Marriott International has acquired the Delta Hotels and Resorts brand to become the largest full-service hotel chain in Canada.

The $168-million sale by the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCIMC), an agency that invests money for 500,000 B.C. public sector employees, to Marriott is subject to regulatory approval.

The deal does not include any property acquisitions: it consists of a Marriott takeover of the brand and management of the 38 Delta-branded hotels in 30 Canadian cities for a 30-year period.

The Maryland-based hospitality services multinational corporation is taking advantage of the weak Canadian dollar, which is usually a boon for tourism and the hospitality sectors in the country. The Delta chain is also a suitable acquisition for Marriott as it is also a upper mid-scale hotel chain.

“Delta has an impressive portfolio of hotels that are among the most preferred in Canada.  With this acquisition, we are continuing our focus on building our brand portfolio and growing in attractive regions outside the U.S.,” reads a statement by Arne Sorenson, president and chief executive officer of Marriott International.

“Combining the strong Delta brand with Marriott’s hotel development expertise will accelerate growth of the brand in Canada and in other markets around the world.”

If the transaction is approved by the federal government, Marriott’s reach will grow from 86 hotels with 17,000 rooms to a total of 124 hotels with 27,000 rooms. Five of the hotels totalling 1,100 rooms are also under development.

It is not known whether any of the Delta hotels will be rebranded into Marriott, however, the company has already confirmed that the Marriott rewards system will be extended to include Delta properties.

In 2013, Marriott reported worldwide revenues of US$12.784-billion. It has over 4,000 properties, totalling nearly 700,000 rooms, and more than 200,000 employees in 80+ countries.

Delta was founded at B.C. in 1962 with the opening of a 62-room motel in Richmond. There are currently six Delta properties in the province, including one hotel in downtown Vancouver, one casino-hotel property in Burnaby and one hotel-resort in Whistler Village.

The rapid pace of condo development in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown has prompted a local advocacy group to start petitioning for a moratorium on new building.

“We’re seeing a wave of development that is changing the character of Chinatown. It’s become another Gastown or Yaletown,” said King-mong Chan, who works with a Chinatown planning group through the Carnegie Centre Action Project. “And it’s condos and luxury hotels, when there’s a wait list for affordable housing here.”

Mr. Chan and his group, who were out collecting signatures this week, are not alone in being worried about the transformation of Chinatown in the past two years, with 780 units of new housing developed or proposed since a new neighbourhood plan went into effect in 2012.

Former city planners, people whose families have a long history in Chinatown, and heritage advocates have expressed concern about the wave of building because it is not bringing the community benefits they thought it would and it does not mesh with the neighbourhood’s historic architecture.

In response to the latter, the city’s planning department has organized a meeting in March between the city’s urban design panel – local architects who vet major projects before they go to council for approval – and the Chinatown Historic Area Planning Committee.

“Those [concerns about design] are valid,” city planner Kevin McNaney said. “The meeting in March will look at how can these developments reflect the architecture of Chinatown.”

He also said the city got 22 units of social housing from one project (although only 11 rented at the lowest rate of $375 a month) and $1.3-million from another that will go to refurbishing 600 units of low-cost apartments in Chinese family-society buildings.

But several advocates besides the CCAP want a moratorium on new development until the city comes up with clear, strong rules for creating more social housing and improving the building design.

“The trade-off, when this plan was approved [in 2012], was, we’ll have densification if the other needs are met,” said Henry Yu, a University of B.C. professor who specializes in Asian history.

He said the community is getting only a few true social-housing units and new buildings that look out of place because clear planning tools were never developed to achieve better results.

People got concerned as the first three condo projects on Main Street started going up.

That spiked when a new nine-story, luxury-condo was proposed last September by Beedie Development Group for a site at Columbia and Keefer streets across from the Sun Yat-Sen Gardens.

Mr. McNaney said city planners are talking to the company about changes to incorporate social housing.

He also said the pace of development will slow naturally.

There was a burst activity when the city came out with the new plan, which protected Chinatown’s most historic blocks but allowed taller buildings on a few sites .

“Most of the sites that were available for development are gone. This rate of change is not going to continue,” Mr. McNaney said.

People have been wrestling over Chinatown’s future since the 1980s, when Chinese immigrants began choosing to settle and shop elsewhere.

Chinese seniors occupy many of the 900 units of social housing in the area.

Business groups have lobbied to allow development in the hopes that new residents would help support local businesses.

Chinatown Business Improvement Association president Albert Fok said Chinatown needs change to survive.

