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Real Estate Boom Rolls North
Parcelling Haida Gwaii into 'trophy properties.' A special report.
Tow Hill Road
The bathtub at Estrella Hepburn's house is out on the deck. When she's immersed in the steamy hot water, she's hidden behind sand dunes on a secluded piece of land just back from the Sangan River and the northern beaches of Haida Gwaii.
"It's unconventional," says her partner Aaron Riis, "but we don't get that many visitors."
A lot of things about the Tow Hill Road community are unconventional, so when a process server walked up Hepburn's front step one evening to try and serve a summons to a local man named in a lawsuit for obstructing work on a subdivision, he was a little surprised to find a woman and her two children naked in the tub.
The process server, who was sent by the developer NIHO Land and Cattle Co., was on the wrong lot, but he didn't leave quickly when told of his mistake. Hepburn felt shocked and intimidated and threatened to call the police.
But NIHO officials had had a shock of their own two days before. On August 28, several of the men, women and children who live on parcels of private land flanking the northern beaches of Naikoon Provincial Park, stopped a feller-buncher from hacking down moss-covered trees along a magical stretch of road. The trees were in the way of a hydro line for seven new lots in a development that NIHO is marketing as the last affordable oceanfront properties in North America.
'Forgotten place in time'
NIHO president Rudy Nielsen, whose company is the largest private owner of recreational land in British Columbia, snapped up several hundred acres of island property over the last 20 years. The realtor and outdoor recreation enthusiast lives by his company motto, "Don't wait to buy land. Buy land and wait."
And wait he did, in anticipation of today's market, when people seem poised to pay a premium for a piece of unspoiled wilderness.
Nielsen called the Queen Charlottes "a forgotten place in time" in a recent Globe and Mail article, a remote corner of B.C. where buyers only started catching on to the incredible beauty and uniqueness (and cheapness) a couple of years ago.
His seven beachfront properties known as Naikoon Estates, each about four acres, went up for sale on August 15 at prices ranging from $295,000 to $375,000. He has offers pending on most of them.
Although the development on the beach has been slowly evolving from hand-hewn cedar shacks with nicknames like The Mouse and the Gingerbread House, to a few grand show homes with stone fences and gates, back-to-the-landers and other long-term residents who live in this paradise are still reeling from this fresh wave of interest in their back yards.
Locals say 25 years ago a five-acre lot beyond the power lines went for $10,000 or $15,000. Then, one year, someone sold a lot for $100,000 and the prices skyrocketed. Ray Chipeniuk, adjunct professor at UNBC's School of Environmental Planning says the community is experiencing a phenomenon that is sweeping North America.
Chipeniuk says second-home markets have been booming over the last 15 years and the binge has reached as far as the Yukon and now the Queen Charlotte Islands.
"A lot of North Americans have experienced they can make a lot of money by getting into a community early on and then years later selling out for huge profit," he says.
Driving the boom
According to the National Association of Realtors in the United States, there were 3.34 million second-home sales in 2005, up 16 per cent from 2004. Second-home sales boomed nearly twice as fast as new single-family dwellings and four times faster than resale homes.
Their report also says that typical 2005 vacation-home buyers were 52 years old, earned $82,800 and purchased a property that was a median of 197 miles from their primary residence.
Although baby boomers are often looking for future retirement homes, Chipeniuk says the second-home real estate market can work like a pyramid scheme. As long as enough people believe they can make money by buying homes in remote communities, the amount of second homebuyers will remain high.
Chipeniuk admits there can be some positives for locals, especially for those who have been waiting years to sell homes in a depressed economy, but generally second-home buyers bring little more than a mini-construction boom and some minor economic activity during their two-month out of the year stays.
Back on Haida Gwaii. poet Susan Musgrave says that what angers most people about the development at North Beach is that NIHO is marketing the Naikoon Estates as trophy properties.
"It's a most disgusting term," she says. "It assumes you have many and this is the one you show off."
Although Musgrave is a second homeowner herself (her other home is on the Saanich Peninsula), she has lived on and off on Haida Gwaii since the 1970s. She says her philosophy is about living with integrity in a community.
Thanks to earlier developments, by NIHO or Nielsen's other company Landquest, most of the access to the beach has been blocked off and property taxes have risen 100 per cent.
