Salt Spring Air, Ganges Harbour
Saltspring Air offers direct flights between Saltspring Island and downtown Vancouver and Vancouver Airport, Richmond and provides a scheduled service out of Maple Bay, Pat Bay and the other Gulf Islands and charter flights to many locations.
Chamber Chat…
…meet your Chamber of Commerce Board.
Chamber of Commerce, Salt Spring Island
The Salt Spring Chamber of Commerce is celebrating 65 years as the authentic voice of Salt Spring business. And remember: anyone providing an item or a service to the public is in business.
There are both new faces & familiar faces on the Chamber Board, and everyone who has volunteered to serve on the Board, and been elected by the Chamber Membership at the May AGM, is enthusiastically working for the best for all business enterprises.
Marnie McCaughtrie, the manager of Mouat’s Clothing is a vice-president & serves on the communications/strategy committee. Her presence on the Finance committee is also valued. Marnie’s expertise in management & marketing is pivotal for the Board & the Chamber.
Fred Lizotte, an accountant at McLean Lizotte Wheadon & Company, is a vice-president & acts as treasurer. He is the chair of the important Finance committee. Fred’s input is very important to the smooth workings of the Chamber…a non-profit enterprise & there for the benefit of the entire Salt Spring business community. Fred’s thoughtful expertise is important for the Chamber’s direction.
Peter Vincent, an accomplished writer, with several articles in local publications, including the Driftwood, is heading up the Membership Committee, and as a subset of that is involved with the evolving website presence. He is the owner of North End Fitness & understands the stresses & the triumphs of small business ownership.
Linda Bradford, a B&B provider, & with extensive background in community service, is part of the membership committee, & is working with Peter Vincent to create meaningful benefits for Chamber members…specific & local B2B advantages that will benefit the entire membership.
Ken Byron, of Ken Byron Excavating, is a valued member of the Board, with a strong desire to address the issue of industrial zoning…Ken also works on an advisory committee with the Trust. His agricultural background is another link to an important aspect of the Island lifestyle. This kind of community overlap is very beneficial to the overall Chamber membership.
Matt Steffich, of Steffich Fine Art Gallery, is an enthusiastic supporter of many business initiatives. As a past president of the Chamber Board he brings that experienced voice. Currently, he chairs the Arts committee. The artistic opportunities on Salt Spring are an integral thread in the fabric of the Island’s lifestyle.
Kate Fischer, of McKimm & Lott, brings her background in law, and chairs the communications/strategy committee…a vision path for the future. She is also a member of the Health/Wellness committee.
Genevieve Price is an accomplished member of the Board, offering expertise in Events presentations (important fundraisers for the Board…allowing the Chamber to benefit many groups on the Island). Gen is also an integral member of the Health/Wellness committee. Her business interests include PUR & the Fishbowl.
Fraser Nixon, with Salt Spring Air, is also an important member of the Membership committee. Fraser would like to connect with new business owners, and has an interest in communicating the benefits of Chamber membership to all. He is working with Peter & Linda on creating serious B2B links for all Chamber members.
Murray Nurse is the link between the Chamber Board & the incredibly valued volunteers at the Visitors Information Centre (VIC). The VIC Steering Committee is headed by Murray, & Murray is also Secretary to the Board Executive. His savvy help on the communications committee is an important contribution to the Board.
Mike Best is a member of the Chamber Board, and has been involved in many initiatives of the Board during his service. Currently a member-at-large, Mike’s input on behalf of the Chamber membership is valued.
Bruce Gamble, of Bruce Gamble & Sons Construction, is looking forward to promoting the best interests of those in related businesses. To create a good business climate for same is Bruce’s concern. He serves on the Finance committee.
Bryce Chapman is also a member-at-large on the Board, and his willingness to step into committee work that would benefit from his corporate/development experience, on an as needed basis, is valued.
John Cade, a realtor with Pemberton-Holmes, is a recent voice on the current Board. Previously he was on the Chamber board for 14 years & also served as president. His interest is Small Business & his experience & enthusiasm to grow a successful business profile for Salt Spring will stand us in good stead.