“What we’ve been witnessing the last decade and a half, we don’t like that.”

But people like Mr. Yu say local businesses may find that high-end consumers in new developments would not shop at their herbal medicine or produce stores.

VANCOUVER — Continuing low interest rates and a healthy stream of newcomers will ensure the good times keep rolling in 2015 for the Lower Mainland’s property development industry. But it also means pricing will continue to pose a challenge.

Three of B.C.’s biggest developers used adjectives like “great” and “incredibly positive” as they delivered a forecast last week to more than 1,100 industry insiders and politicians attending an Urban Development Institute luncheon.

“Vancouver is going to do well, everyone wants to be here,” declared David Negrin, president of Aquilini Development.

He said a recent crackdown on democracy protesters in Hong Kong is likely to enhance Vancouver’s prospects. “We’re very positive on Vancouver, and it’s going to continue for some time.”

Added Neil Chrystal, CEO of Polygon Homes: “We’re picturesque, have a healthy environment, we’re a clean, safe city offering excellent health care and educational opportunities. We are politically stable and close to Asia.

“I see no sign of the residential market slowing down. ... The market will remain balanced and stable in the year ahead.”

B.C. will experience net immigration in 2015 of some 34,600 immigrants and 2,600 provincial migrants, according to research by Mac Marketing Solutions, a company that plans and markets housing projects.

Mac, with offices in Vancouver and Calgary, forecasts that in subsequent years even larger numbers of both immigrants and Canadians will arrive, noting Alberta’s economic slowdown will make heading further west all the more attractive.

So, while a total of 37,200 newcomers are expected this year, the number should grow to 53,200 by 2018.

Combine that trend with low interest rates and a low vacancy rate in the region, and you have a recipe for continuing strong growth in the property development and real estate sectors. Unfortunately, that does not augur well for affordability.

Between 2006 and 2014, benchmark prices for all types of real estate in Metro Vancouver saw significant price jumps, according to Mac research, with the greatest increase — 46 per cent — recorded in Vancouver’s east side. West Vancouver and Vancouver’s west side both saw increases of 41 per cent.

Referencing the retail sector, Kevin Layden, CEO of Wesbild, said North American stores are downsizing as they move online. But even here, Vancouver is well positioned, never having enthusiastically adopted a big-box retail model.

The city has 13 square feet of retail space per capita, compared to a Canadian per capita rate of 19 square feet and the U.S.’s 30 square feet.

Commenting on Vancouver’s affordability crisis, Negrin cited the high cost of land and remarked: “Everyone is frustrated.” The only way to keep prices down is to increase density, he said.

Yet a Demographia study released last week on housing affordability argues density and urban land containment boost housing prices by restricting development of cheaper perimeter lands.

Chrystal argued development is being constrained by an overly complex and time-consuming municipal approval process. At UBC, he reported, the development approval process takes six months, compared to 12 to 30 months elsewhere in the region.

Added Negrin: “We have to find a way to streamline the process. Anything over one year is too long.”

Chrystal pointed to another challenge for Lower Mainland developers — offshore buyers are starting to purchase land for development that he said could lead to oversupply in certain markets.

They are also posing a challenge in terms of what they are prepared to pay for land acquisitions. “They may be parking money from offshore. We can’t compete on price.”

The developers complained of increasing costs for building materials and a stronger U.S. dollar, forcing higher costs. Prices for drywall, windows and steel were cited

A new condominium project has people intrigued about the low cost of owning real estate in Metro Vancouver.

The sales centre for the Evolve housing complex in Surrey was buzzing with potential homebuyers Saturday.

The condo complex will include 35 suites just 316 square feet in size with presale prices starting at $93,900. Dozens more micro-suites in the complex will also be under 400 square feet.

“I think they offer great space, great affordable space and a chance to own your own home in a very difficult marketplace in British Columbia,” said Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner earlier this week.

Some prospective home buyers were shocked by the affordability of units in the project.

“I haven’t seen anything in the Lower Mainland at this price point, so it’s quite a surprise,” one said.

Another person said while the size of the smallest units was initially worrying, the tiny suites were designed efficiently.

“It will be a tight space but for a single person and even for a couple who’s out of the house most of the time I think it’s totally doable,” she said.

While there are currently 18 residential towers going up in Surrey Town Centre, trends in the area show more home buyers are looking outside of high-rises.

Last year sales of single family homes went up 19 per cent in Surrey, townhouse sales went up 13 per cent and condo sales dropped by three per cen

METRO VANCOUVER - A spectacular blaze early Thursday morning gutted two restaurants and closed down a busy strip mall in Coquitlam.

