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The Bank of Canada's lack of movement on prime is the best action or "non-action" to take at this time.  Mark Carney's most important comment was:  "there are too many unknowns".  World markets are struggling and we are greatly affected by their ability to do business with us.  Especially when it comes to selling our goods.  The value of our dollar determines if our customers can buy from us.  Our biggest trading partner to the south is expected to flounder for well into 2012.  Shifting our business to other markets takes time.  It will take a good act of balancing growth and maintaining what we have.

This translates into interest rates will remain at their lowest ever and may even drop further.  Currently variable rate:  prime minus .75% = 2.25% or 5-year fixed @ 3.59%

Those who have their feet firmly planted on the ground (good credit, proven, reliable income and some savings) and know what they want to do can take advantage.  Home purchase, debt consolidation, access to equity for investment are all more realistic.  (Variable rates are still the way to go for now as fixed rates continue to drop.)

Variable rates can be locked in at any time for terms of 3, 5, 7, 10 years or longer for protection against the invevitable higher rates in the future.  Long term planning for long term plans.

Everyone's position is different and deserves a review.

Thanks,

Bob Quinlan

office:  250-564-9161

#2 - 1810 Third Ave.

Prince George, BC  V2M 1G4

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Copy courtesy of:

Best regards


Dean Birks

 


Royal LePage Prince George

Phone (Direct): 250-612-1709


Prince George Real Estate

 

Oh, by the way. I'm never too busy for your referrals!

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This Top 10 is coming from Shanghai China as I lead the largest ever BC Lumber trade mission. Altogether we have 38 attendees including CEO's from Canfor, West Fraser, Conifex, Interex (representing Carrier and Dunkley), Tolko, Hampton and Interfor.

This mission represents phase 3 of our plan to open the Chinese market to BC lumber. Phase 1 was building code development and product knowledge. Phase 2 included wood frame construction training and building a distribution network.

Phase 3 starts now and is about marketing to large developers that are capable of using significant volumes of our lumber. That brings me to the week’s Top 10, the inside story on some of the 40 developers we are meeting with and I'm sure you'll be impressed. For translation purposes 100 square meters is about the size of a newly constructed apartment in China and is approximately 1,000 square feet.

Have a great week! Pat Bell - http://www.patbellmla.bc.ca

1)     Vanke Co. is China’s largest developing group (by $$), focusing on residential buildings. In 2009, Vanke finished new construction area of a total 5.6 million sqm, sales value of 63.4 billion RMB ($CAD 9.75 billion) with a net profit of 5.3 billion RMB ($CAD1 billion).

2)     Jinqiao Co. is responsible for Jinqiao Zone planning, construction and investment, the total area is 27 km2. In 2009, the company achieved sales of US$120 million and haJinqiao Group Biyun International Community covers 4 km2. It is a low density community with large development of villas.  More than 1000 foreign families are settled here and occupies 90 per cent of the total residence of the area.

In the next 3 years, Jinqiao is working to attract a total of 5,000 western families to live here and develop it into the biggest western community in Pudong. 100% villas and 90% of apartment buildings are for rental rather than for sale.

They’ve built 500 units of WFC villas to date, and will increase the amount of WFC used in their projects in the future as they embrace green building.

3)     Greenland – one of China’s leading integrated real estate enterprises. In 2009 ranked no 2 among Chinese real estate enterprises and 169 of top 500 Chinese companies. In 2010, it’s rank rose to #96.  Sales revenues in 2011 are targeted at CAD $21 billion.  This year, Greenland has 22 million m² of residential floor space under construction and 13 million m² of commercial floor space.

4)     BNBM is a subsidiary of China National Building Materials, which has assets of CAD$14 billion and a staff of more than 80,000.  BNBM builds 10,000 rural homes per year.

At present, it has already grown to a large state-level enterprise group integrating building materials industry investment, logistics and trading, wood products industry and housing industry development with total assets surpassing 60 Billion RMB CAD $9.2 billion and a sales turnover in excess of 30 Billion RMB (CAD $4.6 billion).

