It’s always good to look back to the past so we can see where we’re headed in the future.
The end of 2008 and leading into 2009 was of course the beginning of the world wide recession started by the US credit crisis. Corporate America and most of western Europe was bleeding red and there was no confidence in the market anywhere to be found. Canada had no choice but to go along for the ride, however, we were more so hanging tight, than advertising a fire sale. Vancouver was probably the strongest Canadian city in a weak economy. Our housing market did drop a few points and those who were brave enough to buy at the time, now realize that they picked up some good bargains. The naysayers who predicted our housing bubble to burst was sure that it was finally their turn, albeit a few years behind schedule. The market was pretty much on a quick freeze for the winter, but thanks to government economic stimulus programs, slashing of interest rates, the upcoming 2010 Olympics, the HST scare, and the influx of Asian investors, the Vancouver market quickly picked back up by summer time. I would say that Vancouver was fortunate to have the right mixture of events going on for us, in such a wrong time to have been able to pull through this world economic debacle. The later half of 2009 started to regain record sales like the economic crisis was a all but a distant memory. Our firm had record project starts and we even doubled in size by Christmas!
Here we are now, at the start of a brand new decade. Our housing market is strong and there is much excitement in the whole city with the coming of the Olympics next month. Market analysts are predicting the strong market to continue onto the first half of the year and then a recess, most likely because of a probable rise in interest rates. There is also the coming of the HST this summer. Consumer spending will mostly dwindle after it’s arrival, at least for the short term as it did when the GST came in effect. However, I feel the market may not reside as bad as people are predicting. In my mind, the later half will fall flat and neutralize instead of an all out correction. I say this because I think the investments from Asian immigrants and investors will continue to help our market. We continue to share a close bond to China who’s probably got one of the richest populations in the world, especially during this world recession. Vancouver is their destination of choice because we are the gateway to the pacific and have the best climate in all of Canada. A statistical example of this is the amount of Chinese clients we’ve had over the last 6 months. Traditionally, chinese make up about 60% of our client base and very few of those are new immigrants. In the last 6 months, 90% of our projects have been for new Chinese immigrants.
Personally, I have faith in Vancouver and our housing market in the coming years. In contrary to a lot of people’s sentiment out there, I think the Olympic will actually benefit Vancouver long term. It will help the world to take notice of Vancouver and our natural beauty, temperate climate, and many other assets will make them stay. A great indication of the future is always the past. So if you look back and see how much we’ve grown as a city since Expo, you’ll get a glimpse of how much growth we will get after the Olympics. The naysayers will say we’re an expensive city as is and will use that to justify a correction. However, if you compare us to the rest of the “world cities” like Hong Kong, London, and New York, we’re still relatively cheap. This is not to say that there won’t be a dip as I’m sure this up trend has been too long already. But I think this dip will be small and the exposure of the Olympics we will help put us on the world’s radar if we are not on there yet.
For VictorEric Design, we will continue to strive for design excellence in 2010 and will uphold the highest integrity in our client relations. The true importance of our business is not the actually the buildings that we design and construct; instead, its the relationships that we build with our clients throughout the process!