Crews were called to Sushi Mori restaurant in Eagle Ridge Square around 1:30 a.m. after Coquitalm Mounties noticed smoke coming from the business.

Firefighters found the fire in a false ceiling in the restaurant, located in the 2500 block of Barnet Highway, but conditions started to deteriorate, so crews had to fight the fire from the outside.

Fire chief Wade Pierlot explained the mall didn't have any firewalls so crews had to build a trench to stop the flames.

However, the fire did spread to the neighbouring Pallas Athena Greek restaurant.

At one point, flames were shooting from the roof as high as the neighbouring trees, while 30 firefighters were called out to battle the blaze.

Eventually, crews got a handle on the blaze, but not before the fire destroyed the two restaurants and damaged two more businesses in the mall.

A jewelry store and hair and nails salon suffered smoke and water damage as a result of the fire and by daylight, the destruction to the strip mall was evident.

"It's a pretty big fire for us," Pierlot said, noting that no one was injured in the blaze.

"It certainly had the potential to spread to all of the businesses there."

Angelo Mazzarolo owns the Pallas Athena restaurant and said he got the call around two o'clock in the morning from the security company.

By the time he arrived on scene 20 minutes later, he said flames were shooting from the building.

"I'm surprised how fast it went up," Mazzarolo told the Tri-Cities NOW.

He said Wednesday was a normal day, noting his son closed up the restaurant at around 10 p.m.

Mazzarolo, a general contractor, bought and made major renovations to the business four years ago.

"It was just starting to turn a profit, then this happen," he said, noting his own business is insured for about half million dollars.

The restaurant employed 14 people.

Mazzarolo said he's not sure what the future holds for his business or employees, but said it's doubtful he would rebuild in the same strip mall.

As for the cause, fire chief Pierlot said Thursday it was too early to tell, but there was nothing to suggest it was suspicious.

He pointed out the fire was found in the sushi restaurant, but could have started elsewhere.

Investigators were expected to be on scene all day, while fire officials were hoping to have the remaining businesses up and running within a day.

Chapters Indigo will shut down its Robson store in downtown Vancouver on June 30, blaming high rent as the reason for closing down its flagship location in the city. 

The company said a "very significant rent increase made continued profitability untenable," but that it plans to open another store in the same area sometime this year.

"An increase of this magnitude would quite simply make this vibrant, profitable store unprofitable," said Indigo's CEO Heather Reisman.

"As a result, we are actively pursuing another location to serve the Robson trade area, which we fully intend to open in 2015. In other key markets we are also looking at new real estate opportunities for Indigo that will best serve our unique needs."

The company added it is working with its human resources department to support its employees through this transition.

It will hold a community townhall meeting on Feb. 23.

Sherman Scott, a commercial real estate agent with Colliers International, says the retail landscape in Vancouver is shifting due to new retailers moving in.

"With Nordstrom going in right across the street [from Chapters], this area is becoming more and more expensive for retailers, so I wouldn't be surprised if the landlord has something else in mind for that space," he said.

"Some western portions of the city, we've seen a bit of a downturn and this area near the new Nordstrom, near Pacific Centre ... I think it's a popular place to be for retail. We've definitely seen an increase in rental rates in the immediate vicinity."

A new player in Metro Vancouver real estate development — Brilliant Circle Group Investments Ltd — has bought 230 acres of Imperial Oil land in Port Moody and Anmore to develop a master-planned new village.

The deal, which closed last week, includes about half of the Ioco townsite as well as the surrounding area, which is forested land in both Port Moody and Anmore. The purchase price was not disclosed. The property includes some heritage buildings and is close to an environmentally sensitive salmon hatchery.

The purchaser behind Brilliant Circle Group Investments Ltd. is an unknown player in Vancouver, but already owns properties in Vancouver, including the old Buschlen Mowat building at 1445 West Georgia, according to James Cheng, who represents the purchaser and is lead architect on the Ioco land development.

“We actually like the character of this heritage town site and we want to preserve it and enhance it,” said Cheng. “What we would like to do is get the real historic houses in good shape, fix them up, but at the same time, it has to be economically sustainable. It’s not good fixing up a historic house if it’s empty and has no life.”

He envisions bringing in grocery stores, coffee shops, arts and crafts, and perhaps an artist’s colony. Historic little towns that have survived often have a strong local arts community that becomes a tourist attraction, which in turn supports coffee shops and other stores, he said.

