Here’s a quick look at the largest deals of 2014. While the announcement of the sale of the Jericho Lands was considered to be among the biggest deals of the year, this is not included as this was not a market transaction.

1. Hyatt Regency ($140 MM)

The sale of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Downtown Vancouver to InnVest REIT last month was the largest deal in Vancouver in 2014. The 644-room hotel sold for $140 Million. According to an InnVest press release: “InnVest funded the acquisition of the Hyatt with a new $70 million, 3.8% floating rate mortgage (three-year term plus two one-year options) and cash on hand”.

2. 1500 West Georgia ($120 MM)

Bosa Properties acquisition of 1500 West Georgia from Morguard was one of the most talked about deals in 2014. The 193,000 SF A Class office building sits on a very valuable and partially underutilized 43,320 SF, full-block site at the Southeast corner of West Georgia and Cardero. Speculation abounds as to future redevelopment.

3. Langara Gardens ($102 MM)

Peterson Group quietly sold a 50% interest in their 621-unit, 21 acre apartment property on Cambie Street known as Langara Gardens to Concert Properties in a deal that would peg the value over $200 Million. The site has been undergoing a preliminary planning process with the City of Vancouver since 2013.

4. 3777 Kingsway ($87 MM)

Another 50% sale managed to make Vancouver’s top deals of the year. The 50% sale of a building that many Vancouverites refer to as the ‘Telus Boot’, a 22-storey office tower near Metrotown, was sold by H&R REIT to Crestpoint for $87 Million.

5. 1444 Alberni & 740 Nicola ($84 MM)

Wall Financial’s acquisition of a full-city block in the West End was one of Vancouver’s largest deals with redevelopment potential. At just under an acre and containing existing apartments and office space, the site has redevelopment potential under the City of Vancouver’s new West End Community Plan.

By Evan Duggan

There’s a familiar sports cliché Daniel Fournier likes to use when describing his vision for Ivanhoe Cambridge in his role as the massive commercial real estate investment firm’s chairman and CEO.

“Go big or go home,” Fournier says more than once during Wednesday’s interview in a seventh-floor suite of the 75-year-old Fairmont Hotel Vancouver — a masterpiece Ivanhoe Cambridge is currently shopping as part of an ongoing shift toward tightening its grasp on high-profile shopping centres and office tower buildings.

Fournier would repeat the phrase again downstairs in a keynote address to the Vancouver Board of Trade. He comes by the sports lingo honestly. Fournier, who took over the multi-billion dollar reins of Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2010, took a break from his studies at Oxford in 1977 to play a season for the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders.

Fournier said he came to the West Coast partly to say “thank you to Vancouver, because we’ve done very, very well here,” but also to share insight on how he plans to transform Ivanhoe Cambridge from a real estate investment machine with $40 billion in assets, into a $70-billion behemoth.

Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate arm of  …read more

Source:: RENX

Impressive view of Vancouver with Mt. Baker in the background:

Here is a quick look at the average pricing for concrete condo unit resales in various sub-areas of the Westside of Vancouver. The following criteria were used:

• Condos only (not townhouses)
• Concrete only (no woodframe)
• 3 years old or newer at time of resales
• 2014 Year-to-date

Some of these subareas have very small sample sizes (ie. less than 10 in the case of Marpole and Point Grey) but it still shows an interesting view.

Source: MLS

A recent analysis of the REBGV’s Housing Price Index for single family detached resales on the Westside of Vancouver shows that the index has reached an all-time high.

Year to date, there have been 1,498 single family house sales on the Westside of Vancouver, and the average sale price is a whopping $2,733,461. Only 136 homes have sold for less than $1,500,000, and the cheapest home sold was $877,000. (a tear down on West 41st near Main Street).

Source: REBGV HPI

With numbers like these, it is no wonder we are seeing increasing values in other areas and in the multifamily market.