Vancouver is Canada’s priciest market
The center of Vancouver is Canada’s most expensive housing market, with the average sales price for condos up 14.6 percent from last year, to about $400,000. The high-end market, which is garnering investment from international and second-home buyers, is growing quickly: The number of homes sold for almost $2 million rose by 48 percent in the past year, the International Herald Tribune reported.
Vancouver’s population grew by 36,300 from 2005 to 2006, and 72 percent of the new residents were immigrants. With the Canadian dollar stronger than the U.S. dollar for the first time in decades, foreign money has been coming in from elsewhere, like the Middle East.
Mortgage underwriting practices in Vancouver are considerably more conservative than those in comparable U.S. housing markets, a virtue that has largely shielded the city from a housing bubble during the widespread credit crisis, according to observers. There are currently about 50 condominiums under construction in the city center. The city’s tallest building, Westbank Projects’ 60-story Living Shangri-La, is slated for completion in 2009.
But the city is also receiving criticism from advocacy groups for pricing out middle- and low-income residents. Southeast False Creek was recently decreased from 33 percent to 20 percent low-income housing.
Macao gambling boom drives home market
Macao, the former Portuguese territory relinquished to China in 1999, has seen second-home prices more than double in the last four years, owing chiefly to the city’s booming gambling industry. Many resort and residential developments are planned for the small city, which has an area of only 11 square miles and a population of 520,000.
Macao now has 13,000 hotel rooms, and some estimate that number will jump to 40,000 by 2010. Since Las Vegas-based casino the Sands opened there in 2004 and the Venetian Macao Resort-Hotel followed this year, many other international casino and hotel operators have announced plans to enter the market. They include MGM, the Four Seasons, Shangri-La, Sheraton and Hilton.
There are 6,500 luxury homes under construction, 89 percent of which are already sold. By 2009, 9,400 apartments are expected to be completed.
The city’s highest condominium price to date has been around $770 per square foot, still well behind Hong Kong’s top prices of around $6,160 per square foot. However, interest from some of Hong Kong’s high-end developers signals that Macao may soon catch up. Two such companies, Hongkong Land and Shun Tak Holdings, are developing a seven-tower luxury development called One Central, due to be completed in 2009.
Luxury housing boom in the Bahamas
Despite the island chain’s proximity to slumping Florida — about 50 miles at its closest — the Bahamas are experiencing a luxury-housing boom largely fueled by second-home European buyers. The strength of the euro and favorable tax laws have brought interest from England, the Netherlands, Germany and Russia, the International Herald Tribune reported.
Real estate on Paradise Island, where the nation’s capital Nassau is located, has experienced strong price growth amid recent building. Lots at the Ocean Club resort and residential development doubled in price in its first four years, and doubled again in the last two years. Lots that were once $1.3 million could now reach $3 to $5 million.
Many developers in the Bahamas are from the U.S. Arizona-based Discovery Land Co., which is building homes priced up to $5 million on a former Disney Cruise destination, Great Guana Cay, with plans to target British buyers.