Brilliant Circle Group Investments Ltd (BCG) is owned by David Cai, a Canadian citizen with a home in Vancouver and Hong Kong roots. David Xiao Ming Cai is also the name of the CEO and an executive director of Brilliant Circle Holdings International Ltd., a large Hong Kong-based public company registered in the Cayman Islands that operates in three business sectors: cigarette package printing, printing services and manufacturing laminated paper.

Cheng would not confirm whether David Cai is behind the land purchase by the company with a similar-sounding name.

Cheng said the developer is not looking to increase the density of the Ioco lands, and wants to preserve the rural and semi-rural character.

“That’s the reason he liked the place,” Cheng said.

Robert Simons, president of the Port Moody Heritage Society, said the property contains the only access road to the Mossom Creek Hatchery. He said there is a community hall and a groceteria still standing in the townsite on land retained by Imperial Oil, as is a nearby yacht club.

About five renters live on the land that Brilliant Circle has bought, according to Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay.

Imperial Oil retained half of the townsite in order to maintain a buffer between any development and their industrial site, Clay said.

There are 60 single-family-zoned lots on the townsite property, even though only 10 to 12 houses are standing, Clay said.

“Someone could build another 50 all within zoning,” Clay said. The lots are small as they were originally designed for oil refinery workers.

The heritage buildings can’t be knocked down or significantly modified, but at least eight houses are “just boarded up and sitting there rotting,” Clay said.

A redevelopment application for mixed use would be a “significant problem,” Clay said. “We’re not currently contemplating anything like that. You’re going from vacant former industrial land to mixed use.”

Anmore’s existing density is one acre per house “and we’re not necessarily looking to change that,” Cheng said. The Port Moody portion of the land has existing 50- to 60-foot lots, Cheng said.

Clay said the city has not been approached with a development plan. “We have no idea what they are looking to do.”

“We’ve never planned for that area,” Clay said. When the land first went up for sale a couple of years ago, “a number of local development companies found it was too challenging. We figured it would be a 10- to 20-year time frame before anybody would develop on that land.”

“We really didn’t expect very much to happen there. The access is very poor. There’s one main road to get out of there and it’s a two-lane road. A windy road. There are creeks out there. I’m not even sure that this owner has any interest in developing this land. The selling price was quite low. It may be the land up in Anmore they were really after.”

The buzz is that the 230 acres sold for under $40 million, Clay said. “An acre in Anmore generally sells for around $1 million,” Clay said.

“What would we allow there right now? Basically nothing,” Clay said. “What would it take to put something there? It’s about getting traffic in and out.”

“It’s a tricky piece of property with tricky politics behind it because of the access issue and everything else. It’s a very politically hot piece of land ... for the city because it is so big and there is so much potential in an area with poor access and environmental issues as well ... There’s a lot of wildlife out there”

“We have a standing policy that we will not add any traffic to Ioco road,” Clay said. “It would be really tough for us to grant any new development out there unless there was a really good plan behind to it to accommodate traffic.”

That would involve building an extension to David Ave., which — because it would need to extend over a creek — could cost $50 million, Clay said.

Anmore Mayor John McEwen said that he met with representatives of the Brilliant Circle Group Jan. 8, but that no details or plans were presented at the time.

“I was quite shocked that the land was sold without having any consultation with any of the new councils,” said McEwen. “The other (developers) who came to us came asking what our feeling was to changing the zoning and the implications.”

The Anmore lands are now zoned for a minimum of one acre per home and that the municipality could handle the additional traffic if any proposal stuck to that zoning, he said.

However, McEwen noted that if the owner asked for a comprehensive zoning change to allow greater densities, there would be traffic issues, although he believes there’s room for “cluster” zoning. “Right now, they could come in and build on the Anmore lands and we’d have no power over them. And it could handle the traffic. But if they wanted to densify, it would have a huge impact.”

McEwen said his biggest concerns centre around the potential environmental impacts.

“I have environmental concerns with all the creeks and waterways, and there’s several of them. There’s a brand new hatchery now being built in that area. Also, the big thing is the semi-rural atmosphere of the area.”

Anmore Coun. Ryan Froese, a realtor with RE/MAX, said he too is concerned about the potential for increased traffic in the area.

Froese said another road would have to be built along with a costly bridge to cross Mossom Creek.

“They need another access road. Now that the developer has bought it, it’s something we’ll have to look at. We’ll have to look at how we’re going to manage and deal with this.”

Froese said that whatever happens, the community will want council to ensure that the area’s green space and rural character is protected.

“It (new development) would be nice, as it would give us a broader tax base. But we’re going to ensure that our steep slopes are protected.”

