Tag Archives: development

Open Topic

FFFA! Election Time

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Hey! It’s the end of another work week!

That means it’s Friday Free-for-all time here on VCI. This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.

Depending on when you read this, you may already know who’s mayor.

Alrighty, let’s get to the links to kick off the chat!

–BC leads decline in starts
–Mayor race neck and neck
–All about geography and weather
–BC vs Ontario economy
–Former city planner says..
–Ready to move to an island?
–

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

BC, data, economy, presales, prices, supply

So who’s buying condos?

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By now even the reader of the province know it’s a slow real estate market out there.  Not much is selling, sales to list ratio is low and prices are dropping.

..and yet, we still hear of new developments that have big opening day sales (where ‘opening day’ conveniently ignores months of marketing).

So who’s buying these new condos?

According to Bob Rennie it’s young people without any money:

Rennie Marketing registered 7,500 potential buyers before the sales launch, and he says the majority were under 28 years old. He believes it is the young demographic that is fuelling the sales of projects like the two he’s selling at Marine and Cambie. Part of MC2’s appeal is that because it’s not downtown (a 20-minute SkyTrain ride), the prices are lower. And pricing on more than half the homes was kept under $350,000, to appeal to the young demographic.

“So, we made the right decision bringing on both towers at MC2,” he reflects, sitting in a trendy coffee shop on Main Street. “We’ve released all the affordable product. There are 130 homes without parking so that we could get inventory under $300,000. We really did the research on the first-time buyer when we did Marine Gateway across the street, and 28 per cent of our buyers answered in an exit survey that they were receiving down payments from mom and dad, and grandparents.”

Full article in the Globe and Mail.

BC, hype, presales, supply

Sold out in Burnaby 2015

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Despite the soft market and falling sales another lower mainland pre-sales project has sold out.

..or at least the first phase has.

Station Square at Metrotown says they have sold out their first tower which will be 35 storeys and completed in 2015.

The other towers could reach 57 storeys and are planned to be completed by 2020.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan notes the city is in transition. There are plans to add 11 residential towers at Brentwood Town Centre, and two of them could reach 70 storeys.

“It’s changing us from a bedroom community to the centre of the region,” Corrigan said.

He added that it is key is to develop the condos along existing transit hubs.

“There aren’t many choices. Either we can develop the agricultural land and the park land that is so important to our region, or we can go up. We can develop more density around stations,” Corrigan said.

In March, hundreds of people lined up for the chance to buy condos at Marine Drive and Cambie Street in Vancouver.

“Last year we had a very strong market where you had numerous projects that were achieving really strong presales right off the bat,” said Michael Ferreira of Urban Analytics.

Demand has decreased since then, but despite that all 269 units were sold Saturday.

Greg Zayadi of Anthem Properties Group said the buyers were people who will keep the condos for a long time.

“It’s not the investor of old that thinks the market is going to go up another ten or 15 per cent and selling it at the end of the day. They’ll be retaining this unit for a long time to come,” he said.

Read the full article over at CTV news.

BC, debt, economy, predictions

We built this city on real estate

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From a Vancouver Sun article about shifting tax burdens for the province posted by New Junky:

The convention comes on the heels of a business taxation report that suggests provincial and federal government decisions have had negative financial implications for local government.

The report by an expert panel also suggests the province doesn’t have any more money to dole out, Moore said. But he takes heart in a recommendation that the province work with municipalities to find alternate forms of funding to provide services.

“We really feel there hasn’t been a lot of cooperation,” he said.

Delegates’ resolutions include using development cost charges to fund projects such as recreation centres, fire halls and flood mitigation. Moore said other suggestions will focus on grants and shifting existing taxes — such as income, corporate and sales taxes — from the province to the municipalities, where they originate.

Moore noted changes in everything from improved workplace standards in fire halls to cameras in jail cells and rifles for RCMP vehicles have a financial effect on local government.

“We have to pay the price with no revenue coming with it,” he said.

It seems that local governments are becoming increasingly dependent on Development Cost Charges.

It seems like a bad way to pay for essential services like fire halls. How are we going to pay for these things after all the real estate development stops/slows because of a real estate crash???

Are city councils going to approve real estate development projects that are bad for the community simply because city finances are addicted to Development Cost Charges just to keep the fire halls functioning???

Read the full article here.

BC, debt, economy, opinion, predictions, supply

Condo holes across Vancouver

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Much has been made about the huge number of condo towers under construction in Toronto, but here in much tinier Vancouver we’re not doing so bad.

There are currently 16 towers in progress and 67 more in the works.

With population growth and prices on the retreat will there be enough buyers for all these new units or are we over-saturating the condo market?

Cameron Muir says don’t worry:

“Prices have been pretty flat since 2009,” Muir said. “There’s ample supply in the market place, but we are seeing prices at a steady pace.”

The fact more condos than single-detached homes are being built in Greater Vancouver is nothing new, said Muir, as condo starts have consistently made up about 75 per cent of all housing starts in the last several years. “It’s a function of land supply.”

Consumer demand during the last several months is trending on a 10 to 15 year average, he added.
One indicator, says Muir, of the demand-and-supply balance in the marketplace is the sales-to-new-listings ratio.

In Vancouver last month, the ratio, at 15.3 per cent, inched closer to a buyer’s market – but sits within the balanced range of between 15 to 20 per cent.

There hasn’t been a sustained buyer’s market since the recession hit, between late 2008 to early 2009.

..And of course it’s starting to smell like 08/09 again with the Eurocrisis and global economic sluggishness, but is it different this time?

Here’s one thing that’s different: Out in Burnaby yet another condo presale had a lineup, but what a waste of time for the participants according to VMD:

re: polygon’s “MODA” presale in Burnaby that opened today, with some people camping since Monday…

sold today: 138
total units: 249
ratio: 55%

yawn.

Wow. Can you imagine waiting in line for a week for something that sells only 55% of inventory?

Fizzle.