B.C. is introducing legislative amendments that give local municipalities more powers to simplify and speed up their development approvals processes, helping to get the homes people need built faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working with local governments, the development sector and housing advocates to streamline local development processes to help get more homes built faster for people,\u201d said Josie Osborne, minister of municipal affairs. \u201cBy updating public hearing and certain permit requirements, we are giving local governments more tools to deliver the housing that communities need throughout B.C. This is one important step in the work all orders of government must do to meet housing needs for people in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Increasing housing supply is a priority for the province and these amendments are an important step in that ongoing effort. The amendments will update the Local Government Act to:<\/p>\n
remove the default requirement for local governments to hold public hearings for zoning bylaw amendments that are consistent with the official community plan; and
\nenable local governments to delegate decisions on minor development variance permits to staff.
\nThese changes will support local governments to move forward more efficiently on developments, bypassing barriers and speeding up housing approvals. They were identified during consultation with local governments, housing providers and builders, and other stakeholders as part of the Province\u2019s Development Approvals Process Review. These changes will also build on the work of the Local Government Development Approvals Program that is providing $15 million to help local governments create more efficient approvals processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cB.C. local governments have been seeking improvements to streamline development approval processes,\u201d said Laurey-Anne Roodenburg, president, Union of BC Municipalities. \u201cThese amendments to the current legislation provide new options that align with recommendations in UBCM\u2019s housing strategy, maintain local government flexibility, and will be welcomed by many UBCM members. We will continue to work with the government to seek further improvements to the development approval process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: REMI Network<\/a><\/p>\n The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2021 Fourth Quarter Housing Forecast.<\/p>\n Multiple Listing Service\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0(MLS\u00ae<\/sup>) residential sales in the province are forecast to rise 29 per cent to 121,450 units\u00a0this year<\/span>, after recording 94,013 sales in 2020.\u00a0In 2022, MLS<\/strong>\u00ae<\/strong><\/sup>\u00a0residential sales are forecast to pull back 15 per cent<\/strong>\u00a0to 102,750 units.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a frenzied start to the year, activity in BC housing markets has settled back to a level that is broadly in-line with long-run trends. The strength of the first half of this year has sales on track to easily break the previous record for annual sales,\u201d said BCREA Chief Economist, Brendon Ogmundson. \u201cWhile we do not anticipate a repeat of the record-setting market of 2021, we do expect housing market activity to remain vigorous in 2022,\u201d added Ogmundson.<\/p>\n Given strong demand and very low active listings, particularly in smaller markets around BC, the average home price in BC is projected to rise 17 per cent in 2021. Prices are forecast to rise about 3 per cent in 2022 as the composition of home sales changes due to normalizing demand for single-family homes and a recovery in active listings helps the market balance out.<\/p>\n Source:\u00a0REBGV<\/a><\/p>\n The increased activity seen in the Lower Mainland\u2019s commercial real estate market in the beginning of 2021 carried into the second quarter (Q2) of the year.<\/p>\n There were 726 commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland in Q2 2021, a 114.8 per cent increase from the 338 sales in Q2 2020, according to data from Commercial Edge, a commercial real estate system operated by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).<\/p>\n The total dollar value of commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland was $3.635 billion in Q2 2021.<\/p>\n “Commercial real estate activity continued to strengthen in the second quarter of 2021, with sales reaching levels that we haven\u2019t seen in four years,” Keith Stewart, REBGV economist said. \u201cLand acquisition is particularly strong as investors are demonstrating confidence in new development potential in our region.\u201d Office and Retail: There were 278 office and retail sales in the Lower Mainland in Q2 2021. The dollar value of office and retail sales was $859 million in Q2 2021.<\/p>\n Industrial: There were 180 industrial land sales in the Lower Mainland in Q2 2021. The dollar value of industrial sales was $480 million in Q2 2021.<\/p>\n Multi-Family: There were 32 multi-family land sales in the Lower Mainland in Q2 2021. The dollar value of multi-family sales was $511 million in Q2 2021.<\/p>\n Credit: REBGV<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" B.C. is introducing legislative amendments that give local municipalities more powers to simplify and speed up their development approvals processes, helping to get the homes people need built faster. \u201cWe … [read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":787,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions\/787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliafreeman.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}BCREA 2021\u00a0Fourth\u00a0Quarter Housing Forecast<\/h2>\n
Lower Mainland\u2019s commercial real estate market sees strong activity in the second quarter of 2021<\/h2>\n
\nQ2 2021 activity by category
\nLand: There were 236 commercial land sales in Q2 2021. The dollar value of land sales was $1.785 billion in Q2 2021.<\/p>\n