Out of country Buyers have returned

Internationally optimism about the immediate future trend of Vancouver real estate must have returned because out of country Buyers are back and are buying. Their optimism confirms what Realtors have seen in the Vancouver market.

HST and real estate - update

John Tillie, president of the BC Real Estate Association, wrote in the Vancouver Sun today that the province is offering a partial rebate of the provincial portion for the 12% HST on new homes up to $400,000 and a flat rebate of $20,000 for new homes over $400,000. The logic for this is that people buying at or below the median price will "generally be fully protected from a tax increase".
Many Buyers cannot afford to complete on new development at the moment and properties completing in the next two to three years have already been sold to Buyers who did not count on a large additional cash expense. Buyers of new development will seek to recover the extra tax when selling their property which would decrease affordabilty of BC housing.
The different real estate organizations in BC are negotiating on how to best negotiate this subject with the provincial government. Let's hope Buyers of new homes will not have to pay 7% more tax.

HST and real estate

Is HST going to be applied to the purchase of newly built real estate? Will Buyers of new development after mid 2010 have to pay 12% HST on the purchase price instead of the current 5%GST? I hope Real Estate organizations will be able to negotiate an exemption of the additional 7% tax on purchases of newly built real estate as the restaurant owners have done for their purchases/sales.

Back to the old market of 2008?

In many areas demand is increasing at a higher rate than supply. In areas like Kitsilano and Downtown Vancouver reasonably priced new listings are snapped up shortly after listing. It is again difficult to set up a series of showings because so many of the properties on MLS have accepted offers and many Seller's Realtors will not go the extra mile any more to give access.
However there are some great buys in buildings where developers are quietly selling condos the first Buyer has defaulted on - the selling price is now much lower than at the launch of the building.