Best areas to invest in buy and hold on Vancouver Island
I'm curious to hear from other Vancouver Island investors to see if you have been able to locate any buy and hold opportunities with cash flow? I'm over in Courtenay and not having much luck here lately. My wife and I bought a 1/2 duplex last year that brings in a bit of cash flow @ 20% down with a conventional mortgage, but not enough to get really excited about. I'm still keen to find something here but am starting to look a bit further afield on the island. There seems to be opportunity in Port Alberni, but I wonder about it's population stability. Nanaimo and Parksville seem to be a bit expensive after a good run up, but what about the Cowichan Valley? I'd love to hear from anyone else around who is doing buy and hold and/or BRRR. What are your numbers looking like? Do you have an awesome contractor to recommend? Let's see some Vancouver Island content on the blogs!
As a beginner looking to move to the island and start a business.. THIS THREAD has been more informative and beneficial than any other place on the web I've been. Many thanks to you all for sharing your insights and personal journeys. I've learned a lot from your insights, but it's just the tip of the iceberg as you are all certainly well aware. My family and I have modest goals as we look to expat later this year from Colorado to the Island.
- We would like to use our equity to find a property in Sooke or Langford that has a carriage house or additional property to begin our investment endeavors. We'll likely have 100k that will be set aside to use as a down payment. We've found it's becoming increasingly complex to navigate a purchase as a "permanent resident," but we're beginning to understand it all.. at least a little.
- The market has topped out here in Denver. Sales down about 20% since Thanksgiving. From what I've read, there is a similar easing occurring on the Island, and through friends of friends we've been in touch with a Realtor and Broker in Victoria who said they've seen that to be the case as well.
My questions are:
- Is Sooke viable for growth? It's essentially the only area in that part of the Island where we've found properties that are within our grasp. We'd love Langford, but the prices there don't dip into our range as frequently.
- Will new regulations and tougher financing laws make it unreasonable to begin investing in real estate? Our credit resets upon our move. Is it better to pocket our equity, rent awhile ourselves, and then look to purchase after we've established ourselves? My wife and I keep going back and forth on this..
Looking forward to getting in the mix. Thanks a ton!
Lanny
Hi @Lanny Boyer, welcome to the thread and welcome to Canada! I actually moved up to Canada as a permanent resident from Fort Collins many years ago. I bought a duplex in Toronto when I first moved there and don't recall any restrictions or oddities due to my status, though now that I think about it, maybe we did it in my wife's name at that time as she was Canadian and I had just started residency paperwork.
For my Vancouver Island purchases, though, there was no issue with being a PR. I'm actually having more trouble buying in the US now! Looked into that a few times, but have not pulled the trigger yet due to all of the complications.
I'm not a Sooke expert, but my partner and I did look at some B&Bs there a few years ago and thought that the area could take off as Victoria got more and more out of reach for people.
As for waiting for potentially lower prices, I'm not sure that's the best strategy here. I've predicted a downturn for some time, but the more I look around and think about it, the less I see that as a possibility - here at least. Areas of the island are still priced below some of the mainland markets (even after huge run ups), and this is such a desirable place to live that I feel like demand will continue. There may be some small drops or leveling off, but I'm taking off my real estate "bear" hat for Vancouver Island.
Having said all of that, I've not been successful in finding a deal on the island in the last few years and have joint ventured elsewhere for my investing.
There are some very knowledgeable Victoria area members on this thread. I'm sure they will chime in with some great local info for you.
@Lanny Boyer send me a PM. We live in Langford and are active Investors in Sooke, as well my wife is a realtor specializing in investment properties. I’d be happy to help, and to answer your question yes Sooke is a growth market and depending on what you are looking for in an investment property I would highly recommend in investing in the area. Send me a PM with an email address and we can connect offline, where I can provide you much more assistance. And welcome to Canada!!!
@Lanny Boyer Hi Lanny, welcome to Canada! As a "permanent resident" in Canada, you can qualify for a mortgage under the New to Canada program.
"There may be some small drops or leveling off, but I'm taking off my real estate "bear" hat for Vancouver Island." I got a moose hat on my last trip to Calgary.. Guessing that's a different thing.
Thanks everyone. I'll look to reach out before the week is up.
Hello Investors,
Looking to invest in the Comox valley, as we hope to retire there one day. From what I hear, better to wait 15 years and invest elsewhere for the time being? Was looking at a condo that could be rented out for the time being. Have prices flattened out at all? Thanks.
Hey guys, I did a quick Google search of investing on the island and found this thread; however, unfortunately it's after searching the MLS and crunching numbers to see if anywhere on the island makes sense for investing and haven't really gotten a great result. I was thinking to Buy and hold with hopefully decent cashflow, I've settled on Nanaimo or Port Alberni but Nanaimo is too expensive and I've really been right to make port work but I've been hit with similar roadblocks as you. My real estate agent in Port is saying the quality of tenants if hard to come back despite the rent/own ratios are almost 50/50 at this present moment. Theres a few duplexes that I've seen that could make sense however, the areas they are in, is questionable as there are a bunch of break-ins and other stuff like that started by my coworkers who have been living there their whole lives. I'm currently residing in Victoria, still watching the market and still trying to find somewhere on the island to invest maybe by brrr or buy and hold. The cheapest area I've found is Port Hardy but cheapest doesn't always mean better. Would love to connect, let me know what you guys think even though, this is years later from our conversations lol
Hi Ian. I have a property in Port and I have great tenants in both suites. Nanaimo seems like it doesn't work, but rents are higher there than a lot of people think and I've even seen $600,000 houses with suites that would cashflow.
