With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1458960
Created by the Canada Wide Media advertising department in partnership with Nicola Wealth A lex Messina, director of acquisi ons for Nicola Wealth Real Estate (NWRE), says the key to becoming a real estate pro is understanding the most influen al trends in the BC marketplace, which is what drives the company's success— and it can drive yours, too. He advises paying a en on to the housing shortage, a topic that is widely regarded in the real estate community, as well as immigra on and inter- provincial migra on in BC, which have been outpacing housing starts for the last decade. As home prices con nue to increase, so do opportuni es for rental housing. "Un l recently, there were decades in which the supply of new rental housing was limited, so the exis ng stock is dated and doesn't have the same ameni es and features as condo product, for example," Messina says. "NWRE has over 1,500 units in our development pipeline in Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island." Another trend to keep an eye on is the con nued demand for strata industrial, given the constrained supply of industrial land and lack of space available for lease, par cularly for small- to mid-sized users. Low interest rates make ownership more affordable, and over me, strata industrial units have become a widely accepted and liquid asset class that can be purchased by both owner-users and investors. Once considered an alterna ve asset class, self-storage has become sought a er. No longer your single-storey, drive-up format, self-storage has evolved to temperature controlled, modern, mul -level facili es in urban areas. "The advantage is that rents can be moved with the market as customers are not locked into long-term fixed-rate leases," Messina says. "A lot of capital is chasing opportuni es to acquire and develop self-storage as popula ons increase, especially in urban areas where there is higher density development." Mount Pleasant is buzzing with ac vity from office tenants looking to break free from downtown, high-rise se ngs. The demand for crea ve office space—think exposed ceilings over dropped t-bars, and polished concrete floors instead of pastel burbur—has turned this industrial neighbourhood into a hub of ac vity. THE JAMES, JAMES BAY, VICTORIA, BC Real Estate Investment in BC Investors in today's market need to understand key trends and perfect their strategies—Nicola Wealth can help