In KPMG's Guide to International Business Costs that compared the costs of doing business in 128 cities across America, Canada, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Vancouver was ranked sixth in the world and the most cost effective in North America.



For a start, business costs are a whole 3.1 percentage points below the US average. Amazingly, Vancouver actually ranked as the place that is the cheapest to do business in all of the 17 sectors that were reviewed by the KPMG study and a full 12 percent cheaper than areas such as San Jose.

It is little wonder, therefore, that companies are flocking their in droves to set up companies in the area and this sort of inward investment is bound to have a positive effect on the housing market, as unemployment levels become much lower.

Currently, the population of Vancouver is around 2,210,000 and this is increasing quite rapidly, largely due to the booming commercial market. The fastest growing sectors are biotechnology, information and communications technology as well as engineering and environment.

Not only is this large increase in the commercial world driving residential property prices, but it is also having a huge effect on the commercial real estate market.

Unsurprisingly, this massive increase in the real estate market has resulted in many investment opportunities for those looking to cash in on this booming region. There are now multiple schemes in operation that allow individual investors to join others with smaller initial investments.

By doing this, it is possible to be part of the real estate action without having to find the full property price. This is particularly useful when it comes to the larger commercial opportunities.

In particular, this has the advantage of not having to manage the property directly, while at the same time allowing investors to make multiple smaller investments in several different markets. For example, with an investment of ?100,000, it would be possible to put ?20,000 into five different projects rather than having to put the entire amount into just the one project.

The housing market in Vancouver is booming and prices, on average, have leapt over 30 percent a year, recently. Moreover, there seems to be no sign of the market slowing down in the near future, although some of the more cautious investors have now started to express concerns that the property may have already reached its peak and is heading for a fall.

Prices are incredibly high in Vancouver and it is not unheard of for even modest properties to reach the magic million dollar figure! Whilst this causes some investors to be cautious, there are certain factors that will always make Vancouver a popular choice.

Vancouver cannot grow any more; it is surrounded by mountains and water and simply has nowhere else to go! For this reason, it is unlikely that the property market is going to drop any time soon. Pricey as the market may be, it seems that there is still a lot more to be gained from this property hot spot!