British Columbia

Investor-owned condominiums and houses now make up half of the rental accommodation in Metro Vancouver, where the rental vacancy rate has fallen to 1.4 per cent, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), down from 1.

Metro Vancouver's strong economy and consumer demand for retail options has prompted American retailers to target the Lower Mainland for expansion even as they close stores at home. North Carolina-based Lowe's Companies Ltd. opened its first B.C.

An $8 billion federal government shipbuilding contract is expected to boost demand for commercial and industrial real estate in North Vancouver, with the uptick expected to start next year.

B.C.'s harmonized sales tax (HST) is dead but it continues to haunt developers of high-end homes, who say confusion over the HST phase-out has stalled sales and forced price discounting.

Royal Dutch Shell, with Asian-based partners, has bought a liquids import terminal in Kitimat from Cenovus Energy, fuelling speculation of a new liquid natural gas (LNG) port being built in the area.

Also, unlike many municipalities in the Lower Mainland, Chilliwack has industrial land to spare, with five business parks developed over the past six years, totalling more than 300 acres. Today, about 350 industrial businesses occupy more than 1.

They came. They saw. They bought every condo in a New Westminster concrete tower in 42 minutes.

Sales of industrial property in the Fraser Valley crested at $217 million in the first nine months of this year, already roaring past the all-year sales volumes for both 2010 and 2009.

Speculators, once a flipping force in the Metro Vancouver condominium market, have virtually disappeared, according to Robyn Adamache, a senior analyst at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Victoria-based Aviawest Group has won an extension of credit protection from the Supreme Court of B.C. as it attempts to refinance nearly $100 million in debt on resort properties in B.C.