It seems very opposite to how life has always been lived in the neighbourhood, she says.
"Legally, we don't have any grounds to do this," Musgrave said of the protest that took place on NIHO's private land. But she thinks there is an ethical and spiritual argument to be made for having development move at a slower pace.
New to blockades
Nielsen, who has been subdividing properties for 40 years, says this was the first time he'd ever had a blockade on his hands.
He maintains that he had no idea there was a problem with his development, until protesters jumped in front of his machines. Protesters, on the other hand, said they had no idea there was a hydro line going in that would take out the Hobbit-like forest canopy, until the trees started to come down.
"Waiting until a feller-buncher is taking down trees is not a good time to talk," admits Chris Ashurst, a member of the Tow Hill Management Committee, which makes recommendations to the Skeen Queen Charlotte regional district, the body in charge of approving development in the area. (New committee members were elected in February after a years-long hiatus.)
He says the committee responded to a call for input on the development in May, after receiving only three days' notice. They worked night and day to put in their two cents -- one key point was that no part of the canopy on Tow Hill Road should be cut for any reason. Nielsen says they never saw the letter and had no idea the committee even existed. Ashurst and his committee are still investigating how this could be true, but he suspects the tangled bureaucratic process broke down.
Nielsen says he jumped through hoops for the Ministries of the Environment, Health and Highways, as well as the Regional District, for five years. "We never knew there was a Tow Hill regional board," he says. And apparently no one told him.
By many standards the company has done a pretty good job. There are only seven lots where there could be up to 25; and there are strong covenants about building back from the beach to protect the sensitive sand dunes, about how to put in septic systems to protect ground water and nearby rivers and how many trees can be cut down on each lot.
The company seems to have done its homework and is being considerate of the delicate beach ecosystem. But they missed one important step: being sensitive to their neighbours.
'Did we win?'
The community was especially appalled by the summons. The 24 named on the writ signed a petition demanding work stop until the developers met with the Tow Hill Road Management Committee. But rather than take the opportunity to meet his future neighbours to discuss their concerns, Nielsen visited his lawyers instead. Those named on the writ were told they would be liable for any offers lost on the beachfront lots as a result of their protest.
People felt like they had been SLAPPed. If Nielsen persisted, many of the young subsistence lifestyle residents would stand to lose their own properties.
Not only that but they'd lose the forest canopy they'd been trying to protect too.
Tow Hill Road runs out to popular tourist destinations like Agate Beach, Tow Hill and Rose Spit since he arrived. The road used to be narrow and covered by a mossy canopy of spruce and cedar for the 20-kilometre stretch between Tow Hill and Masset, but, little by little, that has changed. Residents say opening the canopy will turn what is now an idyllic shade-covered road loved by tourists into a dusty alder-infested mess.
In the end, the developers met with the management committee and agreed to some concessions, including shortening the length of the hydro clearing and putting a covenant on the final pole to make it more difficult for the hydro line to proceed any further. They also agreed that all future development plans (NIHO has two more subdivisions planned in the area) would be discussed in the pre-planning phase with the committee.
"Did we win? It doesn't sound like it," says Ashurst. But he sees something positive in the whole mess. "We need to make use of the public energy and direct it into a community plan. Sometimes it takes people getting scared to foment public participation," he says.
An Official Community Plan, outlining where and what kind of development can take place, gives the community a legal leg to stand on when looking at developers' proposals, he says. NIHO has even offered to help the committee achieve this goal.
'Vacuum gets filled'
Arnie Bellis, vice-president of the Council of the Haida Nation, followed the conflict with interest.
He was glad to hear the two parties came to a point where they could work together. But he says he's heard from others who are concerned about the notion that developers are moving in on some kind of last frontier on Haida Gwaii. Each community, he says, needs a plan to guide developers. The CHN is working on a process of its own.
"Without something to go by, the vacuum gets filled with the motivation of money," he says.
Greg Halseth, another UNBC professor in the geography department, says recreational properties are part of the Canadian imagination. Cottage country is part of how Canadians understand the rural landscape and some communities have welcomed the waves of seasonal migrants with open arms.
To be prepared for waves of development, he says communities need to sort out what sort of private properties are available for subdivision and what the local zoning laws are.
