Kitimat real estate sizzles after LNG announcement

In the aftermathof the announcement on Oct. 2 thatKitimat's$40-billion liquefied natural gas project will be going ahead, a local real estate agentsays the community's housing market has taken off in a "fast and furious" way.

Real estate agentShannon Dos Santos says theflurry of activity started immediately.

"I'm not sure any of us were quite prepared for what we've seen in the last 14 days," Dos Santos said. "We have seven agents on the ground and we've been run right off of our feet."

Dos Santos says a lot of the buyers she has worked withhave been out-of-town investors who are hoping to secure property that they could then use as rentals for the coming boom.

"We don't have a lot of locals," she said. "I think in all of the sales I saw last week I only saw one offer come from another agent from a local buyer, a first-time home buyer."

Influx of workers expected

The LNG Canada project will see a pipeline carrying natural gas from Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. to a new processing plant on the coast in Kitimat. There, the gas would be liquefied for overseas export.

The project is expected to employ as many as 10,000 people in theconstruction phase and up to 950 in full-time jobs.

Dos Santos says the increased real estate activity echoes another time population boomedinthe community when Rio Tintoconducted itsmodernization projectat the alumninum smelter in 2012.

But this time, she says, the market changehas been much more dramatic.

"This happened fast and furious," she said. "I just thought it would be a little bit more gradual. We're a ways away from, you know, the camp workers actually coming in."

Affordable housing concerns

Therapid real estate heat-up has some local politicians concerned.

Mayoral candidate and incumbent KitimatMayorPhil Germuthsaid he wants towork with the provincialand federal governments to secure more affordable housing in the community.

He noted that Kitimatmight end up facing issues with vacant housing if buyers simply useproperty as an investment instead of living in them or renting them out.

"There could be something in place where you could ensure peoplebuying houses were going to be living in them," Germuthsuggested.

CandidateDavid Johnston, who is challenging Germuthfor the mayoralty, said he would also like the provincial government to take a closer look at the issue of affordable housing, especially in light of a major project like LNG.

"I would like to lobby the NDP government in B.C. to really take a step and start making some actual decisions and actually doing something about it," Johnston said.

With files from Daybreak North