwaii area in nearly 50 years.
Three of the parcels cover 160 acres each,
Frank O’Brien, Western Investor, May 12, 2020
Freddie Marks is a specialist in B.C rural recreational property but his phones have lit up with calls from the big city since the pandemic brought on self-isolation and social distancing…
“Before COVID-10 we have an average of two to four inquires for rural property per day,” said Marks, an agent with 3A Group, Sutton Showplace Realty in Agassiz. “Now we have 12 to 15 inquiries per day.”
Marks added that his office wrote deals on remote land listings even during the peak of the pandemic curve.
Frank O’Brien, Western Investor, July 5, 2019
Western Canada has the highest rate of recreational vehicle (RV) ownership in Canada, at 68 per cent of those who camp, according to the 2018 North American Camping Report. Of the 9.1 million Canadian households who go camping, the majority opt to rough it in an RV, a ratio that approaches three out of four in B.C. and Alberta.
The problem is where to park for the average 4.5 annual camping trips that owners use them.
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,
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,
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,
Frank O’Brien, Business in Vancouver, June 7, 2016
Rain and thousands of hectares of verdant farmland have sparked a new multimillion-dollar industry in the outback of northern British Columbia: harvesting hay and shipping it to drought-stricken livestock producers in China and Korea.
From a standing start four years ago, nearly 10,000 tonnes of hay per year is now being baled and shipped in containers to Asia out of the Port of Prince Rupert.
Frank O’Brien, Western Investor, May 30, 2016
LandQuest Realty Corp.celebrates its 20th anniversary this year as the largest dealer in land in British Columbia: but scratch the surface of the clamouring global demand the company is now experiencing, and LandQuest is really dealing in water, according to the company co-founders.
“Every time it rains in B.C, we should get down on our knees and give thanks,” said Rudy Nielsen who,
Frank O’Brien, Business In Vancouver, May 4, 2016
The blast radius from Vancouver’s real estate boom now extends as far north as 100 Mile House in B.C’s Cariboo region, according to Rudy Nielsen, co-founder and president of LandQuest Realty Corp. of New Westminster.
“We have buyers from the Vancouver area looking at lakefront property up there,” said Nielsen.
An influx of homebuyers who have cashed out of Canada’s most expensive housing market is also being seen on the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island,