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There’s been a lot of negativity in the news lately about the increasing cost of hosting the winter games..  people seem to be getting all upset over little things like the city having made a bad bet on real estate speculation, or the fact that Standard and Poor’s have put the city on “credit watch negative” which could make future financing costs higher.

People even seem to be all grumpy that the city won’t reveal their actual agreement details with us, but this is obviously in our best interest.  Math is hard, and even the smart people at city hall seem to still be trying to figure it all out… and they’ve known about this situation since summer of 2007!

But amidst all this doom n’ gloom, we have one voice of reason: Dr. Tsur Somerville of UBC says that the city is making the situation sound worse than it actually is.  We probably won’t owe one billion dollars of taxpayers money once this situation is all worked out.  Once the Athletes Pillage has been completed and the units can be liquidated we’ll probably have only lost $275,000,000!

Now don’t you feel better?

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doug r

So if construction costs $1 billion and housing prices drop around 60-70%, that's around $650 million. Add in the usual BS and I'm guessing $800 million.

About the same as a leg of the Coquihalla or the 3 fast ferries….

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Lily pad

realpaul: paul, Maybe it's a generational thing. Studies show that older people from all cultures are more racist than the younger generation.

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Lily pad

realpaul: Unless the published information was racist to begin with.

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NO -LYMPICS

Dutch auction From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search A Dutch auction is a type of auction where the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer's price, or a predetermined reserve price (the seller's minimum acceptable price) is reached. The winning participant pays the last announced price. This is also known as a "clock auction" or an open-outcry descending-price auction. This type of auction is convenient when it is important to auction goods quickly, since a sale never requires more than one bid. Theoretically, the bidding strategy and results of this auction are equivalent to those in a sealed first-price auction. ================================================= My guess is ONNI is going on fishing expedition. They will probably offer a few, with a RESERVE Price, and see what happens. All… Read more »

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admin

just posted a thread on the Onni story. Thanks A1 & Macchiato!

http://vancouvercondo.info/2009/01/onni-to-liquid…

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macchiato

Note, poster A1 might have also been alluding to this, they actually even pointed out the time line.

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macchiato

MrBear, hey, there was never a problem, it was all good.

Look forward to the post on this from whoever can manage it.

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MrBear

macchiato: Good to hear from you again! I'm glad I didn't scare you off completely with my poorly-aimed 'pffft' the other day.

Hey, if we get a good article to link to, maybe this Onni thing should be a new post tomorrow. With due credit to macchiato, who was dropping hints for us.

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macchiato

MrBear, This inventory 'blow-out' pertains directly to our previous discussion.

This is sort of the opposite of pre-sale line-ups on the top of the news hour.

I think I hear the floodgates opening.

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MrBear

Anonymous: There is no way I would consider 20% off to be a good discount. But if you could be looking at 80% off, I might just have to run the numbers on whether you could make a decent income property out of the thing. Nothing wrong with kicking the tires, at least.

It looks like only one of their projects is in Vancouver though, so right away I'm less interested.

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Anonymous

MrBear:

"Even a leaker might be worth it if the discount is steep enough"

I can't agree with that idea. If you pay 100K for a leaker and it costs you 100K in special assesments while having your unit designated as a leaker (with no guarantee that it won't leak again as many have) then you've got a 200K leaker thats impossible to sell and it's lost you 100K and counting. Wheres the profit in that?

BTW, the price of these units had no relation to reality when they were priced for sale at the peak. The question you have to ask is " 20% off what?" a unit that was marked up 400% beyond anything that had been achieved before?

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Anonymous

ted:

Onni with it's 18 projects for sale is just one of many dozens of developers with half finished, crap quality condo's for sale. Let the bloodbath begin.

-with condos that are 'unlivable, with hallways that smell like urine, who is going to want to buy these overpriced traps?

The price of these units are so overpriced that only a fool would think that 20% off is a good deal. Better wait till they go tits up and then have good bon fire.

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vancouverboom2

"The marketing strategy by Onni Group of Companies is aimed at selling off hundreds of condos in its inventory.

About 375 unsold condominiums in cities such as Richmond and New Westminster will be offered at 20 to 40 per cent off, a real estate insider told CBC News."

means price go up in spring yeah nutslaps!