Vancouver-based real estate consultant Michael Geller, who worked with Imperial Oil as an adviser on this land deal and who will continue to work with the new owner, said Brilliant Circle is in a good financial position to properly service the property with new roads and other needed infrastructure.

The property includes some waterfront, and Geller said that there will be public access as part of the development.

The main reason the new owner likes the Ioco lands is “there is an opportunity for him to create a complete community and he can start from scratch,” said Cheng said he designed Port Moody City Hall many years ago.

“It’s a beautiful area,” Cheng said. “What we would like to figure out is is there a way we could do a modern sustainable community that respects the land, the people, ecology and still make it an interesting community.

Maple Ridge is in for a population boom.

According to a community profile from the City of Maple Ridge, more than 35,000 people are anticipated to move into the community over the next 25 years.

And in the next five to 10 years, many of these newcomers will likely put down stakes in the Albion, Thornhill, and Silver Valley neighbourhoods, where heavy residential development continues.

The Albion neighbourhood is projected to grow to 10,250 residents, while an estimated 9,250 people will be living in Silver Valley by 2031.

These estimates provided from the City of Maple Ridge’s Official Community Plan (OCP) are 20-year projections and reflect the total number of people who will live in an area at build-out (estimated to be around 2031.)

For the here and now, there are a growing number of homebuyers looking at Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows as an option, according to Darcy

McLeod, a local realtor who is president-elect of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).

Real estate activity in 2014 varied from month-to-month, McLeod said, adding “some months, it was surprisingly busy.”

“I would characterize it as a fairly balanced market,” McLeod said. “It wasn’t super hot but I also wouldn’t call it a depressed market, for sure.”

Affordability continues to drive the market in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

Take from the equation the Sunshine Coast, where the benchmark price of a single detached home is $350,800, and you won’t find a cheaper place to buy a house among the 21 regions covered by the REBGV than Maple Ridge, with a benchmark price of $478,500 this past December.

It costs slightly more for a detached home in Pitt Meadows, at a benchmark price of $526,400.

Among REBGV communities, townhouses are also cheapest in Maple Ridge (benchmark price of $279,100 in December) and Pitt Meadows ($331,200), while apartments for sale in Maple Ridge averaged out to a relative bargain of $165,800 on average last month (by far the most affordable in the REBGV). In Pitt Meadows a condo set you back $249,100, on average, in December.

“It’s probably the most affordable area in Greater Vancouver in terms of real estate,” McLeod said, regarding Maple Ridge.

“For a home you can buy in the Albion area, to buy a similar home in Coquitlam would be 20 per cent more money,” McLeod said. “We’re seeing a lot of people moving from North Vancouver, Coquitlam, Burnaby, and they’re starting to look at Maple Ridge. You can sell a home in Vancouver, go to Maple Ridge, and buy a new home and be mortgage free.”

So what’s keeping home prices so relatively low? As they say in the real estate biz, location, location, location.

“What keeps prices a little lower is the distance from downtown Vancouver,” McLeod said. “As you travel further east away from core of Vancouver, prices go down.”

Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge are the easternmost regions under the REBGV umbrella.

And location, that key driver for keeping home prices affordable, especially in Maple Ridge, is also a big reason why McLeod feels the potential for future market growth is so strong.

“It is still affordable and it’s a great place for families to live and raise their children,” McLeod said. “There’s so much to like about the area; there are so many outdoor activities, and so many parks and trails.”

McLeod should know: he’s called Maple Ridge home for the past 19 years.

But with dense development comes the risk of market saturation.

McLeod doesn’t believe that will be the case in rapidly developing areas such Albion and Silver Valley.

“I don’t see the prices falling any time soon because of over supply,” he said.

According to the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN), Maple Ridge was voted No. 5 Top Canadian Investment City, No. 2 Top B.C. Investment Town, and the place to live for lifestyle.

A community profile done by the City of Maple Ridge sees its current population of 82,861 jumping to 118,000 by 2040, and the number of local jobs more than doubling from 24,000 to 42,500 over the next 25 years.

Maple Ridge’s Town Centre area is expected to grow by close to 14,700 residents over the next decade, which is 50 per cent of the total expected population increase for all of Maple Ridge to 2021.

“You’ll see more people living in the centre of town,” McLeod said.

These growth projections in Maple Ridge haven’t had an impact on housing prices, at least for the time being.

“I see modest rises in prices but I don’t see any huge increases over the next 12 months, for sure,” McLeod said. “If I had a crystal ball I’d be a billionaire but there are no indications, or any reasons for prices to increase dramatically.”

