BCBusiness

| L AND VALUES + GO FIGURE T H E B R I E F 20 | BC B U S I N E SS OCTOB ER 2025 TV: inception-D/Shutterstock; BC Place Stadium: Afrel Refiana/Shutterstock pegged at 500,000 to 700,000 units by 2030, according to a recent analysis by Braden Batch, the lead economist for B.C. with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Those that are going ahead are being propelled less by the legislation and more by enthusiastic builders who coach people through the process. Fourplex proponents like Fry, Clarke, Davidson and Babakaiff are willing to put in that extra effort. (The vast majority of eligible homeowners haven't even heard of their new option.) Babakaiff, who won an award for a fourplex he built on Vancouver's west side before the new provincial rules came into place, has several projects on the go. But he has developed an elaborate set-up to try to make the process as appealing as possible to homeowners. He has built a website, vanplex.ca, that allows you to enter an address and calculate construction costs, likely selling price and likely profit. For an East 17th Avenue address in Vancouver that he entered at random, the program calculated that it would cost $2.476 million to build 4,900 square feet of four- plex on the site of what is currently a single- family home, with about $163,000 in financing costs. Three of the units were estimated to bring in $4.5 million once sold, with the largest one, valued at $2.8 million, kept for the owner. The pre-tax profit on the whole venture: $2.06 million. He has also developed a team to handle different aspects of what is inevitably going to be a stressful project for any owner: a construction mortgage lender (a lot of banks are not yet comfortable with financing multiplexes), a realtor to help figure out what's the most saleable in terms of design, a tax specialist to minimize taxes on the profit, a general contractor, an architect and a rental agency for those thinking of renting rather than selling. He ultimately tells many people that a multiplex just won't work for them. And he knows people for whom it just seems too risky. They'd rather just sell as is, downsize, and pocket some of the great gains they made in the last 30 years of holding real estate. And that's enough for them. G O F I G U R E Our Cup Runneth Over Love it or hate it, playing host to the FIFA Men's World Cup next June and July is going to have a huge economic impact for Vancouver and B.C. Here are the latest scores.—By Michael McCullough Sources: Government of B.C., FIFA, City of Vancouver, CBC The B.C. government projects that FIFA World Cup 2026 will attract an additional 1 million out-of- province visitors between 2026 and 2031, raising tourism spending by over $1 billion and tourism industry output by $1.7 billion. Provincial government tax revenues are expected to rise $88 million during the event and $136 million in the post-event period through 2031 as a result. Overseas visitors 45% Local region (same-day visitors) 43% Net cost to provincial and municipal governments: $85 million to $145 million Cost to the City of Vancouver, provincial government, PavCo (BC Place) and other public-sector entities (June 2025 estimate): $532 million to $624 million Revenue to municipal and provincial governments from taxes, fees and federal contributions: $448 million to $478 million U.S.A. 2% Other regions of B.C. 5% Rest of Canada 5% The seven matches scheduled to be held at BC Place are expected to attract 362,100 attendees. Here's how the crowds are expected to break down: 360 million viewers watch a typical World Cup opening-round game on TV or streaming.

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