Secondly, all small places should talk about what they see as the future of their communities in whatever way possible, he says.
"You need a sense of what you are willing to accept, so the community can speak with a clear voice," he says.
Waterfront scarce
In hindsight, Nielsen says he understands where the Tow Hill community is coming from, but he also knows the march of urbanites to the countryside is on and no one can stop it.
Believe it or not, he says, recreational property, especially waterfront, is scarce in B.C. with 95 per cent of the land base owned by the Crown.
"There are very few prestige properties in B.C.," he says. With disposable incomes on the rise, especially among baby boomers who are set to retire, B.C. is turning into the playground of North America.
Nielsen, who, like many, is tired of the smog and pollution in the city, is building a house himself on one of the plots. He'd move to the islands in a minute if he weren't so busy enjoying his job, he says.
But people who move to idyllic retreats want to close the door behind them. Even he has been horrified to learn that people are dividing his earlier subdivisions into smaller lots.
"I hope to Christ nobody who takes on lots on the [Naikoon Estates] turns around and subdivides them," he says.
Heather Ramsay, based in Queen Charlotte City, is a contributing editor to The Tyee. Read her previous articles here.
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Grumpy
5 years ago
Comments on "Real Estate Boom Rolls North"
Forget about the Queen Charolette's, Delta's Southlands is up for grabs again. It is time the public and politicians say no! Owning land, then waiting for prices to inflate only to resell or subdivide, is a fools game.
The lower mainland's hodge podge of cheapie land developements is a pox on the region. It's just time to say no!
maestro
5 years ago
QUOTE:
"...recreational property , especially waterfront, is scarce in BC with 95% of the land base owned by the Crown."
Unless I am mistaken...even that land within the 5 % of the private land that is ALSO waterfront ain't really private waterfront. The Crown effectively has a public easement along the shore, hence anyone can technically "legally trespass" on the first few meters of anyone's ACTUAL water frontage. However,...Most people don't "trespass" due to good manners and good neighbourly protocol.
Didn't see where NIHO did anything wrong....no illegal purchase nor illegal development. That seems to be irrelevant to some people.
At least there seems to be some co-operation here in this case between all stakeholders. As the article implies..the new neighbours will use it like Whistler..spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building " cottages and cabins "...and use it for only a few weeks or months of the year.
The cost to get there will be very expensive...thus one can't see it becoming epidemic. They will contribute a tax base which will benefit the community.
The Local Gov'ts/Regional Districts can be something else...that in itself should be a TYEE topic...the politest thing I can say is they can be inefficent and ineffective tax grabbing bloodsucking parasites. Your regional district "City Hall" can be 100's of Kms away. I am not suprised many issues were "unknowns/surprises " when this was all going on.
Otherwise...Sounds much like another NIMBY comic -tragedy unfolding. NIMBY is also a clever Non S.L.A.P.P. that drives up ones own property values...
Bytesmiths
5 years ago
I find the notion of "second homes" -- let alone "trophy properties" -- disgusting.
Western civilization lacks a sense of place. This missing sensibility is what causes speculation of what is a sacred gift.
Would you sell your mother at a profit? Perhaps some would, but if we grew our own food and felt connected to place, we would find selling our place at a profit to be equally repugnant as selling one's mother.
The good news is this can't go on. As we slide down the fossil energy decline, these remote trophy properties will be harder and harder to get to, until only the very rich can afford only a very few of them.
The bad news is that the inevitable re-localization will take some time, and the parasitic urge to possess, consume, and grow will do a lot of damage before Gaia eventually reins in this human infection. See how these ocean-front owners feel when the sea level goes up 10 or 20 meters!
jesterjogger
5 years ago
Is there nowhere in BC that's not safe from these filthy swine?
They bring death and destruction everywhere they go.
The concepts of natural space and the public domain are quickly being replaced with privatized chichanery in the perverted "new era" of garbage campbell and his reptilian, republican puppet-masters.
curse them all.
DJT
5 years ago
If you dont build it, they wont come.
maestro
5 years ago
"JJ"
Will you PUHLEEEZE quit waffling and speak your mind ?
luv
"M"
maestro
5 years ago
To "BS"
So..a 2nd home/cabin is an evil pox?
Well let's extrapolate that down to camping...ie a more nomadic version of short term residency.
