Popular for their excellent ability to generate income, laneway houses in Vancouver have risen in demand for their flexible and sustainable approach to increasing housing within the city. More than a solution they also preserve the character of Vancouver’s cherished neighborhoods. Here are four ways that laneways are adding to neighborhoods around you and creeping into Wallmark’s building green hearts:

1) They add diversity to both your neighborhood and your back lane. They allow for a variety of renters who seek affordable housing, to be closer to their families, and those looking to live closer to work, schools or the city. Laneways also add variety to the “lanescape” just by the sheer array of unique house designs, house colours and landscaping that are created.

2) They add safety to your property and to the shared public lane. A mandatory minimum of one on-site parking space will increase the usage of the back lane increasing your neighborhood security. To add to this, the city strongly encourages the installation of pedestrian friendly lights such as porch lights or bollard lights which help to form a welcoming public lane.

3) They are built green. With Vancouver maintaining one of the greenest building guidelines in North America and
Wallmark’s custom approach to building, your laneway could be one of the greenest buildings built in your neighborhood.

4) They contribute even more greenery to one of the greenest cities out there. Literally adding green to the laneways, “lanescapes” are required landscaping along the edge of the lane including the encouragement of green roofs, walls, and the planting of deciduous trees. In addition to adding vegetation, the program encourages the retention and protection of existing backyard trees while planning the footprint of the proposed home. Finally, and much more obviously, building a laneway takes place away from the existing neighborhood character and plant life preserving the pristine streetscapes that make Vancouver city living so enjoyable.

With so many great reasons to build laneway houses in Vancouver it  is no wonder that only 4 years after its implementation over 500 laneway houses have been built in the city. Wallmark is excited to become a part of another sustainable building opportunity with the upcoming completion of two custom laneway homes. If you have any questions or would like to know more about building a laneway home in Vancouver please give us a call.

It’s that time of the year again where the planning begins on any major; renovations, restorations, or rebuilds, to make sure it is ready to go come the spring thaw, and right now it seems as though it couldn’t come any quicker here in Vancouver. If you’re looking for a way to stay warm and still get ideas, make sure to circle (if you still have a traditional calendar) the 20th- 24th of February for the BC Home and Garden Show. The experienced, educated and all round great people of new home builder Wallmark Homes along with hundreds of other industry experts will be there to help get the creative juices flowing.

Now time for a little shameless self-promotion, as a premier Vancouver new home builder Wallmark will be sending our experts to answer all of your new home building and construction questions. We will have everyone from real estate experts to construction experts there to make sure that no questions go unanswered.Much like previous years, celebrity guests are scheduled to come in and share their knowledge and experience on a variety of topics. Paul Lafrance host of HGTV’s Deck Wars, Decked Out & judge on Canada’s Handyman Challenge will grace the HGTV main stage, sharing his knowledge on an assortment of topics. Sarah Daniels turned in her microphone as long time host of Global’s Morning News, for a licence in Real Estate and hasn’t looked back. From time to time she revisits Global BC to share her real estate expertise and now you can see her live on the HGTV main stage. These are just a couple of the expert celebrity guest that you can be sure to see at the BC Home and Garden Show.

Looking for a way to go to the Vancouver Home and Garden show and not have to pay (because who are we kidding free is the best price) check back often or “Like” us on Facebook as we may be looking to give away some tickets in the near future.

Now if you can’t wait until then and need answers right away for building your new home in Vancouver don’t worry here is a FAQ from the previous Vancouver Home Show and if that doesn’t help please contact us, because much like you we can’t wait until the home show to talk either.

Wallmark Homes is excited to be a part of the increased housing starts in Burnaby, Vancouver and Coquitlam. A new article released on August 9, 2012 by Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation compares the numbers of different areas throughout the Greater Vancouver and highlights communities that have done well during the month of July and the past six months.

Starting to build a custom home can be a rewarding process. There is a lot of deep consideration in order to make the decision to build. In the past month we have seen both an increase in building permits and housing starts suggesting that there are a significant amount of families who are confident and excited to build a new home for themselves.

To find out more information about building a custom home, click here to learn more about Wallmark Homes and our unique custom home building experience that has been valued for over 25 years.

Worried how the new mortgage rules will affect your next home buying experience? Purchaing with 20% or more down?
You have no need to worry and here’s why:

There is no need to worry about paying those higher mortgage payments when purchasing your next home. After last week, when the Department of Finance changed the insured mortgage rules, we watched to see how those changes would affect the average Prime Mortgage and we saw that those changes did not affect prime mortgages at most big financial institutes.

Provided for you by Wallmark Homes is a list of the major financial institutions that have continued to offer 30 years as a maximum for home buyers who are paying for their new home with 20% or more down. Additionally there is information on major financial institutions that still have a maximum of 35 and 25 years on their prime mortgages.

