An anecdote posted in the comment section by Ham Solo:
Interesting anecdote from this weekend.
At a party with someone who owns one unit in a multi-unit Whistler condo.
The condo is ~30 years old, wood frame construction. Not good condition. About two years ago, the strata agreed upon a plan to renovate the property. Many of the people who owned units did not have much money. Therefore, there was a lot of debate over how much budget to authorize for the renovation and the owners voted to hire a fixed-price contractor with a set budget.
However, due to rising building costs, including wood, labour etc, the first contractor withdrew. So did a second. The strata council revised upwards the budget, and a third contractor was engaged. Because of the pending renovation, many of the unit owners served eviction notices on their tenants so that the building would be empty.
Of course the evicted tenants, who were probably service industry people in Whistler, weren’t thrilled and held an “eviction party” on their way out, thoroughly trashing the place.
Now the 3rd builder is considering walking away from the project due to concerns over profitability.
At the moment, the building is unliveable. Each owner’s share of the building budget for the renovation is now higher than the market value of similar available-for-sale condos in Whistler on the secondary market. Total mess, and yet owners are only just coming to terms with the fact that their investment is more or less worth zero at this point. They have about a 1/12th share of the rights to an as of yet unbuilt building, the cost of which would exceed the price of purchasing similar existing condo inventory in Whistler.
Lessons for “investors” – condos carry many hidden costs. You can’t control who lives in your buiding. You can’t make substantial repairs without the agreement of others. If you just owned a piece of land and a building, its value can decline, but it can’t go to zero. However a condo “investment” can go to zero. Good luck condo “vultures” snapping up heavily discounted older low rise investments.
