The Tri-City real estate market may not be seeing the same level of activity it did last year but prices are continuing to increase in all three municipalities, recent sales data shows.

In the last three months, according to a press release from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) the median benchmark price in Coquitlam has increased 8.1% to $791,000 while Port Coquitlam’s went up 8.2% to $618,600 and Port Moody’s rose 5.1% to $805,400.

The largest median benchmark price increases have come for multi-family homes.

Townhouses in Coquitlam saw a three-month increase of 9.9% to $554,500 while apartments have jumped 10.1% to $383,300. 

In Port Coquitlam, the price of an apartment jumped 8.9% to $334,900 while Port Moody saw a 7.7% increase to $531,300. 

The figures reflect a wider trend across Metro Vancouver.

According to REBGV, residential property sales in the region for April totalled 3,553, a 25.7% decline from the same month last year and roughly in line with the 3,579 transactions that took place in March 2017.

Real estate board president Jill Oudil said in the first four months of the year, condo and townhouse sales have made up a larger percentage of all sales activity in Metro Vancouver. 

“Our overall market is operating below the record-setting pace from a year ago and is in line with historical spring levels,” she said in a press release. “It’s a different story in our condominium and townhouse markets. Demand has been increasing for months and supply is not keeping pace. This dynamic is causing prices to increase and making multiple offer scenarios the norm.”

Are you new to Port Coquitlam?

Contact City Hall for your City Info Guide along with information about community events, maps of the various rivers and trails within our community, recreation and leisure activities, and many more helpful tips and information. A variety of information is available in person at Port Coquitlam City Hall. You can also contact 604.927.5411 or info@portcoquitlam.ca to obtain more information.

On this website, find out about the City, get answers to frequently asked questions, check out tips for new residents and consult the community directory for key contacts and other community resources.

Looking for facilities or parks? Or maybe zoning information about your new neighbourhood? Use PoCoMap, our interative mapping tool, to view and print information. With PoCoMap, you can access:

• detailed property information: property lines, zoning, OCP designation, legal descriptions, legal plans, taxes, utility charges, assessments and aerial photographs
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In the beginning, Vancouver Craft Beer Week was a modest affair.

Just 100 people took part in the inaugural 2010 event — it wasn’t a “week” but rather a one-day festival back then — held inside the Heritage Hall on Main Street. Beer lovers threw back offerings from 20 local craft brewers. 

“We were just a bunch people sitting around drinking craft beer and talking about how much we love craft beer,” said festival co-founder and events manager Leah Heneghan. “We were seeing the influx of more craft people and more craft beer being appreciated in B.C. It sort of seemed like the perfect time to start celebrating what we were doing here.”

Vancouver Craft Beer Week has got so big that it can no longer be contained to just one week. This year’s festival is 10 days long (May 26 to June 4) with 10 different events — culminating with the two-day VCBW festival at the PNE grounds (June 3-4) — that Heneghan expects will attract 15,000 people.

Here are five reasons why you should take part in Vancouver Craft Beer Week:

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

Vancouver’s Big Rock Urban Brewery (310 W 4th Avenue) will host a collaboration tap takeover, noon to 5 p.m., on May 27 that will highlight the community spirit that exists within B.C.’s craft industry.

“In the craft beer community it seems like people are challenging each other to do better and taking advice from each other and seeking advice from each other,” Heneghan said. “It’s a great spirit of working together to help make the whole industry better.”

The brewers of Brewers Row in Port Moody.

Some of B.C.’s top craft brewers — Ravens, Bridge, Four Winds, Steel & Oak, Bomber, Red Racer, Powell Street, Twin Sails, Field House, Callister and Dogwood — worked together to produce an array of collaboration beers. One of the most interesting is joint effort between Gibsons’ Persephone Brewing and Vancouver coffee company Ethical Bean who will unveil a fair-trade coffee-infused IPA. Tickets at $49.

IT WILL BE A HAZY AFFAIR 

After 10 days of celebrating craft beer you may start to feel hazy … which is in keeping with this year’s theme of hazy, unfiltered beers. Every year, the VCBW commissions a collaboration beer co-produced by two or more local brewers. The 2017 collaboration beer is the Hazy Pale infused passion fruit and guava from the four breweries (Moody Ales, Parkside, Yellow Dog and Twin Sails) of Brewers Row in Port Moody.   

“Beer doesn’t have to be clear. The haziness is a celebration of the yeast and other ingredients,” said Heneghan. “You don’t have to be afraid of cloudy beer.”

The Brewers Row will host a Block Party in the Parkside Brewery parking lot (2731 Murray St, Port Moody) on May 28, noon to 5 p.m. Tickets are $25.

Meanwhile, The Donnelly Group will celebrate unfiltered goodness with their IP-Hazy Whole Hog Cookout and Crawfish Boil, June 1 at the Lamplighter Pub in Gastown. They’ll be spinning a full pig on the patio (save me the snout!) and serving up spicy crawfish while pouring the haziest selection of IPAs available. Tickets are $49.

FEATS OF STRENGTH

Vancouver’s colourful Cobalt Cabaret (917 Main Street) will be the site of the Copper & Theory Feats of Strength, from 4 — 10 p.m. on May 28, the week’s silliest event in which both brewers and beer lovers take part in strongman/strongwoman displays including keg stacking and a pushup competition.  

“It’s a hilarious event with a fantastic selection of beer,” said Heneghan.

Tickets are $10.

BEERS AND MURALS, TOGETHER AT LAST

The Vancouver Craft Beer Week and the Vancouver Mural Festival will celebrate the merging of art and beer at their co-headquarters (877 E Hastings Street) on June 2, 7 — 11 p.m. 