Ban everyone from treading outside the City limits..where do you draw the line? I don't see many hikers and camper peddling their $2500 mountain bikes to go fron Vancouver/GVRD to the Shuswap, Cariboo, Vancouver Island ...Okanagan.
Given Pine Bettle Kill..I recall hearing that the annual allowable cut will radically shift in approx. 15 years due to the tree harvesting now from bettle kill.This will create a huge problem for rural economies.
2nd homes and cabins have huge spin-off effects to the local economy of these rural areas and small towns.
The tax base is huge...if it is gone...regional districts would go broke....and all the collateral damage that goes with it.
Without this tourist facet,the local residents would fold their own tents....and begin to migrate into the cities, and all the upheaval that will create.
Think about it...don't fuggedaboutidt.
NoLeftNutter
5 years ago
Hey JJ, how "natural" is that formerly piece of natural property that your double-wide sits on?
jesterjogger
5 years ago
Double-wide!!
He, he!
Very clever, touche.
Coyote
5 years ago
Nope. Welcome to the North Amerikan Union's BC.
Oink.
Martin
5 years ago
The "filthy swine" of land purchasers are responsible for there being full employment in many areas of BC, wheras only a few years ago there was little to be had for anyone.
For example, in the area around Gold Bridge and Bralorne, everyone who wants work can get it at $20 an hour or more. Thanks to the cottagers and the miners, who co-exist in uneasy peace there.
I'd rather have a job than live in the bush without one. People in rural BC have just as much a right to economic success as the city slickers who sit at their computers lecturing us about the ills of the world.
lynn
5 years ago
Sure got that right,jj...and greedy "reptilians" they are, small of brain and big on arrogance...and on the move once again... looking for new meat...to devour, to spit back out.... and to finally leave rotting in the stench of their privatized wastelands.
BC Mary
5 years ago
Have you been to Parksville lately? Below where the old Island Hall sat (now torn down), there are 3 ugly high-rises under construction. Not condos. Not even apartments. They are time-shares. Whatever you pay (and the price isn't cheap), you'd get to occupy your beach-front rooms for only a limited period of time each year.
At the southern end of this perfect little town, there are "houses" being built tastefully amongst the trees on the ocean side. Houses but not homes. These too are either time-share or they're rented like motel units.
There is no community-based population in this picture. The merry-making transients won't have time or inclination to volunteer for local library, school, sports.
But betcher boots, they'll soon be howling for a casino. I've never seen a better description than "privatized wastelands."
maestro
5 years ago
Ah yes
G*d is a woman/s....
And while you are at it..who died and passed the torch to you and allowed you NIMBY rights? Were they passed down... inherited, traded on the stock market or won in a card game?
Really...at what point in time should we have the armed guards, guard dogs and land mines to prevent the very NEXT parties to establish a toehold in NON -urban portions of BC?
Oh yeah... right AFTER one has established their's...
Nice stereotyping.... TYEE G*desses....
Coyote
5 years ago
jesterjogger,
I agree with Lynn re your piece. All of which reflects-, hopefully not, that Tyee is off on a different stream from what it has been. That a new business plan is in place. Maybe you want to contact me at
, re where the discussion and its evolution continues.
Maybe. Maybe not.
Coyote
5 years ago
Ditoo, Bytesmiths.
Umslopogaas
5 years ago
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot. Let them flock to the Charlottes just stay out of the Kootenays.
Bytesmiths
5 years ago
Ah maestro, you're good at putting words in other people's keyboards, aren't you!
I said I found it disgusting, because humans lack a sense of place. From that, you imagine people wanting to ban camping. What a strange twist you put on what others write!
But we do agree on one thing:
Which is more or less what I said is going to happen to the entire human civilization, not particularly rural areas where people have the chance to re-learn to be self-sustaining.
Bring it on! Sounds like a good time will be had by a very few: the very rich, and those who can grow their own food.
maestro
5 years ago
"BS"
Sorry but don't leave so much ammo around the campfire. It's bound to go off.
Also don't give one words that are very UNambigious ...you are the one putting words in our mouths.
QUOTE: " I find the notion of second homes, let alone "trophy properties" disgusting.
Also words like " repugnant, selling one's mother, human infection" etc. ...is it me or is that not very diplomatic ???
