With increasing home prices in Squamish, April McIntyre and her fiancé were grateful to receive financial help from their parents to buy an apartment suite in Valleycliffe.
Their family gifted money for the down payment, instead of paying for a big wedding.
“Vancouver wasn’t in our price range and we spent all our weekends in the Squamish area skiing and rock-climbing, so it was an easy choice to move here,” said 29-year-old McIntyre, who bought the home in December 2015.
Although Squamish is relatively more affordable than areas of the Lower Mainland, she and her husband, who both have professional jobs in Vancouver, needed help with the down payment. The couple is happy to be in the real estate market, despite that meaning a small, more-affordable wedding.
Even though applications opened for the first-time B.C. homebuyers loan earlier this week, many young Squamish residents are still reaching into the pockets of mom and dad for help with their down payments.
Ken Sherk, a notary in Squamish, said the majority of his clients who are first-time homeowners got financial support from their parents, especially since stricter federal lending regulations were introduced in October that put potential homebuyers through a “stress test” for a mortgage.
“Prices are so high. People are finding ways to get in so they’re turning to the bank of mom and dad,” he said, adding it’s usually couples who are buying together. “Squamish is really a young-family community.”
In the province as a whole, most first-time homeowners are getting help from their parents, according to statistics from BC Notaries, whose members provide conveyancing or other legal services on around half all residential real estate transactions in B.C.
Compared to 2015, more young people are asking their parents for help due to rising home costs with down payments that are difficult to save for even in two-income households.
As of December, the benchmark price of an apartment unit in Squamish is $371,000, up 25 per cent since last year. For a unit costing this much, the minimum down payment is around $18,550 plus additional closing costs.
The cost goes up for other forms of housing in the district. Townhouses come in at $649,400, jumping 34 per cent in a year and 122 per cent since five years ago.
Houses, which are out of the price range for many first-time buyers, are $814,000, up 60 per cent in five years.
On Monday, applications opened for the B.C. government’s new Home Partnership Program that provides loans of up to $37,500 to help first-time homebuyers fund their down payment. A matching loan, which is interest-free and payment-free for the first five years, is available for homes worth up to $750,000 and capped at five per cent.