A rise in population also means steady demand for new homes, he added.

“All these new people have to live somewhere,” he said.

McLeod noted that as a whole in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, the price of condos are impacted by the amount of new development.

“If inventory is not selling as quickly as developers would like, it puts downward pressure on pricing,” he said.

Maple Ridge is in for a population boom.

According to a community profile from the City of Maple Ridge, more than 35,000 people are anticipated to move into the community over the next 25 years.

And in the next five to 10 years, many of these newcomers will likely put down stakes in the Albion, Thornhill, and Silver Valley neighbourhoods, where heavy residential development continues.

The Albion neighbourhood is projected to grow to 10,250 residents, while an estimated 9,250 people will be living in Silver Valley by 2031.

These estimates provided from the City of Maple Ridge’s Official Community Plan (OCP) are 20-year projections and reflect the total number of people who will live in an area at build-out (estimated to be around 2031.)

For the here and now, there are a growing number of homebuyers looking at Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows as an option, according to Darcy

McLeod, a local realtor who is president-elect of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).

Real estate activity in 2014 varied from month-to-month, McLeod said, adding “some months, it was surprisingly busy.”

“I would characterize it as a fairly balanced market,” McLeod said. “It wasn’t super hot but I also wouldn’t call it a depressed market, for sure.”

Affordability continues to drive the market in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

Take from the equation the Sunshine Coast, where the benchmark price of a single detached home is $350,800, and you won’t find a cheaper place to buy a house among the 21 regions covered by the REBGV than Maple Ridge, with a benchmark price of $478,500 this past December.

It costs slightly more for a detached home in Pitt Meadows, at a benchmark price of $526,400.

Among REBGV communities, townhouses are also cheapest in Maple Ridge (benchmark price of $279,100 in December) and Pitt Meadows ($331,200), while apartments for sale in Maple Ridge averaged out to a relative bargain of $165,800 on average last month (by far the most affordable in the REBGV). In Pitt Meadows a condo set you back $249,100, on average, in December.

“It’s probably the most affordable area in Greater Vancouver in terms of real estate,” McLeod said, regarding Maple Ridge.

“For a home you can buy in the Albion area, to buy a similar home in Coquitlam would be 20 per cent more money,” McLeod said. “We’re seeing a lot of people moving from North Vancouver, Coquitlam, Burnaby, and they’re starting to look at Maple Ridge. You can sell a home in Vancouver, go to Maple Ridge, and buy a new home and be mortgage free.”

So what’s keeping home prices so relatively low? As they say in the real estate biz, location, location, location.

“What keeps prices a little lower is the distance from downtown Vancouver,” McLeod said. “As you travel further east away from core of Vancouver, prices go down.”

Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge are the easternmost regions under the REBGV umbrella.

And location, that key driver for keeping home prices affordable, especially in Maple Ridge, is also a big reason why McLeod feels the potential for future market growth is so strong.

“It is still affordable and it’s a great place for families to live and raise their children,” McLeod said. “There’s so much to like about the area; there are so many outdoor activities, and so many parks and trails.”

McLeod should know: he’s called Maple Ridge home for the past 19 years.

But with dense development comes the risk of market saturation.

McLeod doesn’t believe that will be the case in rapidly developing areas such Albion and Silver Valley.

“I don’t see the prices falling any time soon because of over supply,” he said.

According to the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN), Maple Ridge was voted No. 5 Top Canadian Investment City, No. 2 Top B.C. Investment Town, and the place to live for lifestyle.

A community profile done by the City of Maple Ridge sees its current population of 82,861 jumping to 118,000 by 2040, and the number of local jobs more than doubling from 24,000 to 42,500 over the next 25 years.

Maple Ridge’s Town Centre area is expected to grow by close to 14,700 residents over the next decade, which is 50 per cent of the total expected population increase for all of Maple Ridge to 2021.

“You’ll see more people living in the centre of town,” McLeod said.

These growth projections in Maple Ridge haven’t had an impact on housing prices, at least for the time being.

“I see modest rises in prices but I don’t see any huge increases over the next 12 months, for sure,” McLeod said. “If I had a crystal ball I’d be a billionaire but there are no indications, or any reasons for prices to increase dramatically.”

A rise in population also means steady demand for new homes, he added.

“All these new people have to live somewhere,” he said.

McLeod noted that as a whole in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, the price of condos are impacted by the amount of new development.

“If inventory is not selling as quickly as developers would like, it puts downward pressure on pricing,” he said.

