Real estate speculators are apparently targeting Kitimat, the B.C. northern port city that would be the western terminus of the proposed $6.6 billion Northern Gateway pipeline. The town is also near a new $4.2 billion liquefied natural gas plant and terminal that is expected to come on stream next year. Meanwhile, Alcan Inc. is proceeding with a multimillion-dollar expansion of its Kitimat smelter. The activity has ramped up real estate sales in the town, where average house prices had fallen at least 15 per cent from 2009.
Last year, housing sales in Kitimat more than doubled to 214 properties and the total dollar volume hit $29.8 million, up from $13.8 million in 2010, according to the BC Northern Real Estate Board. This makes it the hottest market across the north, where overall sales last year were up about 5 per cent from a year earlier.
"At least 40 per cent of [my buyers] are from out of town," said Re/Max Kitimat residential real estate agent Shannon Dos Santos, adding that "we are running out of listings." She said buyers are coming from as far away as West Vancouver and Fort McMurray.
The board said the average price of a detached house in Kitimat was $146,000 at the end of last year, down from $170,600 two years earlier. But Dos Santos and other Kitimat agents say average prices have already increased in the first few weeks of 2012.
"If a well-priced property comes on the market, it will sell in a couple of days," Dos Santos said.
Kitimat's traditional double-digit residential rental vacancy rate has dropped to the 7 per cent range, agents estimate, but they say no apartment buildings are currently for sale.
from Western Investor February 2012
