Andrew A. Duffy
Andrew A. Duffy tracks how land deals, business decisions and municipal planning shape real estate and the local economy for the Times Colonist. He has reported for the masthead since the 1990s, moving from sports and politics into a long-running focus on business, real estate and related beats. Since 2000 he has concentrated on the business side of the region, with particular attention to financial malfeasance, property markets, technology companies, tourism and forestry. More recently, his brief extends into municipal politics, homelessness, street disorder, changing land-use rules and inflation, which he treats as forces that directly influence how and where building and investment happen.
Housing targets and affordability
Duffy’s housing coverage combines policy detail with straightforward explanations of what targets and numbers mean on the ground.
In a recent piece on medium- and low-income housing, he reports when a city falls below its own construction goals and makes clear the size of the gap and how officials are measuring it. He links those shortfalls to wider municipal pressures he covers elsewhere, such as the downloading of social-service responsibilities onto local governments and the way inflation stretches both public budgets and household finances.
His reporting on homelessness and street disorder shows how housing policy intersects with front-line social issues, rather than treating them as separate subjects. He tends to write in plain language that highlights key terms in planning documents - including whether changes are described as permanent, phased or “deferred” - so readers can see how council decisions affect what is built and when.
Development projects and land deals
Duffy’s real estate work is rooted in the specifics of major projects and transactions. He has covered hotel proposals that aim to reshape downtown skylines, such as a 20-storey tower pitched as a new landmark, explaining height, scale and how proponents position the project within the broader urban fabric.
His reporting on resort and hotel sales, including a deal that saw a businessman take control of a major golf resort property through a “working alliance” with its owner, lays out who is gaining control, how the agreements are structured and what that implies for future development.
He pays similar attention to industrial and commercial land deals. In a story on one of Western Canada’s largest industrial developers acquiring 13 acres, he details the parcel size, boundaries and the buyer’s stated intention to move quickly on development. Coverage of a failed mixed-use project taken over by a new developer, under a deal approved by a superior court, shows his focus on purchase price, court process and the corporate entities involved, giving a clear picture of how distressed assets change hands. In his real estate writing on civic plazas and public spaces, he tracks how redesigns evolve, which elements are postponed, and how decisions about trees and other features signal longer-term plans for those sites.
Across these pieces, the emphasis is on deals, timelines and regulatory context rather than promotional language.
Business, industry and technology
Beyond property, Duffy’s business beat spans corporate transactions, sector trends and the fortunes of local firms. His long tenure on this beat includes regular coverage of financial misconduct and business failures, as well as reporting on tourism and forestry, reflecting an interest in how major employers and resource industries affect the regional economy.
He contributes to stories on logging and labour disputes, such as coverage of Teal-Jones halting operations amid a strike, adding context on how shutdowns deepen sector-wide crises.
He also follows the growth and restructuring of technology and medical-device companies. In a piece on the merger of StarFish Medical with Kangaroo Group, he provides a local perspective on the transaction, interviewing chief executive Scott Phillips and drawing on long familiarity with the company and its leadership. These business features typically connect corporate strategy to employment, investment and innovation, showing how decisions at individual firms feed into the broader business landscape.
Taken together, his business and real estate work presents a consistent picture: who owns key assets, how projects are financed and regulated, and what those choices mean for communities and industries.
4 more real estate journalists.
Addie Morfoot
Addie Morfoot covers how real estate, culture and media meet, focusing on people, rules and the way homes shape a life. She reports for The New York Times on housing and lifestyle, from personal narratives about finding a home after loss to features on how short-term rental policy affects everyday owners and renters. She writes real estate stories that connect laws and regulations to the choices available to ordinary residents in specific towns and cities. She is a regular contributor to the Sunday Routine franchise, following actors, comedians and designers through a typical day and showing how settings like homes, studios and subway cars shape daily experience. She also has a long track record covering documentary film and the entertainment business, including legal questions around fair use, changing docu-series formats, festival premieres and financing. Her portfolio spans more than two decades of work for The New York Times, Variety, The Wall Street Journal and Crain’s New York Business.
Alcynna Lloyd
Alcynna Lloyd is a real estate reporter and economic journalist at Business Insider whose work is distinct for treating housing as a core economic system people must navigate. She covers how housing markets, costs, and mobility shape everyday life decisions, connecting data on rents, home prices, and city trends with stories of people managing debt, multigenerational living, and moves abroad. Her beat centers on housing costs, renters, and household strategies, following renters pushing back against landlords and tracking “desperate home sellers” using concessions in unaffordable markets. A second strand of her coverage focuses on relocation, remote work, and cheap cities as everyday economic strategies. She regularly uses rankings and lists, such as best and worst states to buy a home and Rising Stars of Real Estate, and reads city housing and migration shifts as signs of broader economic change.
Alec Lazenby
Alec Lazenby covers how provincial politics and government decisions shape housing, real estate and the wider social fabric. He reports for The Vancouver Sun from the provincial legislature. His work examines HousingHub, middle-income rentals, affordability, stalled projects, empty condos, developer layoffs, municipal housing targets and land use. He also covers health, addiction, safer supply, involuntary care, water rights, resource management, Indigenous rights and Crown land. Lazenby connects policy language to specific buildings, rents, projects, services and people. He explains financial, regulatory and market pressures, then follows how institutions, professionals, developers, municipalities and affected communities respond. His reporting tests government goals against practical outcomes and shows how policy reversals, construction costs, interest rates and political accountability shape housing and public life.
Amir Ali
Amir Ali links housing, disputes, and oddball neighbourhood stories in case-based, street-level reporting for Daily Hive. He holds a senior editorial and writing role, listed on the masthead as part of Vancouver leadership and described as a staff writer. His core beat is real estate, especially the rental market and housing affordability, tracking rent ranges, market shifts, and how pressures land on people trying to stay housed. He also covers crime, civil tribunals, and mental health, explaining decisions and conflicts in plain language that focuses on timelines, behaviour, and outcomes. Ali writes offbeat hyperlocal features, traffic and transport disruptions, business, food, and general local news, often turning infrastructure, small businesses, and civic systems into tangible stories. A former radio producer, he brings tight pacing and clear stakes to written pieces and maintains an active social media presence as a broadcaster and writer.