I think many of us like to appreciate the rural environment first hand, and to recharge our batteries via a short temporay reprieve from the urban madness and oppressiveness.
Self sustaining? Again an ethereal concept which no one had defined in a rational and viable sense. It's almost contradictory in the sense that Cities will remain( ie not go back to agri-production)...thus self sustaining implies by default a migration and further encroachment by man into the rural areas...and on a larger scale than cabin owners.
Stump
5 years ago
"People in rural BC have just as much a right to economic success as the city slickers who sit at their computers lecturing us about the ills of the world."
There is no "right to economic success". If you want the economic opportunity that a city offers, ya gotta go where the $$$ are. Consider the inverse. Do "city-slickers" have a right to rural living within the city? Of course not.
maestro
5 years ago
Stump:
That begets a question of who decides and the semantics of the word " right ".
FYI there was much crown land that was leased for recreational use...and has been sold off. Other areas have private lands. These can be bought and sold. If the Local Gov't allows you to build, you can build. In most cases, one residential building per property. The NIMBY's should keep this in mind...
NIHO seemed to do the best balance for all stakeholders in this Gwaii area project. It created 7 lots instead of a possible 25,... plus covenants.
The "Right to economic success " is an interesting term...In my view that term is NOT a legislated right that the Gov't will ensure you shall have economic success, but on the other hand will not interfere with your right to "attempt" economic success.
A wise elderly gent once stated to me
" world doesn't owe you a living, but the world owes you the right to try and make a living" .
Question again is...are some parties claiming that the world ends at the city /urban limits and the rest must "freeze" and maintain its status quo? ...I seriously doubt that is the voice of the rural citizens, hence its much of the urban crowd, hence little credibility in this context. Armchair etc. NIMBY-ism.
However,if it is the rural crowd, then perhaps they have no right to enter the City. Where does this WE know better ever end?
That's why "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". A typical "cause celebre' " that is nothing more than a tempest in a tea pot. At least it brings out the enviro underbelly with more amusing illogical and tyrannical rants...(but in hindsight I am sure the lovely TYEE G*desses are simply pulling our leg).
BC Mary
5 years ago
What about city councils ...
There's a serious conflict of interest there. Councillors are elected by citizens who probably expect their town or village or city councils to look after their towns by adjudicating the public good. Will they have a toxic tyre-burning facility downtown? No. Will they have a spiritually toxic casino or time-shares downtown? Well, yeah ... Just twist their arms and they'll even bless that with tax breaks.
Councillors seem to relish the notion of a bigger village, richer tax revenues, more traffic, more shoppers, and more glamourous business to preside over. It's a crazy, self-destructive system which, it must be said, is wide open to corruption as well.
Davey-boy
5 years ago
BC mary writes that 2nd home owners are unlikely to be active members of the community.
I'm not sure how true this is, generally speaking, but I do know that on the Gulf Island where my family resides each summer, the cottagers contribute much in the way of volunteerism.
The 2nd home phenomenon is a symptom of the shifting pattern of wealth distribution, a phenomenon worthy of our attention. But the 2nd homers aren't a problem in and of themselves.
maestro
5 years ago
Well, we are into a whole new discussion, yet somewhat connected.
Unless things have changed...here is how it works.
The rural RESIDENT property owner is elgible for a Homeowner Grant. In addition, all within the household are allowed to vote as long as they are of voting age and are area residents.
HOWEVER...the rural NON - Resident property owner does not benefit from the Homeowners Grant and is allowed only ONE VOTE PERIOD per property.
Thus the NON - Resident owner generally pays same taxes , but ultimately more taxes and has less democratic say in the area that they also own property in. It is very difficult to keep on top of issues. One finds the only quantifiable benefit is a garbage dump one may be lucky to be within 5-10 miles of that you yourself have to drive to and drop off one's own garbage.
By and large, and due to Local Gov't bylaws and building code.....one is literally forced to have a fairly expensive structure to call a cabin or cottage, unless a grandfathered one is already in existence. No more lean - tos and other quasi- living structures...
Some of these rural bylaws are more draconian than urban ones. Then one gets into such often non - existent services ( or for all intents and purposes literally non -existent) such services as police , fire, ambulance....Spend thousands drilling a well, then perk tests for septic...etc etc. (We're not even talking about the break-ins and theft often by locals who case the places).
