Contact Angel Now for this property!

1. BC assessment values real estate properties in Vancouver area to be increased about 10% averagely. The increasing value by the government will definitely support increasing house price.
2. Although major banks increased prime rate a little bit since last year, mortgage rate still keeps at a lower level.
3. Appreciation of the Renminbi vs Canadian Dollar from 1:6.8 to 1:6.2 since last year, will encourage more Chinese buyers to come to the Canadian real estate market because of higher purchasing power.
4. Chinese governments’ real estate investment rules force more Chinese investors to look at real estate investment opportunities overseas.

By Vancouver top real estate agent – Angel Wang

Last Chinese New year we saw such a surge of business during the first two weeks of February that our fellow realtors and assistants worked day and night shifts to find homes for Chinese buyers visiting during the Lunar New Year. many of you heard Multi offers on properties in Richmond, vancouver and west vancouver. Will this year be the same? Nobody knows. However Angel and I have been receiving phone calls and emails enquiring about properties and schools in Vancouver.

Why do Chinese buy/invest properties in Vancouver? There are two major reasons:

1.   Good schools, a marine climate and the large, established Asian community make Vancouver attractive. end of the year. take time off best time for new immigrants landing. Husband takes time off, kids finish school to have a new start

2.   While education for children often is the primary goal, some immigrants just want to move money out of China because they don’t feel it’s safe, as China tries to damp property speculation at home., Buyers from mainland China are leading a wave of Asian investment in Vancouver real estate.

The overnight interest rate set by the Bank of Canada, now at one per cent, banks clamouring for a piece of a tighter market and cheaper bonds are reasons why mortgages are so low right now, RBC Global Asset Management’s Eric Lascelles told CTV News Channel Friday. But buyers should be thinking ahead when rates eventually return to “normal,” he said.

“I think it is fairly clear that home prices are overdone in certain urban areas. The map I’ve done says if we ever return to normal interest rates, home prices are 15 per cent too high,” Lascelles said. That doesn’t mean home values need to come down by that amount, he added, suggesting instead prices could stagnate for a few years and be matched by higher household incomes to ease any bubble “reasonably benignly.”

The caveat for homeowners is to buy what they can afford because when rates rise again and the mortgage needs to be renewed, refinancing costs can be overwhelming, Lascelles said. BMO’s offer comes at a time when the big banks are also pressuring Ottawa to lower the maximum amortization period (the number of years a person has to pay off a mortgage), now set at 30.

It had been 40 years but persistent worries over the accumulated debt of Canadians convinced the federal government to lower it over the past two years.

The latest mortgage cut by BMO will likely trigger increased competition among the major banks as they battle for a share of the shrinking housing market. The five-year fixed rate is used by the banks as a benchmark for borrowing costs and is typically the rate applied to first-time homebuyers. The BMO rate cut is good news for people shopping for a home and bad news for those worried about a potential housing bubble, says a Queen’s University professor who specializes in real estate.

“This move by BMO will no doubt be quickly followed by the other major banks,” said John Andrew in a media release Friday, adding rate cuts have actually been lagging behind falling bond yields that are typically the barometer of mortgage costs. “What’s interesting are the conditions that BMO has attached to this mortgage rate, which are consistent with the lending industry’s move to even more responsible lending practices,” he said.

It did not take long for other major lenders to follow suit — by Friday afternoon both TD Bank and RBC Royal Bank were offering four-year special fixed rate mortgages at 2.99 per cent. Both offers expire in February.

Other banks are expected to make similar offers as they struggle with reduced borrowing by consumers.