British Columbia

Sales of land, not buildings, dominate the commercial real estate market in Metro Vancouver, according to a survey released by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).

The economic tsunami that has swept into Kitimat is far from cresting, according to real estate investors and city officials in this northeast B.C. town at the centre of liquified natural gas expansion.

A broad front of B.C. construction contractor associations are working to lobby the B.C. government for prompt-payment legislation, joining contractor groups in Ontario and Alberta that are pushing for parallel regulations.

About 70 per cent of industrial real estate in Metro Vancouver is bought, not leased, according to a NAIOP panel of industrial experts, which estimated that at least 20 per cent of the space is bought by investors, not owner-occupiers.

Mining activity in Canada's north could double in the next decade, says the Conference Board of Canada. But its forecast appears to undervalue current production and is sprinkled with "what ifs" and "maybes.

A decline in ferry traffic is partly to blame for a dismal 2012 for Victoria's hotel industry, which saw the average hotel-room occupancy rate fall to 62 per cent and both room rates and revenue decline, according to Victoria-based Chemistry Consulti

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

High housing prices in Vancouver skew all real estate values: residential properties, for instance, are worth six times that of all the commercial and industrial real estate in the city. Combined.

Intervention by the federal Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions into how federally regulated banks dole out debt has meant a much tougher environment for residential investors.

It now appears increasingly unlikely that neither the $6 billion Enbridge Inc. Northern Gateway pipeline or the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Inc.'s Trans Mountain oil pipeline will be approved in British Columbia.