The first quarter 2023, which also included a scattering of smaller multimillion-dollar residential land assemblies, carries on the pace of 2022, when $7.3 billion in land sales was reported by the Commercial Edge of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. This figure included industrial and commercial land but was dominated by residential investments.

• Land posted the highest sales volume of all commercial deals last year in the Lower Mainland, the real estate board reports.
• Residential developers at the April Vancouver Real Estate Forum estimated that, even without land costs factored in, it already costs more than $600,000 per unit to deliver a bare-bones apartment in Metro Vancouver, due to rising input costs.
• While developers are competing to pay millions above assessment for land, development cost charges (DCCs) for residential developers are also increasing.
• The City of Richmond has raised its DCCs 47 per cent; Coquitlam is up 33 per cent and, in Vancouver, it now costs $32,000 in DCCs alone for a new 1,000-square-foot apartment.
• Metro Vancouver’s board voted April 19 to have developers pay for 99 per cent of the cost of future water and sewage infrastructure, starting next year.
• Dana Westermark, a Richmond developer, stated the obvious: homeowners and renters will be paying much more for new housing as land and development charges continue to increase.
• “It affects the end price of all housing,” Westermark told Glacier Media. “(It’s) delusional thinking that, somehow, development will absorb the cost and it won’t get passed on.”
• The Lower Mainland is located on the southwestern side of British Columbia.