Tag Archives: presales

Open Topic

Friday Free-for-all! June 17th 2016

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188 Comments

It’s that time of the week again…

Friday Free-for-all time! This is our standard end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.

Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Lowest interest rates in 5000 years
–Tales from a line-up
–Careful with that equity Eugene
–Would ‘Brexit’ affect our prices?
–Bank of mom & dad
–More tales from a line-up
–Housing bubble alarm

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

Open Topic

FFFA! Cancelations, Condos, Concern

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118 Comments

Here we are at Friday again. That means it’s time for our regular end of the week news roundup and open topic discussion thread.

It’s Friday Free-for-all time!

Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Judge kills Yaletown land swap
–Labour participation drops
–Oil crash bad for BC labourers
–Condo cancelations in Toronto
–Toronto and Montreal best cities?
–Dodge warns on bank profits
–Another retailer exits
–Brain melting in panic
–

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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66 Comments

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.

advice, BC, debt, economy, presales, prices

The presales suing starts again

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85 Comments

If you’ve been in Vancouver for a few years you may remember the last time the market took a dip was in 2008.

As prices fell we started to see more and more stories about buyers trying to get out of presales contracts and developers going after buyers for the difference between their deposit and the current market value of the condo.

Well looks like we’re starting to see legal wrangling over presales contracts again, the most recent one is buyers trying to get out of their purchase agreements at the Hotel Georgia.

Falling Vancouver real-estate prices and widespread expectations that they’ll fall further have sparked a rise in lawsuits from condo buyers who want to get out of their presale contracts.

The trend underscores the importance for developers to scrupulously follow the Real Estate Development Marketing Act (REDMA) – because failure to do so can render sales contracts unenforceable and enable buyers to get their deposits back.

“People wouldn’t be looking for the return of their deposits if the units were worth more than or as much as they purchased them for,” Harper Grey LLP partner Bryan Baynham told Business in Vancouver.

The most recent string of lawsuits involves Georgia Properties Partnership’s (GPP) Residences at Hotel Georgia project, which is set to be complete in December – one year later than the developer promised buyers.

Baynham had filed six lawsuits from buyers of units at the Residences at Hotel Georgia as of October 24. He expects to file more.

The project has 156 units. As of September, 96 were sold.

If prices continue to fall in Vancouver you can bet we’ll see more legal action over presales contracts, both from buyers and developers.

 

BC, hype, presales, supply

Sold out in Burnaby 2015

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96 Comments

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.