It’s no surprise that offering new condominiums at below-market rates spoke to the Victoria housing market. Chard Developments has 1,500 people registered and interested in its plans for a $50-million condo project — the
20-storey Vivid at the Yates, a partnership with B.C. Housing — that will see all 135 units sold at eight per cent below the market value of the units.
The project, which spans the
800 block between Yates Street and Johnson Street, is being funded by B.C. Housing at a below-market rate, with the savings being passed onto the buyers. Buyers have to qualify for the project.
The rules are they must have a household income below $150,000 (Chard has said preference will be given to households with income below $125,000) and they have to agree to live there for at least two years. Prices for Vivid’s units will run between $275,000 and $550,000. Average price of a Vivid suite will be $388,000.
Nanaimo Port chair resigns
The Nanaimo Port Authority is looking for a new chair after Moira Jenkins resigned Wednesday. Jenkins, the federal appointee as the international trade user group representative on the board, has been with the organization since 2014. Her three-year term expired in October. “After three exciting years of working with the port’s management team, customers, port user groups, and community partners, I have decided that it is time to dedicate more time to my family and other community interests.” Jenkins said. Jenkins, who worked 44 years for the Royal Bank of Canada, holds board positions with the Nanaimo Hospital Foundation and the Nanaimo District Museum.
International visitors rise 3.1%
Destination B.C., the province’s marketing arm, said B.C. had 4.72 million international visitors, a 3.1 per cent increase, through its customs entries in the first nine months of this year compared with 2016. That figure included a 1.4 per cent increase to 3.03 million overnight stays by American visitors, a 6.2 per cent jump in Asia-Pacific visitors to 1.04 million and a 3.5 per cent increase in European visitors to 482,278. September was particularly strong for B.C. with 4.6 per cent growth over the same month last year.
Destination B.C. said 10 per cent of the province’s annual international overnight entries come in September, and this year the increase was due in part to an increase in direct flights.
Year to date, the biggest percentage increases in international visitors have come from Australia, which jumped 22.4 per cent to 216,762 visitors, Mexico, which jumped 21.7 per cent to 112,574, and Germany, which increased 14.9 per cent to 92,830.
The U.S. is the largest international market for B.C. with more than three million Americans spending a night here annually.
