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,”
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.
Ashley Ford, Vancouver Province, August, 20, 2006
They are the new force in the B.C. housing market.
Armed with assets and better health than their mothers and fathers, retirees are leaving the urban jungle for the fresher climes of smaller towns and communities across the province.
In the process, they are helping create a heated housing market rivaling that of the Lower Mainland and blurring the lines between recreation and conventional housing.
Ashley Ford, Vancouver Province, August, 20, 2006
So just who is buying up B.C. property?
The simple answer is British Columbians, the bulk of them retirees from the Lower Mainland.
But there are plenty of outsiders who also want their piece of spectacular B.C.
Cash-rich Albertans may be a small percentage of buyers, but they are coming in droves and so are foreign buyers to a much lesser degree.
Ashley Ford, Vancouver Province, August, 20, 2006
B.C.’s recreation market is as searing as the urban residential sector.
While much of it is being propelled by “aging baby boomers,” there’s plenty of action coming from younger buyers and so-called “lifestyle” buyers intent on grabbing their piece of paradise.
According to RE/MAX of Western Canada, “never before have those aged 50-plus been such a strong segment of the recreational property market.”
Ashley Ford, Vancouver Province, August, 20, 2006
The Lower Mainland remains basking in the glow of the hottest residential market in living memory — but the rest of the province is hardly in the shade.
“Smalltown B.C.” is running just as hot and as hard. Double-digit price increases in small towns that once were struggling are now the norm, not the exception.
The robust economy, smart buyers,
Lena Sin, Vancouver Province– January 26, 2005
It made international headlines in September — a pristine northern B.C. town for sale: Kitsault, yours for $7 million.
It was the kind of advertising money couldn’t buy — and it worked.
The headline caught the eye of U.S.-based property developer Krishnan Suthanthiran, who was in Halifax when he heard the ghost town was for sale, complete with an Olympic-sized swimming pool,
The Vancouver Province, October 6, 2003
Prince George- River Ranch, about 70 kilometers south of Vanderhoof, is up for sale.
The asking price is $2.5 million, said Rudy Nielsen, whose companies are marketing and selling the 16-square-kilometer ranch.
The property, according to court documents, was put up for sale under an order by the B.C. Supreme Court, as part of a settlement to pay off mortgages on the ranch to a number of different companies in excess of $1 million.
Steve Berry, The Vancouver Province, June 20, 2001
Doug Blamey is president of the Whistle Punk Railway. It’s a railway built on little more than a dream – there’s no track, no rolling stock, no rights of way.
But what a dream.
The Maple Ridge man is proposing to build a rail line from Pitt Meadows to Whistler. And he’s advancing one small step at a time.
Olivia Scott, The Vancouver Province, August 21, 1992
It’s a realtor’s dream.
An entire B.C. town complete with shopping centre and housing for 2,000 people is for sale at $23.5 million.
And Kitsault, north of Prince Rupert, is vacant so there’s nothing to do but move in.
“There is a caretaker and his wife there who keep the lawns mowed, the trees pruned, the roads cleared,”