“We’ll have a live mural, so people can see the process and watch art being created … all while drinking great craft beer,” said Heneghan, whose group plans to operate a beer garden during the 2017 mural festival, June 24 — Aug. 12. 

Tickets are $20 but extremely limited.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 18, 2017) - A British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) panel has ordered monetary sanctions and permanent bans against Brendan James Schouw and his company Hornby Residences Ltd. for fraud.

In January 2017, a BCSC panel found that Schouw, a Vancouver resident, convinced one investor to invest $1 million in Hornby for a Vancouver real estate project. After depositing the investor's money into Hornby's bank account, Schouw redirected certain of the funds to his own account. Schouw spent approximately $75,000 of the investor's money on his personal mortgage payments and on his separate property management business, despite representing to the investor that all of his investment would be used for the development of a Vancouver real estate project.

In its decision, the panel stated "Schouw knowingly diverted the funds for his own purposes and did so with the knowledge that by so doing, he was putting the investor's funds at risk."

For his misconduct, Schouw has been ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $125,000. He has also been ordered to pay a disgorgement order of $74,612. Schouw and Hornby are jointly and severally liable for the disgorgement amount.

Both Schouw and Hornby have been ordered to cease trading in, and are permanently prohibited from purchasing, any securities or exchange contracts. They are both also banned from becoming or acting as a registrant or promoter, acting in a management or consultative capacity in connection with activities in the securities market, and engaging in investor relations activities.

Schouw has been ordered to resign any position that he holds as a director or officer of any issuer and has been permanently prohibited from becoming or acting as a director or officer of any issuer or registrant. The panel also ordered that securities of Hornby be permanently cease traded.

You may view the decision on our website, www.bcsc.bc.ca, by typing Brendan James Schouw, Hornby Residences Ltd. or 2017 BCSECCOM 168 in the search box. Information about disciplinary proceedings can be found in the Enforcement section of the BCSC website.

Residential property sales in the region totalled 3,553 in April 2017, a 25.7 per cent decline compared to April 2016 when 4,781 homes sold and a 0.7 per cent decrease from the 3,579 sales recorded in March 2017.

April sales were 4.8 per cent above the 10-year average for the month.

For the first four months of the year, condominium and townhome sales have comprised a larger percentage of all residential sales on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Metro Vancouver. Over this time, they’ve accounted for 68.5 per cent, on average, of all residential sales. This is up 10 per cent from the 58.2 per cent average over the same period last year.

“Our overall market is operating below the record-setting pace from a year ago and is in line with historical spring levels. It’s a different story in our condominium and townhome markets," Jill Oudil, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) president said. “Demand has been increasing for months and supply is not keeping pace. This dynamic is causing prices to increase and making multiple offer scenarios the norm.”

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Metro Vancouver totalled 4,907 in April 2017. This represents a decrease of 19.9 per cent compared to the 6,127 units listed in April 2016 and a three per cent increase compared to March 2017 when 4,762 properties were listed.

The total number of residential properties currently listed for sale on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 7,813, a 3.5 per cent increase compared to April 2016 (7,550) and a three per cent increase compared to March 2017 (7,586).

The sales-to-active listings ratio for April 2017 is 45.5 per cent for all property types. This is two per cent below March 2017 and is indicative of a sellers’ market. Generally, analysts say that downward pressure on home prices occurs when the ratio dips below the 12 per cent mark for a sustained period, while home prices often experience upward pressure when it surpasses 20 per cent over several months.

By property type, the sales-to-active listings ratio is 26 per cent for detached homes, 58.2 per cent for townhomes, and 82.2 per cent for condominiums.

“Until more entry level, or ‘missing middle’, homes are available for sale in our market, we’ll likely continue to see prices increase,” Oudil said. “There’s been record building this past year, but much of that inventory isn’t ready to hit the market.”

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is currently $941,100. This represents a five per cent increase over the past three months and an 11.4 per cent increase compared to April 2016.

Over the last three months, the benchmark price of condominiums has seen the largest increase in the region at 8.2 per cent, followed by townhomes at 5.3 per cent, and detached homes at 2.8 per cent.

“Home buyers are looking to get into the market and they’re facing fierce competition,” Oudil said. “It’s important to work with your local Realtor to help you navigate today’s marketplace.”

Sales of detached properties in April 2017 reached 1,211, a decrease of 38.8 per cent from the 1,979 detached sales recorded in April 2016. The benchmark price for detached properties is $1,516,500. This represents an 8.1 per cent increase over the last 12 months and a 1.8 per cent increase compared to March 2017.

Sales of apartment, or condominium, properties reached 1,722 in April 2017, a decrease of 18.3 per cent compared to the 2,107 sales in April 2016.The benchmark price of an apartment property is $554,100. This represents a 16.6 per cent increase over the past 12 months and a 3.1 per cent increase compared to March 2017.

Attached, or townhome, property sales in April 2017 totalled 620, a decrease of 10.8 per cent compared to the 695 sales in April 2016. The benchmark price of an attached unit is $701,800. This represents a 15.3 per cent increase over the past 12 months and a 2.4 per cent increase compared to March 2017.

DIY OUTDOOR ROLLING STUMP SIDE TABLE

A family ski trip to Whistler last month for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, her husband and senior advisor to President Donald Trump, incurred a Secret Service bill of nearly $67,000.

Trump, Kushner and their three children spent four days in Whistler during Passover. 

According to NBC News, U.S. government data shows that Secret Service costs for hotel accommodations and ski passes during the family’s trip to the Four Seasons Resort Whistler added up to at least US$66,538.42 ($91,400 Canadian).

“Of that amount, government purchase order records show, US$59,654 covered hotel costs for Secret Service agents at the resort near Vancouver, while $6,884 paid for ‘multi-day ski passes,'” NBC reported.

The Canadian security costs for the trip have not been released.