By Brian Lee
For some time now, local homeowners have pined for the return of the pre-2008 real estate boom. All signs indicate it’s back.
Between January and April of this year, 42 detached homes sold in Pender Harbour. That’s a 117% increase from the same period in 2015. In April, the median number of days a house sat on the market was 21 with an average price of $678,000. With only 80 listings in Pender Harbour, demand has overtaken supply. Cue the cries of overdevelopment. Cue fears that growth will jeopardize what we love about the top end of the Sunshine Coast.
I don’t think so. When I look at the list of looming threats to our community, overdevelopment still trails behind rattlesnakes.
For eight years we have witnessed a move towards more seasonal residency and it can be partially chalked up to a shortage of year-round industry. According to the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation’s 2014 Vital Signs report, the building trades is the Sunshine Coast’s third highest employment sector, accounting for 1,530 jobs. Only retail trade and health care beat it out. But not here. In Area A, construction and tourism surely surpass both.
So, let’s welcome what seems to be a resurgence of interest in this place. But in order to maintain a vibrant community, someone has to live here through the winter. That caretaker population has thinned out in recent times, while those who can escape to Arizona or West Vancouver to wait out spring.
I’m not judging. If I had my way, the Harbour Spiel would only publish May to October — in Pender Harbour, that is. The winter issues would still be available but on Kauai’s north shore. The headlines in the Hanalei Spiel might sound eerily familiar to local readers:
"No work in off-season."
"Tourists drive funny."
"Haoles ruining everything."
As a homeowner, I can now say I have witnessed a complete cycle of boom and bust when it comes to the real estate market. Others have experienced the cycle many times and accept it. They know the exceptional qualities that keep the locals here will always bring new ones.
But let’s also acknowledge that we face significant challenges. Our rocky, marine-constrained geography ensures that, for the population centres of Egmont, Garden Bay and Madeira Park, parking will continue to pose a challenge to growth. How will Madeira Park accommodate cars that will deliver an audience to the proposed marine science centre’s 200-seat amphitheatre? We now have a rental housing crisis — rentals are rarer than someone who isn’t related around here. If you visited Craigslist a year ago, you would have found a bounty of rental homes. Now, a big chunk of the listings are from people needing a place to live.The homes being built or renovated aren’t those that typically land on the rental market and often sit empty for much of the year.
Yes, we now have employment but nowhere for the employed to live. But I think that’s better than the reverse.
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