Fear: Condos are over built in Canada

The most pervasive fear is that developers are overbuilding and this will eventually lead to a glut of empty condos, which will increase supply and push down prices, sparking a condo market crash. But  Marc Pinsonneault, senior economist with the National Bank of Canada, spends his days analyzing condos in Canada’s big cities. He supports the belief that there’s overbuilding in the Canadian condo market—just not in the cities you’d expect.

According to Pinsonneault developers are not overbuilding in Toronto, Vancouver or Calgary—Canada’s three hottest real estate markets and the cities that boast some of the largest condo growth in recent years.  Yet, the numbers show that developers in Montreal, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg are overbuilding and if the market hasn’t already cooled it will, says Pinsonneault.

The fact is that despite an increase in building permit applications and an increase in completed, new condo units entering the market, supply really is keeping up with demand in Toronto, Calgary (although a little less so in Vancouver).

“In Canada as a whole, the number of completed and unabsorbed condo units amounts to only two months [worth of supply], versus the more than four months [of unabsorbed condos that existed] in the 1990s,” explains Pinsonneault.

Fear: Foreign investors prop up the condo market in Canada

The fear is that foreign ownership is propping up the condo market, particularly in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. And there’s basis for that fear. But like all things real estate, it really does boil down to location, location, location.

Late last year, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released it’s first ever report that attempted to shed some light on who actually own’s condos in Canada. Wildly publicized when it was released, the report highlighted the apparently low percentage of condos owned by foreign investors (defined by the CMHC as condo-purchasers whose primary residence is not in the city where the condo-investment is located). As such, the CMHC reported that only 2.4% of condos in the Greater Toronto Area and only 2.3% of Greater Vancouver’s condos are owned by foreign investors, respectively. Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg had the fewest number of foreign condo owners, at 0.1%, while Calgary’s foreign ownership of condos was just over 0.2%.

But drill down and the CMHC numbers start to reveal an alarming trend: a concentration of foreign-owned condos in a city’s downtown core. For instance, 5.8% of condos in downtown Vancouver are foreign owned. In Toronto’s downtown core 4.3% of condos are foreign-owned. Surprisingly, the CMHC did not drill down Calgary’s condo ownership, however, it did unearth a big concern when it comes to Montreal’s downtown condos. According to the recent CMHC report 6.9% of the condos in Montreal’s downtown core and Nun Island area are foreign owned—compared to the city’s 2.3% average.

Foreign ownership is a key concern as real estate analysts fear that if the market turns, foreign owners will be more likely to put their units up for sale and this can flood the market, push overall condo prices down, and start a market crash.

Montreal aside, most analysts are now far less concerned about the percentage of condos owned by foreign investors. CIBC World Market’s deputy-chief economist, Benjamin Tal, estimates that the number of “pure foreign investment” condos in actually a small segment of the market—and only slightly higher if you factor in families where one spouse continues to live overseas while the other lives with children who attend school in Canada.

Still, that doesn’t mean that the number of condos owned for investment purposes isn’t surprisingly high in Canada. According to a CMHC report, released in mid-2014, just over 17% of condo owners own a secondary condo-unit as an investment. (For statistical accurateness the CMHC combined the findings for Toronto and Vancouver.) This number doesn’t include the number of investors who rent out their condo and live in another type of accommodation (either a single-family home or a rental apartment) nor does it include investors who use corporations to purchase property.

A Vancouver-based real estate developer has stepped forward to acquire the unfinished Wyndansea resort in Ucluelet, a pending deal that proposes to repay a long list of creditors a small fraction of funds owed from the bankrupt project.

In a report made for the Supreme Court of British Columbia last week, bankruptcy trustee Ernst Young announced that the Onni Group has been selected to take over the 360-acre property next to Long Beach. With offices in major cities across North America, Onni brings a track record of building over 6,000 homes in the last decade.

"The Onni Group is a large development company with a proven record of delivering large-scale property developments," stated Ernst Young's report. "The Onni Group has the skill set and financial wherewithal to restore confidence and provide much needed stability to the Wyndansea development." The need for confidence and stability could

be seen as an understatement for Wyndansea's 178 creditors, collectively owed nearly $110 million in unpaid dues. The long list includes nine Port Alberni companies that were involved in the project since it began almost a decade ago, including Ace Flagging, Harry Adair, B. Berry Enterprises, Braker Electric, Dolan's Concrete, Haulmor Sand Gravel, J. Robbins Construction, McLean Higgins, and PM Contracting. These local investors face a combined loss of over $1.3 million, with individual dues ranging from $2,108 to almost $629,000.

