Deloitte Real Estate’s recent Crane Survey highlights a trend in retail mall ownership: there are few opportunities to buy malls, leading prospective mall owners to either build new developments or to reinvest in existing assets.

The report notes that a handful of groups own the majority of large retail assets in Metro Vancouver.

“Most of the larger shopping centres in Canada are owned by a select few groups, and they haven’t been sellers in recent years,” Andrew Evans, who co-authored the report, told Business in Vancouver.

Courtesy BIV. Read more: http://www.biv.com/article/20121113/BIV0111/121119994/0/small-business-confidence-continues-slide-in-june/mall-sales-scarcity-forcing-owners-to-reinvest-or-expand

Resales volume for single family houses in  Surrey (excluding South Surrey/White Rock) have slowed considerably since June 2012. There were 181 resales in October 2012, well below the average for this market which is closer to 300 resales per month.

Pricing in Surrey appears to be flat, with the October 2012 benchmark price index roughly unchanged from October 2011. Of the currently available 1,688 single family detached houses in Surrey, the average asking price is $706,000.

Source: FVREB stats.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver released their October statistics. The residential market continues to show signs of slowing down, although not dramatically. Here are a few highlights:

• Listings were up 12% from 2011, but down 5.3% from September 2012.
• Sales were down 16.7% in October 2012 compared to October 2011.
• Since hitting a record high in April, the benchmark price detached homes on the Westside of Vancouver has declined 8.6% while detached homes in Richmond and West Vancouver have seen declines of 6 % over the same time period.
• Port Moody, Maple Ridge and Port Coquitlam are the only markets where average single family prices have not declined since April.
• North Vancouver, Pitt Meadows and Port Moody are the only markets where average condo unit prices have not declined since April.

Source: REBGV stats

Values for retail properties in East Vancouver have largely been driven by rents in increasingly populated areas such as Main Street, Commercial Drive and East Hastings Street. Properties with strong tenant covenants in East Vancouver should achieve strong valuations with cap rates even below 5.00%.

A look at the Real Estate Board of Vancouver’s September statistics shows continued evidence that pricing is beginning to be affected by a rapid slowdown in sales. Overall benchmark pricing is down 0.8% YoY and 1.8% over the last six months.

A more detailed review of performance by submarket shows some clear winners and losers over the last 6 months around the time the market started to show signs of weakening. Only 4 submarkets did not show a decline in benchmark prices over the past 6 months: Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Port Moody and Squamish.

Source: REBGV stats. Benchmark resale price change over 6 months ending Sep 2012.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the biggest benchmark price decline over the past 6 months was for single family homes on the West side of Vancouver, declining 6.3%. Richmond was not far behind. Port Coquitlam also showed a decrease of 4.0% in attached homes.

Squamish and Port Moody were clearly two of the strongest markets, showing price increases over the past 6 months for every housing type. One could argue that every submarket will eventually show declines, although some markets, such as Squamish appear to have little room to drop amid stagnant sales activity since 2007.

Housing Analysis Blog has underaken a more in-depth analysis of the stats release; worth the read…