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Forbes 2015 list of billionaires includes three from B.C.

By Felicity Stone /

Jimmy Pattison | BCBusiness
Jimmy Pattison

THE#BCBIZDAILY
A hot real estate market in Vancouver and a cool property deal in Tofino

B.C. billionaires
Although Bill Gates, worth $79.2 billion, tops the latest Forbes ranking of the world’s billionaires, these B.C. residents also made the list.

#177 Jim Pattison (86), CEO, chairman and owner of the Jim Pattison group: worth $7.5 billion

#847 Chip Wilson (58), founder of Lululemon: worth $2.2 billion

#1054 Brandt Louie (71), president and CEO of H.Y. Louie Co. and chairman of London Drugs: worth $1.8 billion

Feel the heat
Not the weather but rather Vancouver’s perennially hot housing market, which remains the least affordable in Canada according to Tuesday’s Housing Trends and Affordability Report from RBC Economics. With demand exceeding supply in the second half of 2014, Vancouver reclaimed a spot among Canada’s markets exhibiting the fastest-rising price increases. And demand remains strong—the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales in February 2015 increased 21 per cent compared to February 2014 and 60 per cent compared to January 2015.

Shifting sands
Gordon Nelson is best-known for investing in apartment buildings in downtown Vancouver, but the company also has a resort side—and it just got bigger. Gordon Nelson has purchased its second Tofino property, Pacific Sands Beach Resort—it has owned Tofino’s Ocean Village Beach Resort since 2010. The 40-acre waterfront Pacific Sands Beach Resort is being sold by the Pettinger family, who established it 42 years ago.