Business Activity

The bulk of business activity information such as Room Nights Sold, Occupancy Rates, Incomes and Business Development can be sourced via the Economic and  Visitor Experience strategy pages. The remaining contextual information is described below.

Tourism Economic Impact

A study commissioned by One Whistler in 2000 reported that Whistler’s resort economy generated $1.035 billion in tourism spending, accounting for 11% of B.C.’s total tourism revenue of $9.47 billion.

• Direct spending within Whistler was estimated at $921 million, of which almost one-third was associated with the food and beverage sector (30%), followed by lodging (25%), recreation and entertainment (15%), retail (14%), grocery (7%) and transportation (7%). 
• Applied to B.C.’s estimated $8.953 billion provincial tourism revenue in 2003 , Whistler’s 11% tourism revenue contribution was estimated at approximately $984 million.
• Whistler’s tourism economy also supported 21,470 full-year equivalent jobs both within and outside the resort – equal to 19% of all jobs available in the B.C. tourism industry – with an estimated $529 million in direct and indirect salaries and wages.

Real Estate, Commercial & Industrial Development

Construction Activity

• Whistler's recent construction activity is higher than earlier years. With the total value of construction authorized by building permits estimated at $26.2 million.
• Building Permits. The total number of building permits issued annually increased significantly in 2010 to 450 permits - the highest amount on record; 298 permits were issued in 2009 and 301 in 2008.

 
New Construction vs. Redevelopment

• 84% of all 2010 construction activity was associated with residential construction valued at $22 million, while the remaining 2010 construction was classified as commercial and valued at $4 million. 2010 saw the highest number of new construction for single family dwellings over the past eight years with 44 building permits issued in this category.

 

 

Construction Activity by Type

• Residential construction continued the trend of surpassing commercial construction accounting for $22 million or 84% of the total value of all construction permitted in 2010.  This was a decrease of $4 million from the value reported in 2009, and $48 million from the value reported in 2008, the highest year in recent history. There was a decrease in the value of commercial construction from $12 million in 2009 to $4 million in 2010, and the amount spent on commercial construction was the lowest in the past twelve years.

 

Real Estate Sales Statistics

Residential real estate sales in terms of numbers continued a four-year decline, whereas total sales value increased to 2010 from 2009 levels. 

 

Real Estate Sales Values

• In 2010, the total value of reported real estate sales transactions was $343 million, an increase of 11% over 2009. Year to year increases were mainly due to sales of duplexes and single family lots. Condo sales and single family dwelling sales continue to make up the bulk of real estate sales value representing 84% of the total value or just over $289 million.  (*Please Note that "Townhouses" are included with "Condominium" figures)

Total Residential Real Estate Sales by Type (1998-2010)

 

Real Estate Sales Transactions

• The number of sales transactions decreased by 4% from 483 units in 2009 to 462 units in 2010. Condominium and Townhouse sales continued to comprise the majority of residential sales transactions with 272 units sold (59% of total), followed by 82 single-family homes, shared ownership condos at 49, 14 duplexes, and 33 vacant single-family lots. While Condominium and Townhouse sales made up the majority of sales, their proportion of all sales dropped quite significantly compared to recent years like 2007 where they made up 66% of sales transactions.

 Residential Real Estate Transactions (1998-2010)

 

Residential Single Family, Condo and Shared Real Estate Transactions (1996-2010)

  
 
Average Purchase Prices

• Average residential real estate purchase price increases were varied in 2010, with the average condominium price increasing between 2009 and 2010 by 13% to $607,427, whereas the average prices decreased in all other categories. Single-family residence decreased slightly by 2% to $1,507,952 and the average price of a vacant single-family lot decreased by 15% to $1,004,364. Over the past 10 years, average purchase prices have increased by an average of 7% per year for condominiums, 6% per year for single family residences and 16% per year for vacant single family lots.

Residential Real Estate Average Purchase Prices (1998-2010)

 

Commercial & Industrial Space Inventory

Whistler’s inventory of developed commercial, industrial, public and vacant non-residential space is monitored to track the supply and demand for space and its distribution by type, use and location. Note: the results for 2003 and 2004 are the same as the inventory to represent both years was created in August 2004,  no data is available for years 2006-2009.

Between 2000 and 2010, the inventory of non-residential floor area increased by 55,590 m2, bringing Whistler's current developed capacity of non-residential space to 222,837 m2. This inventory consists of 143,124 m2 (65%) of commercial, 27,197 m2 (13%) of industrial, and 45,108 m2 (20%) of public/institutional space. Another 7,407 m2 (3%) is vacant.

