The sealant coating the pebbled walkway that leads up to Ravenswood’s display home is so fresh construction workers detour potential buyers onto the front lawn and then into the home’s presentation centre.
It was Thursday morning and the sprawling property off Loggers Lane, a formerly forested area across from Brennan Park Recreation Centre, was a hive of activity. Construction crews were putting the finishing touches on the three homes that will serve as displays while the 106 units in the Benchmark Development are built.
The three- and four-bedroom single-family homes, which will start at about $820,000, fill a gap in Squamish’s local housing market, sales agent Andrew Laurie said. The homes range in size from 1,913 to 2,411 square feet and sit on lots that are approximately 4,500 square feet in size.
The build-out is expected to take about two and a half years, Laurie said, the goal being to deliver about three homes to market a month.
So far, about half the people looking at Ravenswood have been from the Lower Mainland and half are locals looking to upsize or shift across the market, Laurie said. “They are all sort of in their 20s or 30s, they are either about to have kids or they have a couple of kids and the third one is on the way and the townhouse or the condo in the city just isn’t working anymore,” he said.
He predicts a few investors will buy to flip, but mostly he is seeing people who want to live in the area.
For the first time he has started to see cash offers from buyers fleeing the overheated market in Vancouver and bringing their city-buying tactics with them, he said.
Squamish’s typical single-family housing price in Squamish for May was $729,300, according to figures from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. The same house in Vancouver was $1,513,800.
Squamish’s residential real estate prices overall in May were up 21.6 per cent over May of 2015 and up 68.6 per cent over prices a decade ago, board figures show.
Laurie said the booming housing market in Squamish hasn’t been a boon for all local real estate agents, as one might assume.
“Picture 20 people showing up at one listing and you have a happy seller and a happy seller’s agent,” he said. “[But] you have a buyer who thinks he’s paid too much… and then you have 18 other agents who didn’t get a paycheque and 19 people who didn’t get a home.”
Adriana Smith of the Squamish Tenants’ Information Network balked at the $800,000 starting sticker price of the Ravenswood homes.
“Who will teach these kids when our current teachers retire, and new teachers can’t afford to live here,” she asked. “What will a home cost when the children of these new families need housing, where does it stop?” Laurie has been in the district 13 years and knows people who have felt forced to leave, he said. Some have cashed out and some have sought a more affordable town.
While Laurie describes the current housing situation is “insane” and sad, he takes a Buddhist approach to progress.
“You can’t fight change,” he said. “Squamish will grow in spite of itself, or in spite of any efforts.”
