subscribe to our RSS feedInvestors “buying 70% of Downtown Vancouver Condos”
May 26th, 2007
by Bruce McCoubrey
26th May, 2007
Investors are considered to represent 70% of the market for new strata products, according to two prominent Vancouver developers. Even two years ago when CMHC estimated investors made up half the market it raised eyebrows.
“At least 70% of our buyers are investors, not owner-occupiers,” said Scott Pettipiece, sales manager at The Salient Group, which is converting the old Gastown ‘Paris’ Building into lofts that will sell for about $500 a square foot and up.
In a marketing outline for the new 198-suite Dolce tower at Smithe and Richards, by Solterra Development Corp. estimates that investors will account for 70% of buyers, with the rest a mix of first-timers and move-up buyers. (Marketing begins later this month and figure units to start in the $600 per square foot range.)
Bear in mind, that while we have warned the assignment market is flashing some ‘risk’ signals (i.e units that have been sold but not completed), Robin Adamache, CMHC Vancouver analyst, said that, as of the end of March, there was “zero inventory of completed and unsold new condominiums in the downtown core.”
Adamache added that, “in all of Vancouver there are only six new and unsold condominiums on the market and they are all in Marpole.”
You can read the original story here: Bruce McCoubrey’s Market Insight