Burnaby city councillor Nick Volkow knows firsthand just how wild the housing market has become in Metro Vancouver.
He was one of the roughly 7,000 property owners in the city who received a letter in December giving him a heads up the value of the modest home he bought more than 30 years ago would now be worth well into seven figures.
Specifically, the value of Volkow’s home on Gilpin Crescent was set to increase by about 35 per cent, to $1.31 million from $956,000 just a year ago.
He jokingly described it as a letter to prevent people from having a “jammer” at the door when they get their real assessments in the new year.
This week, the value of his home was confirmed when he got his official assessment, and he’s not thrilled.
Volkow has been outspoken on the issue in recent weeks, mostly over the concern of what an ever-increasing market will mean for younger people trying to get in on the action.
He said he’s tired of hearing the real estate industry refer to purchasing a home as the “biggest investment” someone will make.
“You’re buying a home to establish a family, to establish yourself in the community,” he told the NOW.
“It’s a base for your life, it’s not an investment. The language in the conversation in the region has got to change. If we allow the real estate community and the development community and the banking community define the conversation, well then, this madness is going to continue.”
The Burnaby politician is calling on the federal and provincial government to step in and deal with the issue, also arguing for what he described as an “onerous” speculation or vacancy tax.
Volkow’s situation is not particularly unique.
Thousands of property owners, especially those in single-family homes, are opening their 2016 property assessments to find huge increases in value.
The average increase for a typical single-family home in Burnaby is between 15 to 25 per cent. But the number depends on where you live.
According to B.C. Assessment, the value of a single-family home built in 1946 in the Capitol Hill area increased 23 per cent to $937,000.
If you want to live in Burnaby’s Buckingham neighbourhood, prepare to shell out even more big bucks.
A typical single-family home in the area built in 1971 jumped in value by 27 per cent to $1.86 million.
Jason Grant, a regional assessor with B.C. Assessment, noted any single-family property within 30 minutes of Vancouver is seeing the strongest increase in value.
“If you went all the way back to 1980, you’d probably only find maybe two or three other times when the single-family market in Burnaby has moved by this much this quickly,” he said.
Homeowners might also want to take note the assessments are based on the value on July 1, and Grant pointed out the market has moved even further since.
“It’s been some time since I’ve seen a market move this strongly since July 1,” he said.
“Chances are if you were looking at the latest sale on your street today as you’re opening up your assessment notice, it could be significantly higher than it was back in July when we were valuing your property.”
Multi-family strata residential increases are in the five to 10 per cent range for 2016.
A typical highrise unit in Metrotown built in 1992 is worth about $511,000, up six per cent.
But if you dare to dream and want to own the most valuable residential property in Burnaby, you’ll probably have to keep dreaming, or win the lottery.
The most valuable address in the city is located at 7629 Burris St. at a cool $10.5 million.
Second on the list is an acreage at 7868 Government Rd. worth $6.3 million.
It turns out, nine of the top 10 most valuable properties are worth more than $4 million.