As the current president of the Chamber, I am also the managing broker of Sea to Sky Premier Properties. I am proactively seeking the very best for the Chamber membership at large, & appreciate the enthusiasm & commitment of the newly organized committees. If you would like to be involved in a specific committee, your presence would be greatly appreciated.
It is so important, as we begin a slow recovery from a five to six year economic downturn, that we all work together.
Salt Spring is such an energizing as well as a scenically beautiful place to call home. It is also a place of individual thought, & that is an essential part of it. In that moment of individuality, there is also an opportunity to be a bridge-builder.
Ganges Harbour, Salt Spring Island
Creating connections between the construction trades & the tourism related businesses & the hospitality industry & the arts community & the wellness providers & the educators & the financial sector & the retail merchants & the restauranteurs & the tech inventors & the farming community &…you get the drift. We’re all in this together.
The interesting outcomes of the post-Internet world have created a need for interactive connectivity. What does that mean, exactly, & how will it benefit you? Stay tuned & be a part of the Chamber experience…there for you & working with you.
The next event supported by the Chamber & sponsored by key community businesses is the harvest themed Sip & Savour annual showcase of local produce, local chefs flair, & local wines to pair.
The agricultural community will benefit from this event…which is very fitting, indeed. The Chamber came into being 65 years ago, created by the farm community of that time.
Support the Chamber with your membership. Enjoy the upcoming Sip & Savour event, & help to showcase our agricultural community. Be an attendee & spread the word to others! Both providers & audience are needed. Winemakers dinners on Friday, the 27th. A stellar grazing event on the afternoon of the 28th, with 30 plus wineries in attendance. A dinner & Cuban Dance Party event on Saturday night. Plus the amazing annual Apple Fest on Sunday, the 29th. Call the Chamber office or check the Chamber website for ticket info. Janet Clouston, the Chamber Manager, is ready for your call.
September, 2013, Market Analysis
Salt Spring Island, July, 2013
After a dramatic five year run-up in sales volume & pricings, in the range of 60%, (2001 to 2005), there was a distinct pause in activity in 2006/2007. Prices softened around 12%, according to appraisers, between early 2006 & mid-2007. Sales volume was also visibly lower.
The economic meltdowns of late 2008 had global implications, and all secondary home/discretionary/resort-based/recreational regions were hard hit. No one “has to” buy a second home or make a recreational investment.
Througout 2009, 2010, 2011, there were few sales & those that did take place saw substantial price reductions en route to a further reduction at the point of an offer. The sales were mainly in entry-level residential options. Appraisers say we reduced in pricing, between mid-2007 & late 2012, by around 35%.
2012 saw a sales volume uptick of around 30%, but mainly in that entry-level residential category. Prices remained very unstable. It appeared that these were investor-buyers, looking for 3 bed/2 bath homes, easy to rent…a passive income investment, perhaps. In the main, they were not the end users of their purchases. Most sales were below 500,000.
2013 has seen a similar activity to 2012, but more end-user buyers are around, and residential sales are taking place up to 900,000. A definite improving trend appears to be in play.
A very few upper tier priced residential properties sell every year…so far, this year, the highest sale price was 1.75, and was an oceanview home on a large acreage. It had seen severe price reductions on the way to that sale.
Cottages, higher priced residential offerings, undeveloped land, residential needing significant renovations, & commercial/business options are not easily finding buyers. The bulk of the sales to date are residential options below 700,000.
For those who listed in 2006/2007, at much higher price points, which would have been market value at the time of the listing, it’s been an uncomfortable “search for the bottom”. Sellers & realtors do not create a market…buyers do that. If a buyer chooses the path of inaction, in a discretionary market, then constant price reductions don’t easily work. Buyer confidence is a huge part of the equation!
Those constant & severe reductions in 2011 & 2012 had buyers asking two questions: “how low will the seller go?” (plus: “Let’s wait & find out”) OR “what was wrong with the property?”…in a secondary home marketplace the decision to buy is rarely price driven. It’s about desire & confidence to act, on the part of a buyer.
