There has been a significant drop in the number of rental apartment buildings sold in Metro Vancouver in the first six months of 2008 compared with the same period last year, according to an August newsletter published by real-estate brokers David and Mark Goodman.

The father-and-son duo, who work for Macdonald Commercial, note that there were 51 buildings sold in Greater Vancouver from January to June. That’s down from the 77 buildings sold during the same months of 2007. The dollar volume dropped from $273 million to $167.8 million over the same period.

The average price per suite increased 19 percent in the South Granville area, 15 percent in the West End, 14 percent in Kitsilano and on Vancouver’s East Side, and 12 percent in Marpole. The per-suite price fell 11 percent in Kerrisdale, where there was only one sale in the first six months of this year, compared with two sales in those months last year.

The Goodmans write that higher oil prices (which have levelled off since publication of the newsletter) will have an inflationary impact on products and services people use every day. They state that there is “no doubt that growing inflation will increase rents”, but that this will be offset for landlords by escalating taxes and utility costs.

However, they also point out that with inflation comes the likelihood of higher interest rates. “Accordingly, now may be the appropriate time to consider longer terms for your mortgage, if you plan to hold for a long time,” the Goodmans advise apartment owners.

If it’s good enough for the big guys, average homeowners might want to take the same advice and lock in their mortgages.

A report released this month by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggests that B.C. residential real-estate prices will not rise at the double-digit pace of the past four years. In “Housing Market Outlook: Canada Edition”, CMHC predicts that prices will rise at a rate close to the rate of inflation.

“Increased listings of homes for sale and fewer sales have brought demand and supply into balance,” CMHC reports. It also predicts that higher mortgage carrying costs will reduce demand for the purchase of resales.

International and interprovincial migration is expected to increase B.C.’s population by 100,000 in 2008 and 2009, according to the report.

A Downtown Eastside housing cooperative has won a court ruling upholding the eviction of a difficult tenant with AIDS. On August 15, B.C. Supreme Court Justice John D. Truscott dismissed Clement Roberts’s appeal, which was made on the basis that he had been denied “natural justice”.

Truscott rejected Roberts’s allegation that the decision was not reasonably supported by the facts cited by the board of directors.

According to the ruling, Roberts, an admitted drug user, failed to appear before the Lore Krill Housing Cooperative’s board of directors last November after receiving notice that he would be stripped of his membership. “On the day of the meeting Mr. Roberts informed the board that he was sick,” Truscott wrote. “I have no evidence that he sought any adjournment of the hearing or indicated what his intentions were, and the meeting proceeded in his absence.”

Truscott ruled that Roberts “waived his right to attend by not requesting other reasonable arrangements”. Truscott also wrote: “Because of his condition his immune system is weak and his health is tenuous.”

The board of directors terminated Roberts’s membership after allegations of “illegal activities on the cooperative’s property by him and his guests”, and “complaints of excessive traffic and noise caused by him and his guests”. Last September, the board advised Roberts about numerous complaints, including an allegation that he was “allowing unsavoury individuals into the building on a constant basis at all hours of the night”.

According to the decision, Roberts claimed at the September meeting that he “had been kidnapped and tortured”, and the matter was being investigated by police.

A man was subsequently charged, convicted, and sentenced to 11 months in jail in connection with the incident, Truscott wrote.