I don't see a mad rush to Gwaii, unless I am mistaken it is a 4 hour ferry ride (one way) from Prince Rupert to get to the Queen Charlottes, and whatever other transportation after that. That's why it has stayed a bit more of an intact jewel ie natural barriers.
Many people who pursue the dream of the cabin and a cottage have the novelty wear off once the travel and other inconveniences begin to add up and tip the scales.
People often overbuild for the rural areas, and these 2nd homes and cabins can be picked up for less than it would otherwise cost to build them .
Just some views based on experience.
BC Mary
5 years ago
Maestro, I lived in Paradise for 17 years, on south-facing waterfront which was my permanent home. One of the joys of island life is ... was ... the confidence that any islander was a neighbour, ready to stop and chat, or to help in time of need.
Before I had to depart (health reason), 2 of my closest neighbours had only empty houses ... the summer or occasional residents that you speak of. I can tell you that a) most of the island organizations have shut down for the summer, and (b) a 2-week holiday doesn't give much scope for meaningful volunteerism.
Next came the "Short-term Rentals" problem ... which seriously distorts island life. The renters come from afar, they pay very high prices for a week in somebody's house, and they try to extract every thrill from their island opportunity ... often abusing the written and unwritten rules about peace and tranquility of island life.
It's awful for islanders who find that their dear old neighbour's house has turned into a short-term rental problem. And I won't try to tell you about the way visitors drive, when they arrive on an "isolated bit of nowhere" either.
These, too, are "just some views based on experience".
Bytesmiths
5 years ago
I'm not sure how true this is, generally speaking, but I do know that on the Gulf Island where my family resides each summer, the cottagers contribute much in the way of volunteerism.
Yea, I've seen them "volunteering:" "Save the deer!" The same deer that eat the full-timer's gardens. "Not in my backyard!" as though they should be the last through the gate. "We need more ball diamonds" because they don't have to maintain them through the winter. "We need more water/electricity/roads/whatever!" As though this costly infrastructure is needed through the other three seasons.
"Summer people" have a fundamentally different point-of-view than "full timers." I'm all in favor of limiting the scope of their involvement. If they want to pick up the roadside trash that summer people bring, fine, but let's not let them get involved in important decisions unless they're going to stick around long enough to reap the consequences.
maestro
5 years ago
BC Mary;
I agree with many of your comments and your points....this topic is almost worthy of the thesis (maybe a discipline along the lines of socio-economic migratory evolution )???
I think a lot of 2 nd home/cottage crowd should be perhaps separated into (i) A WITHIN A 2HR/100 MILE RADIUS OF THE GVRD (including ferry trips) and (ii)the REST of BC..hence my natural barriers comment.
My In -laws used to own a place in Point Roberts....1/2 hour drive maximum....for 25 years. Great place and in another country. Novelty wore off, no-one in the family wanted the obligation..sold it off. However it was very natural and very NON - crowded...but other factors kicked in.
Our own "paradise" is a day trip to get there...it ain't a weekend retreat..its a major undertaking. No time to volunteer...barely enough time to unpack, enjoy ....then pack up and go home...another day trip.
What I have noticed as well is the nouveau riche vs the old non riche. Our families 2nd homestead is part of a 100 property subdivision, mostly 1 acre lots. 95% are seasonal....in 30 + years there have been attempts by some to live year round, but the wet and the cold kick in around now(Oct.)Ice and snow thaws about May.
However, the area has changed, and the nouveau riche have moved in, building nice cabins/homes on the poorest properties.... which are in the swamp or in the shad(non sun) areas. More $$$ than brains
They bring their fancy ATV's , Cross country motorcycles...every bigger faster boats...dogs galore....We had one guy set up a professional water ski course...felt it was his "F.U." right and one local petitioned the coast guard(BTW who have jurisidiction in interior lakes as well)to order a cease/desist/removal.I gladly signed the petition.
A lot of bad manners and bad attitude by these noveau riche types....they think we like to hear their kids ride ATV up and down the streets (asopposed to miles of logging road..their MANY dogs running off leash(solution is tell em the ranchers can legally shoot their dog if its harassing livestock of wildlife), boats running close to shoreline illegally,....the usual idiot factor.
