Gerry Thomasen's Blog

Sandstone - A Master Plan in South Nanaimo

It was announced in 2009, and it seemed far-fetched to me at the time. But now that a new push has been announced (on the City's "What's Building" resource), this master development feels like it could happen anytime.

The Sandstone lands will span from the Nanaimo River Estuary to Cinnabar Valley, with the RDN landfill roughly in the center. (The landfill is expected to be converted to parkland some day, according to the currently published development application materials. I confess I am curious about how the smell of the landfill will be mitigated for residents nearest to the landfill, but I'm confident that there is premium long-term potential here.)

The "Cedar Rd North" precinct will be close to the estuary and I would expect it to be the…

1498 Views, 0 Comments

BC Assessment Values vs. Market Values in Nanaimo

Something that comes up a LOT in my conversations with clients, is the "ASSESSED VALUE" of properties. Buyers are often concerned when the ASKING PRICE for a property is above its ASSESSED VALUE.

The concern is reasonable. If "the government" says a rancher is worth $400,000 then it seems reckless to pay $500,000 for that property. (But it's normal.)

Below, I'll talk about market value vs. assessed value - and I have pulled together some very relevant, local data to show some relationship trends between these numbers.

What is Assessed Value?

Each property in British Columbia is given an assessed value (updated every year) by the BC Assessment Authority. This system was created for property tax purposes - the local governments need a "fair"…

2185 Views, 0 Comments

Real Estate Taxes in Nanaimo and BC

This post talks about some of the taxes which can apply when you're purchasing (or holding) real estate in Nanaimo and the surrounding areas. Please note: I am not an authority; consult your accountant or tax advisor!

Jump to the sections on this page:

• Property Taxes
• Property Transfer Tax
• Foreign Buyers Tax
• Capital Gains Tax
• Flipping Taxes
• Speculation & Vacancy Tax

• Empty Homes Tax
• GST
• Non-resident withholding
• The Underused Housing Tax Act
• Tax-Related Benefits

Property Taxes

Most people are already familiar with this kind of real estate tax. It is charged by your local municipality or district and is used to fund local services like schools, police, firefighting, hospitals, road…

3745 Views, 0 Comments

Homes with Suites in Nanaimo - A Hot Commodity

The first quarter of 2021 has been a mad scramble for people listing and buying investment properties in Nanaimo. This was already an over-charged segment of the market through 2020 (Covid caused a lot of people to put their money into real estate outside of bigger cities), but in 2021 it's been even more frenzied.

In 2020 we saw a seller's market, with homes selling within a week or two. But in 2021, the following is a typical sight:

• Home is listed on a Tuesday
• Showings are only allowed Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
• Showings can only be thirty minutes long (to accommodate large numbers of buyers)
• Offers reviewed on Sunday afternoon
• Big bidding war ensues

This activity is fueled in part by investors wanting to buy a home to…

1324 Views, 1 Comments

Nanaimo Real Estate Update: January 2021

The real estate market in Nanaimo is heating up beyond expectations as we move into late January. We are seeing a LOT of bidding wars again, more so than at any point in 2020, I believe. I’ll quantify that a bit below.

First, let’s quickly summarize the 2020 statistics for single-family detached homes in Nanaimo:

• 12.88% more homes sold in 2020 vs. 2019 (1306 vs. 1157)
• The average sale price increased 8.82% - from $562,175 in 2019, to $616,588 in 2020

When the pandemic was declared in March 2020, there was speculation of a general market crash and many people thought that home prices would fall. Activity slowed through April, but then it all picked up and it barely slowed down since, even through the Christmas season. Most agree that the…

1194 Views, 1 Comments

Housing Affordability & Real Estate Agents

Are Realtors Contributing to Rising Costs?

Someone was ranting about rising housing costs and blaming it on realtors. Here are a few digestible points which indicate my view on this matter (spoiler: realtors are incentivized to keep prices lower).

First, let's look at WHY a person might accuse realtors of over-inflating prices. Why would an agent want to do that? There are two reasons:
1) We have done a good job for our seller client if we can get a higher price for them - we look good!
2) Since commission is usually a percentage of the sale price, a higher price will produce a higher commission to the agent.

The first point shouldn't have to be defended; and as I'll explain below, it's a force that is balanced by having another agent representing…

996 Views, 0 Comments

Coronavirus and Real Estate - Remote Realtor Services

It's March 17, 2020 and the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic is affecting daily life quite drastically.

Things are expected to get worse before they get better. In the past week, the situation has gone from "this seems like a bunch of hype" to "stay away from humans other than family/roommates unless you have good reason". There is widespread shutdown of facilities and on-site services.

In the real estate industry, there are a lot of questions from buyers like "Do I want to enter strangers' homes right now?" and "Is anyone even going to be buying anything at this time?". The answers to these are "That's up to you" and "Yes, absolutely". Homes are still selling in multiple offer scenarios (though I have certainly seen a slowdown of activity since…

1081 Views, 0 Comments

Nanaimo Egg and Feed Co-op (Egg Pool)

In 2009 this old building was demolished at the corner of Milton St and Hecate St in Nanaimo's Old City/Nob Hill area. It was built in the 1940s or earlier (if someone knows when it was built, please comment below).

I took a bunch of photos before/during demolition because it was a fascinating building, very creepy in its latter days, and built with huge old-growth timbers considered almost priceless nowadays. In fact, some of the beams from this building were cut into veneer panels to be used in a high-end resort in Australia; the old copper nails had caused "blooms" of colour throughout the wood (not pictured here unfortunately).

I posted a photo on Facebook some years ago, and someone said they used wood from this building in a home they…

2145 Views, 1 Comments

October 2018 Nanaimo Real Estate Market Update

You might be hearing a lot in the news about price corrections in the Vancouver market, but it must be understood that Nanaimo's real estate market has its own characteristics and is developing very differently.

While home SALES in Nanaimo have decreased sharply (Sept 2018 sales were down about 36% from the previous September), PRICES are still rising - September sale prices were more than 10% higher in Nanaimo than they were a year ago.

How do we explain the decrease in sales? It's widely suggested that the number of buyers has diminished because of prudent regulatory measures such as the mortgage stress test, increased interest rates, and increased sales taxes on various types of real estate purchases. But because Nanaimo has a lot of older buyers…

59959 Views, 0 Comments

Historic Photos on the Ground - App Idea

It was announced by Infrastructure Canada that their "Smart Cities Challenge" is offering money to municipalities who have ideas for applying technological solutions to city issues. The City of Nanaimo requested submissions from citizens, in a bid to get the best ideas so that we can get the funding!

Here was my submission (below), proposing an app that allows pedestrians downtown to interact with the HISTORIC space around them. It is framed in the ministry's requested format: presenting an issue and proposing a technological solution.

=begin=

The City of Nanaimo faces an issue when it comes to perception from tourists and from many of the city’s own citizens. Although the historic downtown core has popular oceanfront parks and boutique…

19432 Views, 2 Comments