By John Clark

The asking price isn’t being disclosed. The Vancouver Sun reported the property’s assessed value is $89.9 million.

But assessed value is a measure of the value of the real estate on which the building rests, as well as the building itself. This does not take into account the value of the business operating on the premises.

These are unrelated – at least in theory. In practice, they often become quite tangled, and not just in the tourism and hospitality sector. This entanglement is often accidental. Sometimes it’s deliberate – a subtle exercise in turning a blind eye some owners may believe will serve their tax planning objectives. Trying to shave dollars from one tax bill, however, may just end up costing you more down the road and leave you painted into a corner.

But even with the best of intentions, distinguishing real estate from business value can be a challenging valuation scenario.

When a hotel isn’t just a hotel

Take a hotel. A sale will typically include all the chattels – furniture, fixtures and equipment – plus the expectation on the part of the buyer that they have …read more

Source: RENX

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Here is a snapshot of benchmark pricing for single family, townhomes and condos in North Vancouver as of May 2014.

Source: REBGV

Here are a few select stats released by the REBGV that show various housing markets:

Vancouver Westside

Of note, the benchmark index for single-family homes on the Westside of Vancouver has now inched back up to the peak values seen in April 2012.

Is this sustainable?

The City of Vancouver said Thursday it is reviewing its method of demanding extra payments from developers to help pay for non-traditional services such as daycare centres, heritage conservation, parks and social housing.

The review comes after the province issued new guidelines for how local governments assess community amenity contributions (CACs) that are tied to rezoning applications. Those guidelines were sparked in large part by concerns that Vancouver is using a method of calculation that could be seen as both coercive of developers and breaching long-standing rules against the selling of zoning in return for a benefit.

The city’s practice has been to seek what it calls “voluntary contributions” from developers that amount to 75 per cent of any profit they might generate from land that becomes more valuable through rezoning. In the most expensive of cases, that amounts to as much as $50,000 per-unit, compared to a more modest $1,200 per unit in Surrey.

By seeking “voluntary” payments the city retains a discretionary right to approve rezoning applications. The payment is different from legislated “development cost levies” that all applicants must pay for services such as sidewalks, water, roads and sewer connections. Vancouver said it obtained a legal opinion that the CACs are fair as long as they are made “voluntarily” by developers, who are told they are not a precondition of zoning approval.