30 Years Maximum:
Bank of Montreal
CIBC
First National Bank
Home Trust
Industrial Alliance
Manulife Bank
RBC Financial Group
Scotiabank
TD Canada Trust

35 Years Maximum:
Cost Capital Savings
Laurentian Bank
RMG Mortgages
Vancity

25 Years Maximum:
Desjardins
ING Direct

Contact your Wallmark Team Member to talk about the opportunity to have your custom build financed with us.
With Wallmark Homes, anything is possible with financing!
Phone: 604 420 5220
Email: info@wallmark.ca

Click here to calculate your mortgage at different time periods to pay off your mortgage.
Click Here For more information on this article

While we were busy building our community Carte Blanche; Coquitlam has also been busy expanding and flourishing as a community. Located at the base of the mountains and looking over the Greater Vancouver Area; Burke Mountain boasts many ingredients to a well developed community.

1)      Location

Location is key. If you would like to be close to Vancouver; but want to enjoy the serenity of the nearby forest, Burke Mountain is the place to be. Within an hour of most of the Tri-city amenities, Coquitlam also offers great access to Grouse, Cypress and Seymour mountains as well being the destination for the new Evergreen line that is currently being built.

2)      Schools

Education is a cornerstone ingredient to a good community, as it provides the future generations with the knowledge to carry throughout life. Coquitlam offers many elementary, middle &  high schools within the area. With new plans drawn up for future elementary, middle and high schools; this is the perfect time for your family to relocate.

3)      Recreational activities

Coquitlam is teeming with both indoor and outdoor recreational facilities. Over a dozen community centres are available for use, as well as an indoor ice centre and two indoor swimming pools and in addition to all of this Coquitlam has many trails and parks to keep the outdoor hikers happy and content. The foothills at Burke mountain are also closer to a provincial park (Pinecone provincial park) and the regional park Minnekhada. Click here to check out the trail system.

4)      Transportation

Transit: The Coquitlam Central station for both the  West Coast Express, buses, the 97-B line and a parking lot that boasts over 600 parking spots is located just off the intersection between the Barnet Hwy and the Loughheed connector.

In addition to this there is future installment of the Evergreen line that will connect the Coquitlam Centre with downtown Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond.

There is a wealth of information on the City of Coquitlam’s website that details anything from the future plans of Northeast Coquitlam to what day your garbage and recycling will be picked up. If you would like to know more information about Burke Mountain and its amenities, please drop by their information center at the corner of David Avenue and Coast Meridian.

Sometimes the issue with a home, is not the amount of square footage offered for use, but the way the space is put to use. With this in mind, the show home at Carte Blanche has been designed to offer home plans that fit your family lifestyle. The major eye catcher of most discerning visitors is the main floor, with its welcoming yet formal foyer and the airy open space that constitutes the kitchen, dining and great rooms.

Our specialized plans at Carte Blanche are fully customizable and cater to your family’s needs.  Not only do we provide a home that matches your needs, we provide the quality and craftsmanship that lasts a lifetime. With our beautiful granite countertops to elegant coffered ceilings in the kitchen area, your home will be the topic of conversation during your social engagements. Don’t forget to take a look at our spacious basement complete with a wet bar, wine cellar, and superb sound system.

A good home is a usable home; and that is something that we are proud to provide to our customers. To find out more about Carte Blanche, please visit our website. Our Show Home is open every day from 12-5 except Friday.

Wallmark Homes boasts about our customization as much as we boast about our dedication to quality and value. We want to build something distinctive that makes the families that select Wallmark as their builder happy. We do this by working with you throughout the entire construction process with our 9 Step Building Process.

Our current show home at Carte Blanche not only provides its guests with a good idea about the layout of the home, and the feel of the neighborhood, but you will also notice the detail and quality that goes into each of our homes. From small things like built in speaker systems, rain showerheads and soft closing doors and drawers in the kitchen, to large items such as engineered hardwood oak floor throughout the main floor, granite kitchen and bathroom counter tops, and a hand painted faux finish to the great room wall.

The persistence of our dedication to customization can be witnessed through our previous custom homes and communities. From a fully sustainable, LEED Awarded home in Burnaby, complete with a tankless hot water system to homes with elevators, wainscoting, raised ceilings and more. Our current community that offers fully customizable home plans are now presented at Carte Blanche in Coquitlam. For more examples please click here to visit our website.

Kevin Falcon - H.S.T. Announcement

With Friday’s announcement by Finance Minister Kevin Falcon of the new transition rules for moving H.S.T. back to a P.S.T tax structure, the price of buying a new home now vs. after the switch to P.S.T will be the same. To better understand how this will work, here is the information you want to know!

Background

Prior to the H.S.T tax structure, home buyers paid a 5% G.S.T. on top of the purchase of their home. What many people don’t know is that within the purchase price of their home, they were also paying a 7% P.S.T. on the materials used to construct their home, but not on the labour to install or build the home. This P.S.T. amount was approximately 2% of the total cost of the purchase. With the switch to the H.S.T., a rebate was created to offset the additional P.S.T. that was now also being paid on the labour involved in building a home.

