If you’re a homeowner, your home is likely worth a bit more, or a whole lot more than it was last year, depending on where you live in Squamish.
Homeowners opened their mailboxes to find the 2016 BC Assessment notices starting Jan. 4. The assessments reflect the market value of homes, townhomes and apartments as of July 1, 2015.
Across the board, Squamish saw the second highest assessment increases in the province. Only Lions Bay homeowners saw their homes’ values increase more.
“It definitely shows that we in Squamish now are more tied into the Metro Vancouver market than we were in the past,” said Jason Blackman-Wulff, a district councillor and the housing task force chair.
In Squamish, a Garibaldi Highlands single family home, for example, increased 23 per cent to $667,000 from $543,000 in 2014.
The assessment for a downtown single family home increased 18 per cent to $432,000 from $366,000.
A Garibaldi Estates strata townhouse was set at $374,000, up from $324,000 in 2014, a 15 per cent increase.
A low-rise strata apartment in the district saw a five-per-cent increase at $192,000, up from a 2014 assessment of $183,000.
For renters, the assessments are likely not good news.
“There is a collective breath-holding as renters await word of the inevitable increases to come,” said Adriana Smith of the Squamish Tenants’ Association. “The ripple effects are endless. Increased percentage of the monthly income going to rent means less money in other areas. For children, the effects are heartbreaking: stressed parents, lower quality nutrition, activity deprivation...”
Blackman-Wulff said the increased assessments may result in some positive changes for renters as they give developers more of an incentive to start projects in Squamish. New builds may alleviate Squamish’s rental backlog, he said.
“It is a signal to us and to the development industry that the supply isn’t meeting the demand right now,” he said, adding council has approved multiple projects over the past year that should see hundreds of housing units come on line within the next year or so. He also said the increases may give homeowners incentive to start renovations to create rental suites. “For people in the market, obviously it creates wealth that wasn’t there and additional equity that may put people in a position to be able to create secondary suites and things like that.”
