This blog is about me, Paige Guernsey, and the things that happen around my job as a Kelowna Real Estate agent with Coldwell Banker Horizon Realty. I talk about listings, sales activity, market conditions, market trends, promotions, green real estate, and sometimes funny things that happen to me during the course of my day. There's links and videos to great information as well as access to my 2 websites, kelownahome.com and greenkelownarealestate.com
We’ve all heard that kitchen and bath reno’s add the most to a home’s value, but what about other items’s that your real estate requires.
There are a few good rules of thumb to follow when doing a renovation or addition with an eye to re-sale:
Your goal should ALWAYS be low cost with high impact. Sometimes a quick paint job, de-cluttering and re-arranging furniture can be just as good as a $30,000 kitchen makeover.
Never spend more than 5% of the homes original value. For instance if you’re purchasing a $500,000 home, keep the budget at $25,000 for those reno’s if you’re planning on selling within a year or two.
Consult a REALTOR(R) to find out the latest buyer trends. Are people wanting more rooms, smaller yards or vice versa?
Remember the market goes up and down regardless of your renovation so you want to keep to a solid time-line for the re-sale target.
Check out my website for the great link to a guide on how much various additions and/or alterations will run you.
Of the calls I’ve had recently from buyers, a few have made me chuckle. I find it so interesting how perspective affects everything! A young couple from the UK called on one of my Kelowna homes for sale, in particular an acreage . This property is listed at $629,900, and is a gorgeous log home on 10 acres. Liz and Harty from the UK couldn’t believe how cheap real estate was in Canada. They live in a small “flat” that has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and yard space measuring 25×28 feet. Their current home is on the market for the equivalent of $650,000 Canadian dollars and they’re confident they’ll get it! “Imagine what fun we’ll have rambling around on 10 acres!” they say. Indeed…
Another young couple have decided that Kelowna real estate is just too expensive for them. I’ve listed their cute, fully updated, and affordable half duplex for sale. They are re-locating to Quebec where they’re able to purchase a 2 storey home with basement, large yard, and a pool for $149,900. Quite worth the trouble of moving their young family in their eyes.
So whether you see the glass half full or half empty, Kelowna is becoming known world wide and for those of us lucky enough to call Kelowna home, we can understand why people want to be here. If you still think real estate is expensive in Kelowna, check out this video for a good laugh!
How will the HST affect Kelowna real estate? Information has been trickling in slowly but surely. I think everyone was pretty sure that new housing would not be taxed at 12%… but how much then, and what are the rules and rebates.
When considering real estate and housing, the government must realize that it’s very important to everyone that affordable housing is attainable. HST will be paid out when purchasing a NEW home after July 1, 2010. With the new threshold of $525,000 it would appear that there will be no new additional tax (5% GST will still apply) and that homes over $525,000 will, after rebates, be charged an additional 2%. This move will add even more tax on the heavily taxed process of buying a home.
Consider the example of purchasing a new home for $525,000. There is the property transfer tax currently being paid on every real estate transaction in BC whether the home is new or not. This amounts to 1% up to $200,000 of purchase price and 2% on the balance, or $8,500 for our example home. GST at 5% if the home is new. There’s another $26,250. Currently we pay 5% GST on services like lawyers and real estate agent’s. Another $534 for the taxman. Then of course, there’s annual property tax where on the $525,000 home you’d be paying around $2,800. Let’s assume you’re living here and qualify for the homeowners grant of $570 which then makes your annual tax $2,230.
Real estate in Kelowna is a valuable commodity and people realize that. We’ve been lucky to have weathered this last downturn fairly well with moderate price adjustments that have re-ignited people’s ambition of owning property here. However, how much more of a tax burden can we take when you consider that our example of buying “modest and average” home in Kelowna is going to cost an additional $37,514.00! Do you think we pay too much tax on our housing?
Would you pack up the kids and move downtown? Vancouver, a city which we tend to generally follow in terms of real estate prices and trends, has been able to attract more families then ever to it’s urban centers. There are an estimated 7,200 hundred children living downtown with under half that number in Point Grey, area viewed traditionally as the choice family neighbourhood. Higher density city planning and soaring house prices in the 2000’s have largely contributed to that. With this trend, quality of life is paramount to developers and city planners. Families are able to bike, walk, eat, shop, and visit many themed parks right from their front door. The biggest hurdle is that 3 bedroom condo’s are hard to find!
Our Kelowna city council has been struggling with this issue for a long time now… an example in point is the CD21 zoning in the Kelowna downtown waterfront area. We’re also lucky to have some organizations like Blue Green Living Communities (http://www.livingcommunities.ca) who forge ahead with a different game plan geared to urban and sustainable living.
I think we’re right on the cusp of a change in the way we think about our Kelowna real estate. There are currently some pretty cool places available right now. Would you move downtown with your kids?
Here we go again. West Kelowna city hall is talking about automatically allowing secondary suites in any single family home. With the lack of affordable rental housing available you’d think it’s an easy decision. But think again…
City hall in Kelowna tried this several years ago and they met with tremendous opposition. Too many cars, too many people, not enough control, reduction in real estate prices, “not in my neighbourhood” attitude, and more. Even though there were a lot of homeowners wanting this blanket zoning change, it was eventually voted down due to the opposition. Instead new rules and guidelines were implemented for those wanting to put a suite in. These new guidelines for adding a rental unit in your Kelowna home were less onerous and expensive than the previous rules and seem to be working to this day.
West Kelowna council and West Kelowna residents association are heading for the same kind of difficulties and are trying to come up with a solution to the secondary suite dilemma. City’s thoughts being that there is not enough time in the day to hold so many public hearings (currently required if you want to change your zoning to allow for a suite) and there are so many people needing to find affordable rental housing that a blanket zoning change is the only solution. The residents association feels that it allows for too many problems with management of the extra suites and it reduces the real estate values of homes in that neighbourhood.
There is only one neighbourhood that I’m aware of in Kelowna that the property values have suffered due to suites in a lot of the homes. This shift in value occurred when homes were just being built in that neighbourhood and has remained that way over the years… buying and selling in that neighbourhood is relative, you pay less when buying there and although you will see an increase in the prices if the Kelowna real estate market goes up, you’ll get less than in other neighbourhoods when selling.
There are also lots of “unauthorized” suites in neighbourhoods that you wouldn’t expect to see them in. For instance Dilworth and Wilden. Real estate values have not been affected by those suites at all. These suites, in my opinion, can help stabilize a real estate market by opening up the field of buyers that otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford that home. The suite can also provide for a home office should a new buyer not require or desire a suite in their home (I know… that opens up a new can of worms!).
At the end of the day, I’d like to see Kelowna and West Kelowna’s city councils’ time spent on things that benefit the greater good of our valley. Responsible development, looking for ways to become more sustainable, water conservation, attracting and keeping business in the valley, more transportation and parks, and generally continuing to guide the growth of Kelowna and West Kelowna. What do you think?
