BCBusiness

RIGHT: COURTESY OF JIM SCHWARTZ, RE/MAX MID-ISLAND REALTY; SOURCES: STATISTICS CANADA, BC ASSESSMENT JUNE 2019 BCBUSINESS 35 extras like forced air heating and munici- pal road maintenance, sewage and water, as well as a garage (preferably attached) and decent Internet and cellular reception. In preparation, MacLennan and Harvey-Wickens drew up a list of potential areas and arranged to spend a weekend at each. Early on, they'd established what they wanted. But in time, what they didn't want was also becoming clear. "We went up to Squamish several weekends in a row," MacLennan recalls. Initially drawn to the area, they decided it wasn't where they wanted to put down roots. It was, they discovered, a pattern. "It's interest- ing," MacLennan says. "At the start of the weekend, you'd be, Oh, my gosh, this is perfect for us! I love this place! And three days later, you'd be, I'm over it. This is not for me, full-time." Midway through their search, though, they received some excellent news. In 2016 the couple became pregnant. This augured much, but it also threw shade on a particu- lar type of property that, they decided, would now be categorically unfeasible. It's perhaps the image that ƒrst comes to mind when you think of the archetypal B.C. getaway: a cabin perched on a high cli—, the expansive wrap- around deck with views to the Paciƒc, and oceanfront access via a precipitously winding, wooden staircase. It is the classic West Coast setting. And for small children, potentially dangerous. A huge chunk of coastal B.C. was removed from their list. Buying patterns MacLennan and Harvey-Wickens are younger than the demographic normally associated with vacation and recreational property buys. It's tempting to extrapolate that they're part of a trend, the vanguard of something exciting and new. Some sources imply that, in fact, they are. The 2018 Re/ Max Recreational Property Report states that although the B.C. market is "driven pri- marily by retirees," an "emerging trend" is the presence of "couples and young entre- preneurs…in search of work/life balance." However, part of the problem with dis- cussing trends in "vacation" home sales is that it's not a distinct and trackable cat- egory. As of 2019, of the more than 2 mil- lion properties in B.C.—this total includes everything from farms and residential to industrial and commercial—about 54,789, or 2.65 percent, are designated "recre- ational," according to Landcor. But the reality is that many homes used for vacation or recreational purposes—the ski-in condo at Sun Peaks or the waterfront bungalow overlooking Long Beach—are rolled into an amorphous Class 1 Residen- tial designation. (Information acquired through the recent disclosure statements for the province's new speculation and vacancy tax could paint a more complete picture. The results were still being com- piled as of this writing.) As you might expect, proximity dic- tates use: the closer a property is to major population centres, the more likely it will be used as a weekend getaway. And that, Rudy Nielsen says, is what many buyers want. "Get to your cabin on Friday night, drive back on Sunday and still be at work on Monday morning," he explains. "You're what I call a Weekend Cowboy." According to Nielsen, that's one of eight categories that include everyone from the Pri- vate Island Buyer to the Apprehen- sive Buyer: convinced that the world is going to hell, the lat- ter is looking for safe harbour— a mountaintop cattle ranch, for example, for when the cow dung hits the fan. Others are in the game simply to make a buck; the potential for capital apprecia- tion is a key driver for many recreational property investors. "Bear in mind that only 5 percent of the province is privately owned land; 95 percent belongs to the Crown," Nielsen says. These investors are buying into a timeworn adage that has got- ten more than a few speculators in serious trouble: Buy land; they're not making any more of it. Where are they buying? The traditional hot spots—from the Gulf Islands and Quali- cum Beach to the North and South Okana- gan—are still in play. Overall, ski resorts have tended to hold their own, with non- resident owners a factor in at least some destinations: at 17-percent non-resident ownership levels, Sun Peaks tops that list. (Whistler is close behind, at 16 percent.) Some regions grabbed headlines: "Toƒno Values up by 112%!" was one of the more eyebrow-raising claims from mid-2018. (It's an alarming statistic, until you real- ize that it reected the value of waterfront SURF'S UP TOFINO POPULATION: 1,932 (2016 census) POPULATION DENSITY PER SQ. KM: 183.1 PRIVATE DWELLINGS: 755 CLOSEST HOSPITAL: Tofino General, but it's small and ill-equipped for challenging diag- noses. A new helipad, however, facilitates timelier air evacuations CLOSEST INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: Victoria International COMMUTING TIME FROM DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER: 6.5 to 7 hours, including ferry crossings and wait times AVERAGE ASSESSED VALUE 2018, SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL: $643,500 AVERAGE ASSESSED VALUE 2019, SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL: $767,000 (+19%) WHAT $500,000 WOULD GET YOU THIS SPRING: One-bedroom, 438-square-foot, oceanfront cabin on 10 acres a half-hour boat ride northeast of Tofino lar type of property that, they decided, that include everyone from the Pri vate Island Buyer to the Apprehen sive Buyer: convinced that the the fan. R E C R E A T I O N A L P R O P E R T Y G U I D E BUY HERE IF… You love surfing and storm watching, and have the option to stay for more than a long weekend. Bonus: a small but serious culinary scene that punches above its weight

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