British Columbia

Developers plan to spend more than $500 million to transform a triangular slice of eastern Port Coquitlam - formerly farmland - into Metro Vancouver's newest planned community, by blending homes, retail and industrial projects.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is urging all B.C. property owners and buyers to put the provincial property transfer tax on the hot seat during the upcoming provincial election. The province introduced the PTT 26 years ago.

Incomes for hotels in British Columbia are trailing the entire nation. A snapshot taken during April 14-21 showed average revenue down 15.1 per cent, compared to a national average of -1.8 per cent. As a comparison, Alberta hotels posted a 9.

Near half-price luxury ski condos in the Kootenays; 11 acres of walk-on Vancouver Island oceanfront for $74,000; and a 50-acre, 22-house ghost town near Whistler for less than the cost of a West Vancouver bungalow.

Construction industry insiders say implementation of the B.C. Building Code, introduced in December 2012, has been delayed for months. At issue is the revised code's reference to the North American Fenestration Standard (NAFS).

A growing overhang of new and unsold condominiums in Metro Vancouver has driven prices back to 2007 levels says Urban Analytics, which publishes the New Home Source.

Retail and real estate analysts believe that large retailers such as Walmart or Target could start pushing for the construction of a new shopping mall on either of two downtown Vancouver blocks that are ripe for redevelopment.

While Canadians can still find deals in Phoenix, the window is quickly closing on the bargain-priced often foreclosed real estate that characterized Arizona's largest city for the past five years.

Commercial real estate construction in Metro Vancouver rose 2.3 per cent in the first quarter, compared to the previous quarter, to $586 million.

There has been no net office space leased in downtown Vancouver in the past three months and, if Burnaby is taken out of the equation, suburban markets are also reporting "negative absorption" since January, says a report from DTZ Commercial, Vancouv