British Columbia

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

Real estate rush could become a stampede as $25B refinery wins big-time backing BY WI/BIV STAFF A wave of real estate investing in Kitimat could build into a tsunami this year as financing has been secured for the first oil refinery in Western Canada

Housing sales across B.C. totalled 5,661 units through MLS in March, reports the BC Real Estate Association. This is up 6.6 per cent from February but down 17 per cent from March of last year.

The 231-acre lakefront Tobiano golf resort near Kamloops, forced into receivership in 2011 with debts of approximately $31 million, could be sold as early as April 26, but creditors are expected to challenge the deal. "We have an offer.

First-time home buyers are in the drivers’ seat in Metro Vancouver, wheeling through an environment of overbuilt new condominiums, stable or falling home prices and the lowest mortgage rates in years.

The price of a typical detached house on the toney West Side of Vancouver dropped the hardest of 20 communities surveyed in March by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. On the West Side the "benchmark" price of detached house fell 9.

B.C.'s recreational real estate market remains in the doldrums with prices in popular vacation destinations now lower than a decade ago - but some realtors see evidence of a spring turnaround.

The City of New Westminster is about to start charging high-rise condominium developers a bonus formula of $25 per square foot for the extra space achieved through higher-density zoning, according to city planners.

The B.C. Building Code, said to be the "greenest" ever in the province, was introduced December 20 2012, but parts of it will not be enforced until this summer, according to construction industry insiders.

Beginning with the April edition, a reader can scan selected Western Investor articles or advertisements with their smart phone or tablet and the printed page comes alive with a video, a web page, perhaps a fly-through of a new real estate developmen