As part of the development's pending restructuring plan, many creditors can expect to receive two per cent of the amount owed. Those owed less than $1,500 are expected to get up to 99 per cent of what's due, while larger outstanding dues could get up to $25,000 under a percentage payment formula tied to the amounts owing.

Back in 2006 Wyndansea was pitched as an "eco-luxury global hotel," with designs for two hotels, 410 single family homes and 160 other residential units - plus an 18-hole golf course designed by sports legend Jack Nicklaus. The resort's developer Elke Loof-Koehler brought experience launching the 64 Rainforest Estates and the 100-acre Beach Estates in Ucluelet, as well as bringing the Tauca Lea condominiums to the west coast community with a restaurant and spa.

But since Vancouver Island real estate values dropped during the economic downturn of 2008 the Wyndansea has struggled to progress. In 2009 the development was put on the market for $37 million; by April last year this price had dropped to $7.95 million.

The acquisition of the stalled Wyndansea project is contingent on at least 50 per cent of the development's 178 creditors voting in favour of the deal. This approval must include at least two thirds of the nearly $110 million owed.

Love It or List It Vancouver beginning third season on the W Network (wnetwork.com).

A funny thing happened on the way to the theatre.. .Actor Todd Talbot was heading to rehearsals of the Stanley Theatre's production of High Society a few years back when his phone buzzed to life. The voice on the other end suggested that it was time Talbot's two worlds collided.Talbot had spent 25 years working as an actor and for almost as long he'd been building a real estate career "on the down-low."There's a joke about what you call an actor with a bottle of champagne. The answer, of course, is a waiter. It's a stereotype with which Talbot is well acquainted.

"If you're an actor and you're seen doing something else it somehow insinuates that you're not successful as an actor," he says.While his evenings were spent persuading theatre audiences to invest in his character, his days were spent investing in properties - but he kept his real estate life secret.

As is the fate of most secret identities, Talbot's alter ego slowly become public knowledge until he was the "de facto real estate guy in the acting community in Vancouver," he recollects.

It was because of that reputation he got the call.

They were looking for a real estate agent who could play a real estate agent on TV to co-host Love It or List It Vancouver.

The spinoff, co-hosted by The Bachelor survivor Jillian Harris, asks homeowners who have grown disenchanted with their dwelling to renovate or relocate.Despite a professed addiction to HGTV shows, Talbot had never pursued reality TV. "I had huge hesitation," he admits. "How would (doing the show) impact my ability to go and do Taming of the Shrew at Bard on the Beach?"If he had been offered a role on TV that involved extolling the virtues of spray-on hair or dating Flavor Flav, Talbot would have passed - but this was steady work.

"My actor's mind looked at it and went: 'This is a big, long gig that pays better than theatre.'"With a second child to support and his gut leading the way, Talbot blindly threw himself into the show and his worlds collided.

"It kind of engulfed my life a little bit," he says of the show's first two seasons.With 26 episodes each season, the show is perpetually in production, ruling out theatre for the time being.

"Hopefully I'll be able to exercise that muscle somewhere down the road," Talbot says.The actor, who was once presented by his family with a Motor Mouth t-shirt, speaks quickly - his verbosity peppered with humour and the relentless optimism of someone who can barely see dark clouds past the silver linings.However, Talbot is quite candid when discussing the challenges of keeping Love It or List It Vancouver fresh without deviating from the show's defining formula.

"It's the blessing and the curse of show," Talbot says of the show's format. "It's a challenge in every episode because you go, 'Really? Are we dealing with another: I don't want to leave my neighbourhood?'"Vancouver's multitude of interesting locations has helped, he says.

"I think the Vancouver production, as opposed to the Toronto one, has managed to find its own legs and find its own personality."Much of that personality is supplied by the homeowners, all of whom bring a different energy and allow for a creative way to tell the same Budget vs. Location story.

"You always end up in that conversation. You can't not," Talbot says with a chuckle. "Unless you're (Lululemon founder) Chip Wilson, there's a compromise to be had."A resident of Lions Bay, "poor man's West Van," Talbot is aware of what a compromise can produce."I couldn't afford the house and the view that we have in West Vancouver or on the west side of Vancouver, for that matter," he says.

Love It or List It Vancouver, somewhat inadvertently, also chronicles the "destructive trend" of maximizing square footage at all costs in building mansions, notes Talbot.

"I really wish people would consider the environment that they're putting the house in as much as they consider the function of the internal elements of the house," he says. "I shudder to think what the city might look like in another 25 years."