5)     BRC has completed over 100 large property development projects to date, most located in the Southwest of China. (Chengdu, Chongqing and Kunming).

6)     Vantone , Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co., Ltd. (Code: 600246, hereinafter "Vantone") is an A-share public company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with the total capital stock of 507,000,000 shares. As of September 30 2008, Vantone's total assets were RMB 8382 billion (CAD $1.33 billion)(its net assets were RMB 2,632 billion (CAD $40 million. With Grade One Qualification for Real Estate Development, Vantone owns 10 holding subsidiaries and 1 affiliated company, all of which are engaged in real estate development.

With its mission of "Creating the most valuable life space", Vantone strives to be a first class real estate company by international standards. Vantone has embedded the "green" into its corporate strategy   which contains green value, green behaviour and green products, hereby leading to long-term competitiveness and the industry.

7)     TEDA  is perhaps China’s most advanced, and best, development zone. Major companies, such as Toyota, Motorola, and Samsung have their main China manufacturing bases in TEDA.  The Tianjin Economic Development Area was established in 1984.

The TEDA Group, which is the development arm of TEDA, development company (the property is very interested in enhancing its leadership in WFC and has visited B.C. and met with FII and CWG as well as industry.

There are two other wood frame office buildings that will be built, invested by TEDA. The sizes of these two building are 1200 m2 and 4000 m2.  Canada Wood will provide Quality Assurance support as well as design review. There is also a villa project in the planning stage.

8)     Longfor In 2006, Longfor was listed among “Top 100 Real Estate Developers in the PRC Real Estate Industry” by the Ministry of Commerce and the China Real Estate Association., Longfor was consistently ranked number one in the “National Residential Customers’ Satisfaction Survey” for four years in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2009. In 2007, Longfor entered into the “Top 100 China Real Estate Enterprises for Tax Contribution”. In 2008, brand name “Longhu” was accredited by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce as a “Well-known Trademark in China”. Longfor was also recognized as the “Top 10 Brand Values in the PRC Real Estate Industry” as well as the “Top 10 Outstanding Property Service and Corporate Service Quality” by the State Development and Research Center in 2008 and 2009 consecutively.

After a decade of development, Longfor has formed an all-in-one system capable of performing investment planning, project development, and commercial and residential property management operations. Its product offerings range from residential buildings, office buildings, high-rise apartment buildings, garden townhouses, luxury villas, as well as large scale shopping malls and business complex. The Company has built masterpieces in every product category.

9)     Beijing Capital Land Ltd. ("BCL") is one of the leading integrated property operators in the PRC, being listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in 19 June 2003 (HKEx stock code: 2868) . Its comprehensive capabilities have placed it in the top rank of the PRC's property industry.

BCL is based in Beijing and its accumulated development scale in Beijing has surpassed 5 million sq. m since its establishment with total investment of over RMB30 billion. Since 2005, it has been expanding by introducing those successful standardized property series into other cities or places. BCL has now expanded into nine cities from four large regions in China with land bank of over 10 million sqm. It owns high popularity in the market and brand influence.

10) Greentown China Holdings Limited (“Greentown” or “the Company”, and its subsidiaries the “Group”) together with its associates and jointly controlled entities (the “Greentown Group”), is one of the leading property developers in the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC” or “China”). It commands a leading position in the industry by leveraging on its quality properties. From 2005 to 2010, we have been ranked for six consecutive years as one of the TOP 10 property enterprises in China jointly by four authoritative institutions, including Enterprise Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, China Real Estate Association, Qinghua University Real Estate Research Center and China Index Institute.
Since its establishment 15 years ago, the Group has been based in Zhejiang province, one of the most economically vibrant and developed provinces in the PRC. With property projects covering most of the prosperous cities in Zhejiang province such as Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Taizhou, Shaoxing and other places on the list of the Top 100 most competitive counties and county-level cities of China in Zhejiang province, the Greentown Group has built a sizable operation in the province with exceptionally high brand awareness. Due to the Group’s national expansion strategy commenced in 2000, Greentown has successfully extended its business to other important cities such as Shanghai, Nanjiang, Suzhou, Wuxi and Nantong in Yangtze River Delta, Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Jinan and Dalian in Bohai Rim Economic Belt, as well as other provincial cities such as Hefei in Anhui province, Zhengzhou in Henan province, Changsha in Hunan province, Linshui in Hainan province and Urumqi in Xinjiang. This expansion has boosted the Group’s business growth and reputation further. Greentown is currently at the forefront of quality property developers in the PRC.
As at 31 December 2009, the Greentown Group’s premier land bank comprises over 30 million sq.m. of total GFA, which ensures the Group’s sustainable and steady development in the next three years. Leveraging on its quality human resources and effective corporate management structure, Greentown has established a strong presence in Zhejiang province and other cities where it has operations. The Group is confident that its excellent track record in developing high quality projects and outstanding operational capabilities has laid a solid foundation for its further expansion.

