Just gets crazier in trying to increase density.

http://www.vancouvermarket.ca/2015/0...rquay-village/

http://www.vancouvermarket.ca/wp-con...1-1000x288.jpg

Bidding wars everywhere even for condos. This is beyond fustrating.

I find this hard to believe, given the supply of condos on the market right now.

I agree, we had our condo on the market and it was stagnant. We ended up renting it out again.

We bought our condo 3 weeks ago. We were waiting for a particular unit to come up in the complex - our realtor let us know about it as soon as she saw the listing, basically 48 hours before the general public sees it. We went and saw it the next day (Wednesday night) and wrote an offer Thursday morning at $12K under asking. We went back and forth a few times and ended up getting possession dates that saved us a month's rent and $6K off.

That weekend they still did the open house as our offer was still subject financing.

By the time we removed our subjects 5 days after our offer was accepted, there were 3 backup offers in place including one over asking.

There is a TON of activity on condos, but they need to be desirable. There are many in this complex that sit, but every ground floor unit and every top floor unit is gone in a day at asking. Since we bought ours, another unit somewhat similar and 40 square feet larger came on the market for $30K more than ours with only 1 parking spot and sold for $4k under in 1 day.

Mark

Brentwood III

http://i.imgur.com/PVEbFD9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BCB0YcE.jpg

Buy now or be priced out forever. u choose.

Telus Garden

53 floors eh, figured it was tall but didn't expect 53

Albeit new, there's far better value to be had in the surrounding towers

If you're looking downtown, there's lots of supply and more supply coming online. Old buildings and parking garages are getting rezoned every year. I work in the core, and I'm not sure if I see the value in that building. If I were buying downtown, I'd probably buy on the periphery, like on False Creek or in Coal Harbour as you're closer to the water. Better views, better access to the seawall/recreation, and quiet. Plus, you're still within walking distance to the office, or bars and restaurants.

The long-term plan for that site is 7 towers, with a maximum height of 70 floors. At least the city of Burnaby managed to negotiate a community centre out of the developer.

I've lived in this area for nearly a decade and the long-term transition from light industrial to residential/commercial is finally being realized. There will be more rezoning and more buildings to come. Onni owns the block between Gilmore and Madison and there's another site by Halifax and Gilmore that will be rezoned soon.

Do you guys prefer to have newer/presale condos with less area space, more expensive, less parking spots but newer building/appliances/amenties etc (higher strata). OR older building, bigger area, generally cheaper price, more parking spots, less amenties?

So my building doesn't have any floor with 4 in it. I've been told its death in chinese?

I wonder if that brentwood building goes from 39-50 :troll:

There is wayyyyyy more value in older buildings, like infinitely more.

Especially if you have hook ups in terms of doing reno's etc it's crazy

Trump tower has no 13 and no 4's, no 4 units either

So floors go from 12-15 and units from 3-5

I've always had the notion of older buildings having shitty broke ass neighbors. Never understood who would be in the market to buy a 30 year old condo VS a 30 year old house with land that u can do anything with.

i'd get an older place if i could blast a 20 inch sub at 4am and not disturb anyone LOL.

because 30 year old houses are still 200+ times more than a 30 year old condo

Depends on the market/audience. It took some time for ~20 yo condo to sell, in a relatively upscale Kits/Dunbar area. It had some nice updates, wasn't crazy by any means. It did have a recent full rainscreening and windows replaced, but we found that this didn't really add much value to prospective buyers. We were 830sf 1 br 1 den 1 ba, these days they are fitting in 2-3 br and 1 den 1.5 ba into that amount of floor space.

Strata fees are all over the map. you can have a new building with amenities and relatively low strata fees. our building being older with only had 30 units, we were paying $300+/mth for general maintenance with no amenities.

Generally it seems the younger <30yo buyers preferred something brand new, nicer LOOKING appliances, even if smaller and in a less desirable area.

For what we sold our unit for, I can't believe that people are willing to pay the same or more for ~25% less floor space in somewhere like Burnaby to be able to say that it's brand new. To each their own I guess.

Buying in a older building can be scary for people with all the horror stories of 30k special assessments popping up. 70s/80s condos, especially the low rise wood frames aren't exactly the pinnacle of resilience. Most people buying condos are looking at a much shorter term residency than people buying homes as a way to get into the market. Buying new and getting the 2/5/10 warranty takes a massive risk out of first time inexperienced homebuyers. Its especially perfect if its for someone who is looking for something to fill the interim space of the early parts of their family building i.e. engagement > marriage > career building > first child. Also as you mentioned the condo fees for the upkeep of old buildings are just fucking ridiculous. Why buy a 300k old condo with $430 condo fees when for the same monthly payment I could get a 350k new condo with $190 condo fees. The value obviously would obviously be to spend it on the purchase price of something "turnkey" over a bunch of pinhole filled copper pipes and exterior cracks that need to be filled.
Also, newer build often have efficient use of space compared to some older oddball suites. I do strongly prefer the character of an older building/design however.

From personal experience, the 2/5/10 year home warranty is a total joke.
Anyone who buys new(er) homes thinking this warranty is a great security blanket will be in for a rude awakening when something does go wrong during that time frame.

As for lower maintenance fees in newer buildings, keep in mind, the initial monthly maintenance fees were decided upon by the builders. This is when the building is brand spanking new and there are no strata members.
After a few years, the strata will have a better understanding of the cost to run their building and to put $$$ into the contingency fund, monthly maintenance cost will increase.

Kind of goes along with my point of being appealing to first time home buyers because the first 3 years or so of what is likely a maximum 5 year plan to stay somewhere of much cheaper prices for condo fees is still a massive benefit. Not to mention the condo fees aren't going to double in that time frame. I've heard of horror stories with the 2/5/10 warranties, and heard of people benefitting from it. It really depends on the quality and reputation of the builder.

Lower maintenance fees for newer condos? That's not too accurate..

The maintenance fee is a result of all the common expenses.. It goes up and down depending on the quality of the building and the kinds of services it offers.

Most newer developments start at 40 cents a square foot.
In my experience, most older buildings have lower fees

Older buildings may have lower fees because they tend to be on a smaller lots and have fewer amenities. But, I would bet that fees never go down because the cost of labour and materials to maintain a building never goes down. The only way I could see fees going down would be the dismantling of some amenity, like a pool or water feature, or converting green space to concrete.

A lot of new buildings make amenities a selling point, but in my experience, most amenities are more hassle than their worth and of course cost more to maintain as they age.

Goes down a bit because your contingency fund gets built up over time.

I also share the same views regarding amenities..

A lot of people like new apartments is because of their locations. If you look at it a lot of new development is right next to a mall/skytrain/DT. Older apartments tend to be farther away.

I know a number of friends (myself included) just prefer a place next to a skytrain/mall. They actually get rib of their cars and just got take tranlist to/from work. Since a mall is right beside their apartments they don't need to drive to go grocery shopping. Want to go to stanley park? 20mins skytrain ride. For the times they need a car they can use service like car2go etc etc..... Also the price of apartments have a lot to do with the location. If it is a in a central location price tends to stay the same or up over time and is easiler to sell