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FRIDAY AUGUST 5 2016
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS.
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Spencer Der, left, guides his father Bill during a recent hike on Burnaby Mountain. Bill, who is legally blind, plans to climb Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro this fall with his son in support of the Alzheimer Society of B.C. and the Down Syndrome Research Foundation. The father-son-duo will face many challenges during their hike up to the peak, including altitude acclimatization and bad weather. For more on their journey, see Tereza Verenca’s story on page 3. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
Market feels the effects of a new tax Early reports suggest property transfer tax for foreign buyers is having an impact on real estate market Jeremy Deutsch
jdeutsch@burnabynow.com
It’s only been a few days since the province brought in an additional property transfer tax for foreign buyers, but early numbers suggest it could have a significant impact on the market. Overall, residential property sales in Metro Vancouver dropped by 18.9 in July from the previous year, and 26.7 per cent compared
to June, according to new numbers from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. Steve Saretsky is a Vancouver realtor and on his blog, he’s compiled sales for the week after the province announced the 15 per cent foreign buyer property transfer tax in Metro Vancouver. In Burnaby, just three single family homes were sold in the week of July 25 to 31,
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compared to seven the previous week and 20 the week before that. It’s an even bigger drop for attached homes in Burnaby. There were 15 sales of attached homes in Burnaby in the week of July 25 to 31, compared 55 the previous week and 81 the work before that. The province’s own stats released last week showed Burnaby was second only to
Richmond in the number of foreign buyers in the region, making up 18 per cent of transactions between June 10 and July 14.
Everyone wants to see what exactly is going to happen next
Saretsky suggested the tax is having an impact on the
market, but he’s not sure how long that will continue. “Everyone wants to see what exactly is going to happen next,” he told the NOW. The realtor said he’s heard of deals falling through because of the tax but has also heard of locals backing out of presale developments because of the uncertainty in the market. Jenny Wun, principal of West One Real Estate Marketing in Burnaby, has heard that some buyers can’t complete their deals because they
can’t come up with the extra 15 per cent, while other buyers have warned they’ll walk away from deals in progress. “Why not walk away from a five per cent deposit when they can’t come up with 15 per cent,” she said. “It’s one of those things where they’ll be better off not being able to come up with it.” But the local realtor isn’t convinced the new tax will lead to a drop in the market and instead sees it as giving locals an opportunity to buy in. Continued on page 5
Top 1%* of REALTORS® in Greater Vancouver in 2015 *Statistics based on Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver MLS Residential sales from January 31, 2015 to December 31, 2015
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