The "locals" tend to be retired....or some full time work yet drive miles..or on social assistance etc...
I suppose the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island is close enought that it encouraged more "full time" part timers...We have weekended there, plus relatives on the Island...beautiful places but unfortunately no longer well kept secrets.
My main premise is that the more and more non resident newcomers are at times "unfortunate", but then again, where do we draw the line ?
Pro-active NIMBYISM = solution ???
The ultimate seems to imply Retroactive NIMBY-ism as the "fair to all concerned " solution, which would have none of us able to take a turn and own or rent a bit of paradise..and besides we all "rent" in the end...as our time is also very limited on this bigger earthly paradise.
We have to accept progress,... as no-one seems to have a solution to the alternative. As any realtor will tell you, they aren't building any more land, and within that is an even more limited amount of waterfront and other 2nd home/recreational property. FYI..in our area..the waterfront has shot up from $5000 in early 1970's to $100,000 plus.
BC Mary
5 years ago
Maestro: Agreed, there's no easy answer to what can be done to "Preserve and protect" the Gulf Island jewels, or anywhere else.
Fact is: there are too many people in this over-built world of ours. And too many dogs and cats. Too much poop. Too much plastic.
doggone
5 years ago
Having built a number of recreational (2nd home) cabins, including one I have a share in, on the southern Gulf Islands and driven along Tow Hill Road where the feller Buncher was parked in early September, I am still waiting for the Muse to tell me what I think.
As one of the commentors above alluded: the definition of a "rabbid ecologist" in B.C. is: "someone who already owns waterfront." My co owners and I certainly reacted negatively when the vacant lot next to us suddenly took on the appearance of an upscale "Gettaway".
This 2nd Home Recreational phenomenon seems to me to be a very poor short term investment opportunity. In the VERY long term it is still just fine.
None of my generation of property holders will see a profit and by the time the grandkids get control there will be so many of them an individual share will still be worth about what it was in 1990 - not much.
I hope that I can learn to get along with my new neighbours on the lower gulf and would consider purchasing a chunk of the "North Beach" on Haida Gwai
if the cost comes down.
The point I am aiming for is:
This phenomenon is ephemeral: no matter what the "Value" of property happens to be "assessed" at it must also retain some "Value" to the current owner(s) - if the shit hits the fan very few folks are likely to make their way to "North Beach".
I think the shit already hit the fan, but that's an opinion.
RickW
5 years ago
bytesmith:
If you are a rightista, yes. If she proves unsalable, then you approach the feds, or provincial governments, or municipalities, and unload her there. Now if by some chance, old mum gain new life (say as a Crown corporation), then you agitate for her return, as government has no place in the life of a family.......
spanky
5 years ago
Prices are dropping in the U.S. Canada will not be far behind. A glitch in our resource sector will send prices plummeting.
RickW
5 years ago
That's why they (in the US) are whipping up some sort of anti-Iran thing. Also, N.Korea if demonstrating it's badboy-ishness (right on cue). The housing market in the US was what was primarily driving it's economy. Now that everything is being made in China, the US doesn't really have a manufacturing base outside of "defense".
So, with any luck, the bubble will burst before the trees start coming down, and the bulldozers start ripping everything up........
bcneocon
5 years ago
Wow, from Haida Gwaii to North Korea in just a few comments, gotta love The Tyee.... anyway the northern real estate market IS still booming, ya ain't seen nothing yet. I have a lot in Quesnel if anyone wants to get in now :)
Colin
5 years ago
There is lots of waterfront land that could be had, but most of it has no land access or services, water, etc. Keep in mind the rural population of BC used be quite a bit bigger with my camps and industry towns like Anyox, Alice Arm, Cape Scott.
We have had a recreational property in my family since the 60’s, now us kids have it and in equal shares. Properties on the island have quadrupled in price and the people who can afford them have a very different mindset then the original buyers. The area is held by a company of which all owners are a part of, the articles were quite out of date and did not reflect the realities on the ground. The board ignored our warning and now people who recently bought our exercising their rights as they read them in the articles and the long timers are miffed, because the old way of a handshake and a beer on the beach to discuss things does not work.
If you like things the way they are where you live, you better get organized because those “unwritten rules†ain’t worth the paper tossed down the outhouse hole.