A Roof of One's Own:
Are there any bargains left?

Vancouver real estate, the most expensive in the country, won't get cheaper any time soon. That's the consensus of the expert panel we recently convened to discuss the housing market. For the fifth year in a row, in every category (from studio condos to five-bedroom homes), and in every part of town, prices have risen—in some cases dramatically—and they seem likely to keep climbing. We asked our panellists if there's such a thing as undervalued real estate when everything costs so much. Their answer was yes. We asked where. Here's what they told us.

By Tyee Bridge, Stanley Brunst and Steve Burgess; photograph by C.J. Burton. (Published: March 2006)

WEST OF DENMAN

Like New York’s Central Park, our Stanley exercises the same magnetic pull on real estate prices that it does on tourist itineraries. Proximity to it is one reason standard Coal Harbour condos currently fetch up to $800 a square foot (compared to $500 or $600 for similar units along False Creek). But there’s a part of town even handier to the park where the average price is more like $400 or $500. Is it possible that in Vancouver in 2006 there exists a West End neighbourhood characterized as a bargain?

According to our real estate panel, yes—the northwestern tip of the West End, or West of Denman as it’s generally called. “The market from an economic standpoint is not 100 percent efficient,” explains realtor Lorne Goldman. Meaning hot areas sometimes distract buyers from cool opportunities. Marketer Bob Rennie puts it succinctly: “It seems like everyone just forgot about it.”

In a city infected with land fever, it’s hard to believe that any neighbourhood could fall off the radar, but how else to explain some of these recent listings? The 1,440-square-foot waterfront apartment for $759,000. The lovingly restored, architect-occupied penthouse above Lost Lagoon infused with 1950s cool yet listed for just $500 a square foot. And, for bargain hunters, the 1,015-square-foot unit just off Denman that’s priced at under $400,000.

West of Denman is largely insulated from the street life and traffic that affects—if not infects—most of the West End. Still, there are reasons why prices in the area are more in keeping with real estate boondocks like Calgary and Toronto, something that’s clear to panellist and West of Denman resident Gordon Price. Back in the 1980s he led the fight to rid Davie Street of its hookers, before spending most of the ’90s on city council. Since leaving politics he’s been studying and promoting Vancouver’s approach to urban densification, a quest that recently landed him a position as head of SFU’s City Program. Price calls West of Denman an“urban miracle,” but loving a place doesn’t necessarily render one unable to see its shortcomings.

Price points out that West of Denman’s bargain status is very much “for the right person”—someone who accepts an urban life with all its complications. The area may be insulated from the drugs and dumpster divers of the West End, but it’s not Dunbar either. There is very limited parking, and many of the amenities Vancouverites associate with condo living are lacking. That’s because most of the housing stock is between 30 and 60 years old; the neighbourhood preservation that Price and others contributed to back in the 1970s and ’80s was accomplished by enacting economic and legal controls that constrict redevelopment. It’s been a mostly good thing for the roughly 85 percent of residents who rent, but it means that most of the condos lack the amenities of newer buildings in newer neighbourhoods. Since the relatively low-cost rental housing is valued by both its residents and the city itself, it also means that redevelopment will remain tricky.

For all that, West of Denman has a kind of magic lacking in newer areas. True, the last on-street parking spot disappeared with Expo, but many residents don’t really need a car anyway, especially given the spots explicitly reserved for co-op vehicles. And with its varied architecture and mature landscaping, the neighbourhood is every bit as easy on the eye as gleaming Coal Harbour or the still rather antiseptic False Creek North. And neither of those admittedly appealing neighbourhoods is a two-minute walk from what may be the best beach and the best park in Canada.—S. Brunst

MONSTER DEALS

Don’t hate them because they dominate their lots and, in some cases, their streets. And don’t call them monster homes: the more polite term is “houses of area.” Built mostly in the mid-’80s for wealthy immigrants and their extended families, these boxy Baby Hueys are more well-adjusted when settled on a block of their peers. But in west side neighbourhoods replete with verandas, fish-scale shingles and scrollwork, they’re often resented and, thus, often undervalued. The generally lower cost per square foot can be attributed to their surfeit of same (from 3,500 to 5,000, not all of it functional), but only in part. If prices are lower for monster homes in heritage neighbourhoods, it may be because potential buyers can hear the whispers through the hedges. “Will they turn that beastly thing into something decent, at least put up some street-facing gables?” The parting of curtains across the street can be unnerving, and moving into such controversial architecture puts one in the awkward position of being either neighbourhood saviour or shunned Philistine. A $750,000 craftsman makeover is not your only solution, of course—add some exposed beams, girders and a few more windows, and voilà: what will one day be known as West Coast moderne.—T.Bridge

DID YOU SAY "SHAUGHNESSY?"

Consider two properties spotted on the real estate listings in early February. At 4776 West Fourth Avenue is a 3,900-square-foot older home in good condition with many upgrades. Although it sits on a spacious lot, it’s on a fairly busy street so the asking price is a “mere” $1.88 million. Over in Shaughnessy, the attractive home at 1408 33rd Avenue contains 4,400 square feet on a smaller but still generous lot and has at least as many features, including a swimming pool. It’s on an equally busy street, with an asking price of $1.29 million—a number that these days might well be considered “affordable.”

With comparisons like these, it’s no wonder our panel agreed that one of the first places they’d look for a bargain is, of all places, Shaughnessy. “Some of the Shaughnessy stuff is just ridiculous,” says realtor Lorne Goldman, who recalls trying to sell a house on stately Angus Street last year even as buyers lined up to pay almost as much for lesser homes on much smaller lots across Oak Street in midmarket Douglas Park.

The best deals are in the neighbourhood’s southern reaches as well as in adjoining South Granville, virtually the only locale west of Oak where homes are still listed for under a million dollars. These areas were especially popular with Hong Kong immigrants in the early 1990s, a phenomenon that created a price bubble while substantially altering the streetscape. Still, this is not the time to feel sorry for poor Shaughnessy—if you’re already a homeowner, think upgrade. Says Goldman of the buyers who are picking off Shaughnessy bargains: “A lot of them are coming from places like Dunbar, Point Grey and Kitsilano.”—S.Burgess

Read more in the Real Estate Trends 2006 series:


Fluffing for Dollars: Home staging has become big business because it adds big bucks to the sale price. By Michael Harris

The Open House Circuit: Open houses are an efficient way for realtors to show a property—and to get buyers' competitive juices flowing. By Steve Burgess

Where to Buy Now: Which neighbourhoods are on thr ise, and what, exactly does the future hold for this fast-evolving market?