Companies need income to remain in business. Company inspired price reductions try to create a market. Rare that this works in a recreational/discretionary area. Nevertheless, reductions make all sellers react, so as to be seen as competitive in pricing, once that company driven reduction dance begins. This kind of local market manipulation does create a local price point.
So here we are, poised at the moment of possibly authentic market recovery. Our Pacific Northwest Coast region is the tail of the dog: last down & last up.
In other regions we are hearing about thinning inventory and rising prices in entry level residential options. Even multiple offers are being reported. We are also hearing that the luxury residential segment is improving, in some areas.
Our region often follows trends elsewhere in North America within 4 to 6 months. We should thus be experiencing the same improving statistics by late 2013/early 2014.
A natural cyclical improvement, a seeking of a safe haven environment, a desire to protect capital…these are strong motivators to action in secondary home markets.
As we enter September, and that late summer/early Fall market, it may be that we will experience consistent sales…from now right through to late November. Oddly enough, the Spring timeline is no longer our busiest sales window.
The rest of Canada loves to dream about retiring to B.C.’s coast…with the Boomer move to retirement living choices, Salt Spring Island’s year round lifestyle beckons. Europe, Asia, South America, the U.S. are also looking our way.
The Internet definitely opens up all regions to a global buyer profile. At the same time, it gives that national/international buyer too many choices. So, whether it’s a buoyant or a suppressed market trend, it takes time to sell any Gulf Island property…the buyer looks “everywhere” & is totally in charge of the “where” & the “when” of a purchase decision. Sellers have to practice patience, always.
Salt Spring Island & the Canadian Gulf Islands are not municipalities. They are governed by the provincial government body known as the Islands Trust. The Trust has been in place since 1974, with the mandate “to preserve & protect” the environmental beauties of the Gulf Islands for the benefit of all B.C. residents. This is accomplished by curtailing growth via severe zoning bylaws…in a sense, growth is capped by such controls. Such inventory control does mean, over time, price escalation…as people discover the magic of these islands, want to own a piece of it, and there’s a limited amount available forever…you get the drift!
Are we now on the authentic uptick?
August 2013, Market Analysis
An improving real estate sales trend continues to slowly build into place, on Salt Spring & the Southern Gulf Islands. The same improvement in sales is occurring on Vancouver Island…it’s a secondary home marketplace uptick, then. Prices still remain volatile.
Word from south of the border is that all those hard hit areas (Florida, Arizona, California, etc) have been experiencing a significant uptick in both sales volume and in price points. Inventory levels have been reducing. This encouraging stats report from the U.S. is now encompassing the secondary home/discretionary markets (Vail, Aspen, Tahoe, et al), not just primary residence areas.
Very recently, the upper tier priced properties in the recreational marketplaces, also in the U.S., have been finding significant buyers/sale pricings. This secondary home recovery is good news for all “by choice” destination locations, and that would include the Gulf Islands.
It’s important to pay attention to this significant improvement in sales activity for our near neighbour…Canada does track events and outcomes in the U.S. It’s about general consumer confidence.
In our post-Internet world, real estate is less regional in outcomes, particularly in the secondary home/recreational markets. The buyer profile in any discretionary marketplace tends not to be “local”.
The Internet has opened up the world as a potential buyer for any recreational based region, but it has also created a “pause” while that global buyer searches out all possible areas. No one wants to make a mistake…thus, the buyer takes time, searches out various locales, often returns two or three times to the places that caught attention…& then may finally “act”. Time truly is a component in all sales, then, in discretionary markets, regardless of market trend in play.
The Pacific Northwest Coast tends to be a tail of the dog location. Last up/last down/last back up…the uptick momentum is just now being felt.
At this midpoint in the year, it’s good to take a snapshot of outcomes.
