Devonshire Properties‘ plan for Beach Towers (1600 Beach Avenue and1651 Harwood Street) goes to council next week. The plan is to rezone from RM-5A to CD-1 to add 133 units on the existing four tower property with new infill development to be added as follows:

• on the Beach Avenue site, 118 new market rental units located within a four-storey building fronting Beach Avenue and a nine-storey building at Harwood and Cardero streets, a one-storey amenity building at Beach and Cardero streets, and enclosure of the bases of the existing towers, thereby increasing the allowable floor area by 89,095 sq. ft.; and
• on the Harwood Street site, 15 new market rental units located within two- and three-storey buildings, thereby increasing the allowable floor area by 10,906 sq. ft.

New building from courtyard

From the City’s rezoning report: “This application helps achieve City housing policies, specifically through the creation of a total of 133 units of new secured market rental housing. Staff have assessed the application and support the uses and form of development….Staff recommend that the application be referred to a Public Hearing, with the recommendation of the General Manager of Planning and Development Services to approve it, subject to the Public Hearing.”

With a couple of high-profile apartment buildings trading last year (notably, Lougheed Village and the strata-titled Pacific Point), here’s a look at Vancouver’s most valuable market-rental apartment properties in Metro Vancouver.

The top-10 list has been compiled based upon total assessed values, and excludes strata titled, co-op or non-freehold properties.

1. Langara Gardens, 501 West 57th Avenue ($164 Million) This 621-unit complex consists of four towers and multiple townhouse buildings and sits on a strategically located 21 acre site at Cambie and 57th. The property was developed in the 1960’s and expanded with a fourth tower in 1988. The property also includes some retail units on West 57th. Langara Gardens was sold by the well-known Wosk family in 2009 to Ben Yeung’s Petersen group for $157 Million, representing a 4.3% cap rate. This acquisition, a Vancouver record, is increasingly looking like a great move for Petersen, with significant redevelopment potential on this sizeable lot.

2. Metropolitan Towers, 930 Seymour ($111 Million) This 437-unit, 2-tower complex located at Seymour and Nelson in Downtown Vancouver was completed by Wall Financial in 2002. It includes a Nester’s grocery store on the ground floor. Since it’s completion over ten years ago, a number of projects have been completed in close proximity, including by Wall at Capitol Residences. Metropolitan Towers offers a relatively affordable alternative to rentals in many of the newer condo projects.

3. Beach Towers, 1600 Beach Avenue ($96 Million) Beach Towers is a 4-tower, 598 unit complex located front and centre on English Bay in the West End. Also sold by Colliers for the Wosk family in 2009 as part of their portfolio disposition. The towers were sold for $117 Million to a group led by Devonshire Properties. The price represented a 4.0% cap rate and $195,000 per unit. Devonshire is currently seeking to use some of the residual density on the site for more rental units.

4. Bayview, 1529 West Pender Street ($85 Million)      This 236-unit, 28-storey tower prominently featured at the intersection of West Pender and West Georgia in Coal Harbour was completed by bcIMC in 2002. After 10 years, the building remains one of the highest quality purpose-built rental buildings in Vancouver.

5. Lougheed Village, 9500 Erickson Drive ($78 Million)    Lougheed Village is a two-tower, multiple lowrise, 548-unit complex in the Lougheed area of Burnaby. The property sold to Mayfair Properties in April of last year for $90 Million, or $164,000 per unit. Built in 1973, the property currently produces $7,400,000 in gross income per year and sits on 7.5 acres of land.

5-10:
6. McKenzie House, 5775 Toronto Road, UBC ($70 Million)
7. Columbia Place, 1150 Jervis Street, West End ($66 Million)
8. Pacific Palisades, 788 Jervis Street, West End ($64 Million)
9. Carmana Plaza, 1128 Albernie Street, West End ($63 Million)
10. Ocean Towers, 1835 Morton Avenue, West End ($62 Million)

Honourable Mention: Here’s a few that were not included for various reasons:

• Park Royal Towers. This 505 unit complex is one of Vancouver’s larger apartment assets, valued at $147 Million, though it is on leased land with the Squamish First Nation.

• Pacific Point. This 227-unit strata titled complex sold in 2012 for $79 Million and has an assessment of over $70 Million

• Panorama Place, a 147-unit co-op is valued at over $72 Million.

Coming soon: a look at neighbourhoods with the most expensive apartments on a price per unit basis.

As 2012 wraps up, we’ve summarized the top deals of 2012 by total dollar value. While a number of $100M+ assets traded in 2011, 2012 has been a comparatively quieter year, with only one true core/trophy property sold – that being Bentall 5. The downtown Canada Post property, offered for sale in late 2012, will probably fetch over $100M when it closes sometime in 2013.

1. Bentall 5    Bentall Kennedy, acquired this premier ‘AAA’ class office building in May for a record $400 Million, representing $686 per sq ft, and a cap rate below 5%. The Vendor in the transaction, the German bank Deka Immobilien GmbH, had purchased the tower just three years ago for $297 Million. The acquisition by Bentall Kennedy re-affirms their confidence in the Downtown Vancouver office market.

2. Plaza 88 Retail    First Capital Realty acquired the retail component of the Plaza at New Westminster in May 2012 for $97,000,000, or $500 per SF.  The property consists of 194,000 square feet of gross leaseable area and a 422 stall paid parking garage.  The project is fully integrated with Skytrain and a bus terminal.  Tenants include Safeway, Landmark Theatres, Shoppers Drug Mart, Dollar Tree, CIBC, RBC, Starbucks and A&W.

3. Lougheed Village   The largest apartment deal done in 2012 was a large concrete highrise complex in Burnaby next to Lougheed Mall. The 548-unit complex sold in April for $90,000,000, or $165,000 per unit. Comprised of two 24-storey towers and two 8-storey lowrises, the sale is one of the largest apartment sales in Vancouver history, behind only that of Beach Towers and Langara Gardens in 2010. The buyer was Mayfair Properties.

4. Pacific Point  Bosa Development acquired this 227-unit strata building located in Downtown Vancouver in June 2012 for $79,000,000. The 20-year old project includes two phases over a common podium and is stratified but has been operated as a rental building since completion. It includes 11 commercial units on the ground floor. The building had been listed for sale by the Vendor, Concert Properties. The price per unit is approximately $350,000.

5. 401 West Georgia    Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a 50% stake in this A Class office building at West Georgia and Homer Street in March 2012 for $63,000,000, or $467 per SF for, representing a 5.1% cap rate.

An apartment building located at East 44th Avenue and Fraser Street in East Vancouver has sold. The 18-unit building sold for $3,220,000, or $179,000 per unit. The cap rate on the transaction was 3.2% and the marketing materials suggested there is the possibility to raise rents substantially.

CMHC has just released their 2012 rental market report for Vancouver. Some highlights:

• „The average vacancy rate rose to 1.8 per cent in October 2012 from 1.4
  per cent in October 2011.
• „„The average rent increase for two-bedroom  apartments between October 2011 and October 2012 was 2.3 per cent. The general rate of inflation for this period was 0.7 per cent.
• Areas close to Vancouver City, such as Richmond, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver, reported similar low vacancy of around 1%. In contrast, Coquitlam, Port Moody, and Port Coquitlam, where home prices are relatively lower, recorded average vacancy rates of 3.2 per cent.
• A supply increase of 3,724 rental condominium apartment units helped to keep the rate of rent increase contained.
• The Vancouver rental market is forecast to remain stable next year with vacancy rates expected to remain below 2.0%.

CMHC 2012 Vacancy Rates

CMHC Average RentsSource: CMHC

Source: CMHC