I'm in the Parksville area. If you ever want to chat about the market on the island you can pm me and I'll give you my phone number. There are opportunities popping up already.
Just touching back on this in relation to the market pricing in the Comox Valley. We'd actually closed on a 2nd rental property in March that was viable. For various reasons the deal fell through. The property recently relisted and sold for 12% more than our price in March. The low interest rates have really given the local market a kick. Talking to a few friends who bought homes here in the last 2 months (primary, not investments), sounds like the market is still red hot for SFU's. I'd anticipate it will be well into the new year before you see any potential negative macro effects hit this area. As John said in a previous post, this area really seems like one of the last on the island to feel the effects of a potential market softening.
On a related note, just thought I'd throw out there if anyone was interested in a meet up in the area. PM me if so and we can arrange
Another investor and I were setting up a meet up in the Comox Valley area in the spring. We got derailed by the COVID situation, but if people are interested in trying to get this going again, I am happy to help set something up. Seems like in person meet ups might not be feasible but perhaps something over a platform like Zoom for the time being until things settle down? If anyone is interested, please feel free to reach out.
Hi @Chris O. The market on the entire island is on fire right now. Prices are up 10-15% almost everywhere from last year. I'm dealing with multiple offers on most SFD in the $450-$650 range.
Low interest rates are part of the reason, the ability to work from home for a lot of people is also driving prices up. People forced to be near Vancouver for work are now free to move further out because they work from home. Hope, Chilliwack, Interior, Vancouver Island, etc are getting large amounts of people moving to them from the lower mainland.
Also, the market is "crashing up" due to the quantitative easing the government is doing. This is a topic worth its own discussion, but in theory property isn't going up in value, our dollar has been devalued so it doesn't buy as much. If this is the case, the market will likely continue to climb for as long as the government is printing money.
I host the Nanaimo real estate investors group. We have monthly meetups on the 4th Monday of each month. December 28th is the next one. It's through zoom for the time being so people up Comox way are welcome to join. I'd be happy to assist in the creation of a group up in Comox once we can have in person meetups again.
Hi Everybody, I see this is pretty old thread but happy its still alive. I'm looking to invest in real estate on Vancouver Island around Nanaimo area. I would really appreciate any help and advice on which places are working the best. I'm interested in small residential multifamily which can have positive cash flow with 20% down. I know its impossible to find something which hit 1% rule, but maybe there are some good pockets still? Any kind of personal experience?
Also looking to network with people! @Jason Ridout I see you hosting local meetup group?
Thanks,
Tigran
Yes, I host monthly meetups in Nanaimo. We will be doing another one via zoom on the 28th about attracting good tenants. Hopefully we can go back to meetups in person in the new year!
There are a couple multifamily units available right now near Nob Hill. 2 six plex units and one 8 plex. One 6 plex is nice, but steep on price, the other 2 would see better cashflow, but might not attract ideal tenants and might require a bit more baby sitting.
Feel free to reach out with any questions!
@Jason Ridout how close to the 1% "rule" are you seeing properties in your area these days? Any value-add opportunities or are most sellers increasing value prior to selling?
@Jason Ridout, thanks for that! I'll definitely join the meetup. Looking forward to meeting you guys!
I'll DM you to chat about property details.
Thanks again!
The 1% rule isn't something you'll find here. That being said, the 1% rule isn't a good reflection of a properties value. It works as a very quick analysis of a property, but only on properties under about $300k. I'd take a well below 1% on a million dollar investment, but likely wouldn't be interesting in anything that does achieve 1% that's under $150k. I base deals based on cashflow and debt pay down, which can still be found at the 0.5% rule.
I wrote a blog about why I abandon the 1% rule here. https://www.biggerpockets.com/...
There are value add properties here. Unfortunately the discounted price isn't enough to justify the rehab. (A house that needs $100k worth of work only seems to sell for $100k less than it's after repair value)
There are still deals, but you have to be fast or very creative. Hopefully we will see a bit more inventory in the coming months. Things are selling fast and very few listings are coming on the market.
Hi Jason,
I am from Vancouver island and looking at real investing on the island. What are your thoughts on Campbell River or Sooke? Thanks
I honestly don't know a lot about either. Campbell River is still fairly affordable and rents are decent.
From what I hear, Sooke and all of the Victoria/Langford areas have crazy high rents, that actually makes the high property prices still float. I've heard you can get upwards of $2,300 for a 3 bedroom upper suite in a house and $1,800 for a 2 bedroom basement suite. That would cover a substantial mortgage. This is all second hand information from other investors working down in that area. I haven't verified this data.
Thanks Jason. I have registered for the Dec 26 event. In the meantime, I will keep networking and analyzing the market.