City Councillor Jonathan Cote has been busy this past little while up at SFU learning about Urban Studies. He’s recently completed a report on rental housing, and it’s an interesting read. Although I have owned a home for about a decade now, I was a tenant for a long time, and the availability and pricing of rental housing in the 90s is what drew me to New West when I left Vancouver Island in the first place.
I asked Cote how he chose to write a term paper about saving purpose …

The Queens Park Residents’ Association is tackling two timely topics in its next meeting: park safety and property assessments. The agenda for the Sunday, February 26 meeting includes three guest speakers. Because these are two issues with broader reach than the immediate neighbourhood, the QPRA has invited interested residents from the rest of the city to attend.

New West has always remained somewhat of a hidden gem, until lately. Seems the word has gotten out to those interested in building new homes, and the word is that New West has reasonably priced lots (relative to other areas) and their building codes are far more lax than anywhere else. There are some absolutely beautiful homes being built, in keeping with the style of the neighbourhood. My problem is with the character destroyers or ‘urban monsters’ that are being erected.

New Westminster’s heritage architecture is one of its biggest assets. While there are pockets of heritage neighbourhoods throughout the Lower Mainland, New Westminster is lush with vintage appeal. At June 14th’s Regular Council meeting at 7pm, Mayor Wayne Wright will recognize two award-winning local historic properties and present plaques to a number of recent homes that have received municipal heritage designation status.

It’s a new year, and as a realtor, the beginning of January always comes with calls from past clients about questions regarding their property assessment.

I popped by a Public Information Session a few weekends ago at the Admiral Anson Bed and Breakfast. I’ve never stayed at the Admiral Anson, but it’s a pleasant member of my neighbourhood with a well kept yard. As a fan of B&B’s, I think I’d like it and although I’ve not slept there, I do recommend it frequently to family and friends and have heard no complaints. According to the website, rooms are offered at $45 – $75 a night – which is incredibly reasonable – beyond reasonable, to …

I am one of the many home owners in New Westminster with a rented suite. We have a sunny, clean one bedroom that is rented to a lovely tenant. When we purchased our home, the suite allowed us to buy a home that we could truly live in, and we did not have to move to Surrey. Try as we might South of the Fraser, we could not find a neighbourhood that we were willing to live in. I was elated to find this house, with all of its heritage …

The recent announcement by the ONNI development company has generated a lot of interest, a lot of questions and confusion and a lot of traffic to our website here on Tenth to the Fraser. To help clear up the deal, we asked a Real Estate Agents and good friends of ours, Greg and Liz Holmes of MacDonald Olympic Realty to run through the deal and the opportunities here in New Westminster. Remember! Always consult your own professionals when making investment and real estate decisions. Tenth to the Fraser is not …

Good news for first-time buyers and investors in the condo market: Onni is deeply discounting hundreds of brand new units in the neighbourhood.
About 375 unsold condominiums in cities such as Richmond and New Westminster will be offered at 20 to 40 per cent off, a real estate insider told CBC News.
It is not known whether the big discounts are based on prices when the condos were completed or current market values. Onni was to hold a media event Thursday to announce details.
Source: On sale: $350M of real estate in Lower Mainland …

Heritage home aficionados can now sign up for applied courses on home restoration through the Vancouver Heritage Foundation:
… the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, established in 1992 and best known for raising money and awareness through workshops and its wildly popular annual heritage home tours, to offer a unique educational series.
It’s called Old School: Courses for Building Conservation, and it’s designed to meld heritage theory with hands-on practice.
The $400 certificate program comprises a mandatory core course called Heritage 101, as well as seven elective courses.
Graduation – and it’s expected it will …