On Salt Spring & the Southern Gulf Islands, this is also the beginning of what has evolved into our main sales window. Our market has truncated down to a mid-July to mid-November window…a late Summer/Fall market, then. Surprisingly, the Spring months are no longer as busy as in previous times. Perhaps the travel patterns of our tourist visitors have changed?
Tourism, in all recreational locations, drives other business outcomes. Someone visits Salt Spring or Galiano or Mayne, falls in love with that Island, then decides to call a realtor and to buy a property…then architects, contractors, excavator operators, septic installers, electricians, plumbers all get busy, too. Plus landscapers, gardeners, cleaners, soft furnishings providers, and so on. Resorts, B&Bs, hotel, motel, restaurants, retail stores…they are busy with tourist arrivals and also with residents and guests.
A recreational/retirement region depends on that tourism buoyancy to experience real estate volumes and then other ensuing business activity.
The past 5 to 6 years globally have been about economic suppression, and discretionary locations around the world saw plunging real estate values and business closures. No one “has to” buy a second or retirement or recreational property. An economic suppression means a real estate downturn, in secondary home environments.
So what might be driving this renewed interest in discretionary markets? Is it a safe haven investment move? A seeking to preserve capital? Perhaps….
Markets rise & fall…like waves on the ocean. In 2006 we began to fall down into the trough of a downturn…which became hugely evident in late 2008. Now we seem to be climbing up the other side of that wall of water. A recovery is not a straight line up…more like ladders between flat benchland. Up/flat/up/flat…takes time, then, for all property types and all price points, to see consistent uptick.
The good news: things are improving. The difficult news? It’s not a fast-track uptick. It may take until early spring 2014 to see consistent uptrend in the secondary home marketplace, and it may take until summer/fall of 2014 to see uptick in undeveloped land, commercial, and upper tier priced residential sales.
We are so lucky to be owners on Salt Spring Island or on another Southern Gulf Island. Buyers seeking what we own will also be very lucky.
I found it very interesting to read a June release forecast, on the summer season sales projection, for secondary home markets…from a major real estate franchise in Canada.
A client phoned me up & read it to me…sounded just like one of my much earlier monthly market analyses or some of my various daily blog reports! Check out some of my past thoughts.
I have been projecting, since last August, that it would take until July this year to see a resurgence of interest in secondary home/discretionary regions. I think I am being proved right, & I am not a clairvoyant.
These “by choice” resort-based areas have been “flat”, globally, since mid-2007. Now, movement is afoot! No one can force a market…it has a natural cyclic rhythm. Now, it is with us.
No one “has to” purchase a second home or retire in any particular timeframe or choose a recreational parcel…such purchasing decisions can be put on hold.
Consumer confidence is the key to secondary home market activity.
Can also be a market movement propelled by fear, though…in this case, might be a concern about currency validity and the preservation of capital…& perhaps even a desire for a safe haven, to be self-sufficient.
For whatever reason this action has started, this report notes that prices have been substantially reduced between 2009 & current date, in secondary home marketplaces, and so the properties selling are perceived to be hugely undervalued. Foreign buyers are apparently a large proportion of the purchasers.
A return to hard asset investments (& real estate, though not liquid, is a big item here) is clearly on the radar.
Salt Spring Island & the Gulf Islands are under the jurisdiction of the provincial government’s Islands Trust. This Trust has been in place since 1974, & it severely controls growth through strict land use/density bylaws. Call me, for more information on this.
When one has a growth-controlled model in place, a government mandated body with a “preserve & protect” guideline, and in an area of beauty, soft climate, great protected boating waters, close to major centres and yet beautifully “apart”, one also has the potential to become a global destination for those seeking amenities plus a safe haven lifestyle. What did economics 101 teach? Supply & demand? Hmmm….
I think we will see a strong clearing out of inventory over our season (which has shrunk to July/August/September/October now), with prices remaining volatile. As inventory clears out, though, stability in pricing will follow…will we see substantial price increases by early 2014? Perhaps….
It’s important to me that you enjoy a successful real estate experience on Salt Spring Island, on a Gulf Island, and on Vancouver Island…for all your real estate needs, please call me…discover the difference!
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