It’s no secret that municipal election season generally means a slowdown in the approval process for developers throughout Metro Vancouver. Rezoning applications in particular can represent an undesirable political issue that most mayors and councilors would prefer not to deal with during a re-election campaign, and planning staff usually direct rezoning applicants accordingly, regardless of whether the application would be contentious at a public hearing.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the City of Vancouver. With most rezoning applications publicized in the media, and with well-organized community groups speaking at most large-scale rezoning public hearings, staff and council have been reticent and discouraging of new applications over the past several months. Vision Vancouver has a well known track record of approving almost every rezoning application that staff brings forward, but that is a topic for another discussion…

Here’s a look at the volume of rezoning applications at the City of Vancouver during Vision’s most recent term in office:

Disclaimer: This graph represents rezoning application filings only, and only the most recent applications where projects have been revised. Only a portion of these applications have been approved to date. This is not official City of Vancouver data and I make no guarantees as to its accuracy.

Of note, rezoning applications have been scarce over the past few months after a 3-year high earlier in the year, and perhaps not coincidentally, there have been few truly contentious rezoning applications that would stir up opposition. Smartly, the City is taking time with rezonings in new plan areas such as Marpole and the West End where the communities are still coming to terms with the realities of densification, albeit only moderate densification in most areas.

Rest assured there is a queue of developers that are waiting to file applications after the election. The number that are able to do so early in the new year will be at least partially dependent upon the how Council looks after November 15th.

Here’s a snapshot of where large-scale residential projects (defined as those over 100 units) are currently being built:

By Paul Brent

It is likely not news to any commercial real estate industry veteran, but Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are expensive places to do business when it comes to taxes.

A recent study from the Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac) confirms that fact, finding those three cities continue to sport the highest commercial to residential tax ratios in the country. The trio all have commercial to residential tax ratios higher than 4:1, while the average tax ratio for all Canadian municipalities was 2.79.

However, there is some good news in the report. Toronto’s commercial to residential tax ratio continues its slow but steady decline over the 11 years REALpac has been keeping track. The ratio declined to 4.01 from 4.07 a year ago. That’s part of the city’s deliberate effort to cut commercial taxes and reverse the exodus of business to the suburbs. Its goal by the end of the decade is to trim its commercial to residential tax ratio to 2.5.

In contrast, the study found Montreal’s ratio increased for the 10th consecutive year, even though there were decreases in both commercial and residential rates over the past two years. In fact, Montreal’s …read more

Source:: RENX

Here is an update to a graph that has been posted here many times previously. Cap rates are continuing a downward or flat trend across most asset classes amid a continued influx of capital and a continued environment of relatively cheap debt and low interest rates.

Suburban office buildings appear to be the one exception in mid-2014, likely reflecting worsening leasing fundamentals and increasing vacancy in many areas such as Burnaby. While there doesn’t appear to be much room for continued compression in the other asset classes, Vancouver tends to be a market that defies logic.

What do you think? Where do you see capitalization rates trending as we finish 2014 and enter 2015….

[poll id=”6″]

Source: Bank of Canada