 

Distribution by Use

The overall distribution of non-residential space by use has remained relatively consistent between 2005 and 2010, with the majority of space being in commercial use (64% in 2010; 65% in 2005), followed by public, institutional and social uses (20% in 20105; 18% in 2005), and industrial (12% in 2010; 12% in 2005). In addition, the share of vacant space has grown from 5%  to less than 1% of the total amount of non-residential space within Whistler.

 

Commercial Space

In August 2005, Whistler’s inventory of space in commercial use totalled 133,775 m2. Retail comprised the largest share of commercial space at 27% (36,620 m2). This was followed by food/restaurant at 25% (33,609 m2) and office at 8.7% (18,052 m2) of the total commercial space. From 2000 through 2005, an average of 3,667 m2 per year was added in commercial use; 8,858 m2 was gained in 2005. The largest gain over the five-year period was in food and restaurant use, with an average addition of 1,784 m2 per year, 19% of the commercial total.  

Commercial Locations

The majority of commercial space, 31% or 41,724 m2 is located in Whistler Village. Village North has the next largest share of space in commercial use with 16% or 21,138 m2 (218,116 ft2), followed by Function Junction at 21,123 m2 ,the Upper Village with 11% or 14,758 m2 and Whistler Creek with 10% or 12,949 m2. Smaller commercial locations include Nesters Square and Alpine Market.

Vacant Space

Historically, the resort community has had very low vacancy rates and very little available vacant space. After doubling in size between 2002 and 2003 the inventory of vacant space increased 27% between 2003 and 2005 from 8,383 m2 to 10,667m2 representing 5.16% of all commercial space. While the majority of growth in vacancies to 2003 were in Function Junction and in the newly constructed Franz’s Trail in Whistler Creek; the increases from 2003 was primarily driven by an increase in village vacancies. Village vacancies increased from 2,874 m2 in 2003 to 5,095 m2 in 2005. 

Municipal Fiscal Trends

Municipal spending is guided by the community’s needs and ability to pay for services and facilities that both enhance the visitor experience and meet the needs of residents. Decision-making is ultimately guided by a set of principles adopted by Council, including living within our means, providing world-class facilities and services, working towards environmental sustainability, efficient and effective government, responding to citizen and visitor needs, and delivering sustainable service levels.  This section examines trends in total revenue generation and distribution, annual property assessments and taxation rates, and hotel tax revenues.

Municipal Revenues

To fund basic municipal services, the municipality relies on several revenue sources: annual property taxes, a share of the provincial hotel tax levied on short-term resort accommodation and municipal user fees and service charges. The financial information presented in this section is based on the consolidated financial statements of the municipality. These statements combine information from all the reporting entities of the municipality including the Whistler Village Land Company, the Whistler Housing Authority and the Library. Because of this, care must be taken in assessing results of the core municipal operations.

Assessed Property Values

Property taxes are levied on Whistler properties based on the assessed value as determined annually by the B.C. Assessment Corporation (BCA).

Annual Assessed Value

In 2010, the value of all taxable assessments increased slightly from $10.02 billion to $10.13 billion. The combined assessed value of Whistler properties increased by approximately 2.5 times between 2000 and 2010. The greatest annual change was in 2003 when the total assessed value jumped from $6.07 billion to $8.18 billion, a $2.1 billion increase.

 Total and Assessed Value by Property Class (1998-2010)

 

Number of Assessed Properties

The total number of assessed properties in Whistler has grown from 12,231 in 2000 to 14,786 in 2010, an increase of  2,555 properties over the past ten years. After the 1,000+ increase from 2000 to 2001 the annual growth in the number of assessed properties slowed to 2010.

 

Property Tax Rates

The property tax rate establishes the amount of taxes paid per $1,000 of assessed value for each class of property. Municipal tax rates have generally been set to keep the increase in property tax at or below the rate of inflation.

Residential Property Tax

Residential property taxes in 2010 were calculated at 4.26 per $1,000 of assessed value, representing slight increase from 2009 at 4.09. The municipal portion of the total residential property tax rate accounted for 54% (or 2.19 per $1,000 of assessed value) of the total residential tax levy. In 2003 the municipal portion was only 39%, but has increased steadily as a proportion of the total since.

Commercial Property Tax

Commercial property taxes are levied at a rate 3.8 times higher than residential property taxes. Commercial property tax rates were 16.08 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2010, representing a slight increase over 2009 and a 23% overall decline from the 2000 rate of 19.6. The municipal portion of the total commercial property tax rate accounted for 51% (or 7.61 per $1,000 of assessed value) of the total commercial tax levy.

 

Average Taxes for Residential Dwellings

In 2009, the average residential property tax for a single-family residence was $5,384 based on an average assessed value of $1.3 million. This was a 4% or $200 increase in the average residential property taxes from 2008.The increase in residential taxes in 2009 was due to a slight increase in assessment values and municipal tax rates.