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The above copy courtesy of:


Dean Birks

Royal LePage Prince George

Phone (Direct): 250-612-1709


www.DeanBirks.com

 

Oh, by the way. I'm never too busy for your referrals!

Read

Friday was not a great day for our forest industry as the US Softwood Lumber Coalition launched another challenge targeting BC’s Industry. It seems like every time we sign off on a deal they just can’t live with it. They have very old and inefficient mills in much of the US and can’t compete with the high quality mills here in BC. In my view we should be working together to expand the use of wood into China, India and into nontraditional uses in North America.

Other than that pretty good numbers here in BC so let’s stay positive!

Have a great week! Pat Bell - http://www.patbellmla.bc.ca/

1.   My Colleague Steve Thomson (Minister of Agriculture and Lands) is off to China along the Federal Agriculture Minister, Alberta’s Agriculture Minister and representatives from the BC Cattlemen’s Association (including local ranchers Mark Grafton and Roland Bauman) to try and get greater access to the Chinese market. I have had our Forestry folks working with the Agriculture team to prepare for the trip and while it would be unfair to expect significant sales on the first trip I do believe that we’ll see very positive results for our beef industry over time.

2.   The unemployment rate for last month in Prince George fell to 8.5 % last month. Down from 8.7% recorded in August and  3.2% lower than it had been in September of 2009 when the number of unemployed was 11.7%.

3.   Over the past year the number of people holding down jobs has grown by 6,100 to 48,200 in our region.

4.   Part of the improvement comes from the rebound in the local housing market. Year over year housing starts are up from 73 to 124.

5.   According to Satistics Canada sawmill production in BC is up 33.7% year over year. China leads the way with a 48% year over year increase but even the United States is +16%

6.   During this same period of time Ontario’s production dropped by -1.6%, Quebec grew by +8.3% and Alberta grew by +3.4%

7.   According to BC Stats in July 2010, B.C.'s mean weekly wage was over $836, well above the national average. The average weekly wage has risen by $188 – or 29 per cent – since 2001, when it was $648.

8.   For B.C. youth under 25, the average hourly wage was $13.24 – third highest in Canada.

9.   A British Columbian who earns the average weekly wage of $836 makes over $9,750 more per year today, before taxes, than they would have in 2001, when the average weekly wage was $648.

10.               Those concerned about gang violence in our city should be aware of the Gang Crime Forum  November 1st-6:30-9pm Ramada Hotel. Admission is free. Register at www.civicinfo.bc.ca/event/pggangcrimesummit.asp  or in person at City Hall, Service Centre for more information call 250-561-3366


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The above email courtesy of: 

Dean Birks 

  

Royal LePage Prince George 

Phone (Direct): 250-612-1709 

Fax (Private): 1-888-870-4132 

www.DeanBirks.com 

  

Oh, by the way. I'm never too busy for your referrals! 

Read

As of today the single family homes listed in Prince George city limits is at 430 (on MLS®) which is quiet a bit less than normal. So tracking the numbers if listings continue to stay low the market may move from a slight buyers market to a sellers in the next while.


Best regards


Dean Birks

 


Royal LePage Prince George

Phone (Direct): 250-612-1709


Prince George Real Estate


 

Oh, by the way. I'm never too busy for your referrals!

Read
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