Current Rebate System

Ever since H.S.T. was implemented, the government came out with a credit system called the New Housing Rebate. The rebate provided a credit back to the purchaser that represented 71.43% of the P.S.T portion (7%) of H.S.T. (12%). For this rebate, any home priced over $525,000 (the Threshold amount) would receive a maximum amount back of $26,250 and any home priced under the Threshold of $525,000 would only receive the 71.43% of the P.S.T portion back.

On the construction of a new home where the home owner already owned the property or purchased the property to build a new home, the government adjusted the New Housing Rebate to 67% of the New Housing Rebate amount which equaled a maximum amount back of $17,688.

New Transition Rebates

As of April 1st, 2012, the New Housing Rebates will be adjusted so that the cost of buying and building a new home will be the same end cost whether you buy or build in a H.S.T. or P.S.T. tax structure. The results are as follows:

When buying a new home where the land is included in the transaction, homeowners will receive the same 71.43% back on the P.S.T. portion of H.S.T., however the maximum you can now receive back is $42,500, instead of the previous $26,250. This is a result of the maximum transaction amount increasing from $525,000 to $850,000. This $850,000 amount is supposed to represent the cost of approximately 90% of new homes throughout B.C. The end result is any new home purchased at or below $850,000 will have the same tax implications whether you buy a home in a H.S.T. or P.S.T. Tax era. Any home priced over $850,000 will be heavily subsided but considered a luxury purchase and will receive full rebate on the first $850,000 of the price only.

When building a new home where land is excluded in the purchase price, the rules still remain the same where homeowners can receive 67% of the New Housing Rebate. With the threshold now being increased, homeowners building a home can now receive a rebate of $28,475, a 61% increase from the previous $17,588.

Summary

The resulting need to know information is that building or buying a new home will be less expensive for you as of April 1, 2012 and the same resulting price based on tax implications whether you buy now, or after H.S.T is abolished. For more information or clarification on any questions you may have, please give us a call by calling Brad Cowden at 604-420-5200 ext 215 or check out any of the links below.

Ministry of Finance Tax Information Notice
http://www.pstinbc.com/media/2012_housing_rules_FEB.pdf

P.S.T. in B.C. Website Published by the B.C. Provincial Government
http://www.pstinbc.com/buying_goods/buying_a_home/

B.C. News Release, February 17, 2012 by the Ministry of Finance
http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2012FIN0006-000165.htm

Are you looking to build the home of your dreams? Wallmark Homes is here to help you get started. From now until the end of June, Wallmark Homes is pleased to incur the $1500 fee for the topographical survey of your property. Why do you need a topographical survey?

Topographical surveys provide an accurate engineering base for design by locating existing improvements, utilities and drainage  features, elevations, boundaries, structures, wetlands, inverts and  any other man made or natural features on your property.

Properly surveyed sites will not only determine if others  are entitled to partial use of your property though easements for  utilities or rights-of-way but will also verify whether trees, fences,  gardens, driveways, sidewalks, swimming pools, additions and other  property improvements technically lie on your property. Topographic  surveys can also tell you when an on-site elevation change  is going to cause your planned building to interfere with building  codes or the boundaries and air rights of nearby properties.

An indispensable component to the planning process and a required step of any custom build, a topographical survey will help ensure that your new home in the Greater Vancouver metro is planned to perfection from the very start. There are only a limited number of  free surveys available, so act now to take advantage of this great Wallmark Homes promotion! Contact our Custom Homes Sales Team today for  more information on how you can qualify for your Free Topographical Survey*.

*Certain terms, conditions and restrictions apply, contact Wallmark Homes for details.

According to a recent Reuters article, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said that he continues to monitor the country’s housing market, which has some “hot spots”, but said the situation remained stable. “We have seen some moderation in the housing market in Canada,” Flaherty said. “There are a couple  of hot spots in the country, including Vancouver, the condo market in Vancouver, but overall I’m satisfied that there is some moderation in the market.”

Flaherty later told Parliament that Canada’s housing sector is in a “very different place” compared to the U.S. market. “The reality is that their housing crisis continues, that there’s a danger of a prolonged housing crisis in the United States. That’s not in Canada, and that’s because we regulate, we supervise, we monitor; we have fiscal responsibility in terms of the housing sector in Canada, a very different place,” he said.
Doug Porter, deputy chief economist with Bank of Montreal was quoted in The National Post earlier this month saying, “Quite simply, no other city in the country is seeing anything remotely close to what’s unfolding in Vancouver. In fact, many large cities have posted price declines over the past year…”
As a result of Canada’s low interest rates combined with the country’s healthy banking system, Canadian house prices have climbed to multi-year highs, further proof that the market continues to show signs of strength and activity. Watch our blog for upcoming posts about the projects we have in the works at Wallmark Homes. We can’t wait to share them with you!