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MrBear

MickeyFinn: Let's be clear here; if it is going to be a dutch auction as apparently reported on the radio, any percentage discounts are estimates, are they not? Maybe they're planning to set a reserve percentage in the auction? Otherwise, the units might go for 80% off. Even a leaker might be worth it if the discount is steep enough.

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observer

Vancouver taxpayers likely won’t be directly on the hook for costs associated with the Olympic Village, a well-known urban land use consultant said today. Bob Ransford of Counterpoint Communications told the Tyee that if the city can’t recover all the costs of the $1 billion project, the first area it will take a hit will be the money promised for the land the village sits on. In 2006, Millennium Development blew away competing developers by offering $193 million for the prime waterfront real estate in Southeast False Creek. The builder put down a deposit of $29 million and agreed to pay the balance in 2010. “I think there’s a potential [the city] is not going to see the $193 million that they intended getting for the land,” said Ransford, who is also a well-known Non-Partisan Association advisor. “That’s the first… Read more »

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arit

These are indeed good news. I personally do not think they will be offering prices which are worth buying into – and also, after reading this blog I know that I am not buying strata. But this will have an effect on overall prices. 20% off peak is roughly current market value. And nobody is buying at current market value.

This bubble is popping faster than we could hope for.

Regards,

arit

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realpaul

Dev:

how about letting anyone bid and the best man wins ( is saying man a bad thing Lily?)

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blueskies

MickeyFinn:

Onni was to hold a media event Thursday to announce details.

reading that as "feeding frenzy"

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ted

Here's the CBC news story about the Onni price cuts. Who was the poster that was saying this was coming for the past couple of weeks?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2…

By the way if you search the CBC news site for 'ONNI', the second story that comes up is "Residents say Surrey apartment complex not fit for living"

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2…

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MickeyFinn

CBC NEWS:

A Vancouver real estate developer is making an unprecedented move to offer a liquidation sale of $350 million worth of its condominiums throughout the Lower Mainland.

The marketing strategy by Onni Group of Companies is aimed at selling off hundreds of condos in its inventory.

About 375 unsold condominiums in cities such as Richmond and New Westminster will be offered at 20 to 40 per cent off, a real estate insider told CBC News.

It is not known whether the big discounts are based on prices when the condos were completed or current market values. Onni was to hold a media event Thursday to announce details.

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NO -LYMPICS

117 Lily pad Says:

January 14th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

NO -LYMPICS: As long as one part of your anatomy is wooden it’s ok, you can bid.:)

==============================================

Lily Pad..

(BTW : How's the Squirrel hunting going? )

Wooden body parts?

Dam….I guess I am SOL.

Knew I should have become a Somali pirate !

High Reward vs. Risk ratio.

Re: Dutch Auction condo?

Who wants a future leaker anyway?

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Dev

getting back to real estate…..maybe Millenium and the city could be talked into letting indo non-union builders finish the project, save 50% of remaining cost?

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realpaul

Dev:

restating published information is not racist, and now you're unfairly targeting the homeless, shame on you.

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realpaul

MickeyFinn: We had speculated on earlier strings that ' forced sales' would create a new benchmark. Past experiance has shown that it was usually the marginal players and court ordered cases that led the way. This is something completley differant and will immediatley effect every like product owner in the market as new comparable prices are set. The question is " Is 35-40% enough". personally I don't think so. It's not going to be pretty for those individuals involved in the complexes affected. Burden of Proof, you seem to have a handle on the topic of 'principal residence' status. I have dealt with this matter anecdotally for forty years and the 1 year standard was always the term. Possibly the law has changed in that time and the rest of the world hasn't caught up? Lily Pad …. I think… Read more »

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Dev

yeak ok…..some of those comments on the sikh community are racist. anyways…why's is a scam to take advantage of a tax exemption. now…if you build a series of houses and at some point the activity crosses the line from personal use to business…pay the tax as assessed by rev can, until then there's nothing wrong with being an entrepreneur. and fyi….they don't teach this shit at temple. and look….i think the Sikh community can do a better job of taking on some of the extremest elements. those efforts have started. in the meantime, don't take my comments as some sort of admission that it's the entire community that's the problem, as one comment earlier implied. a lot of brave people have stood up, including the relative of a friend, a reporter by the name of Haer who was shot and… Read more »

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