Lol 800/month?!? Wtf..

I pay $646/month for mine. That northern heating bill...

$800/month? :ahwow:

do they send hookers 'n blow up to your penthouse once a month?

Your guys buildings must have switched to that style of strata they use in Toronto... such bullshit... if anything is going to kill the condo market it's going to be that. My strata has been voting no against it for years now and keeping the old system.

Yes but you also own the land as compared to nothing in strata.

This whole market is so beyond reasoning that I want to laugh.

People aren't ok with 1-2M dollar 2000sqft house and yet 600k 580sqft shoebox seems reasonable?

IMO, unless you are buying your own place to live, be very careful when it comes to leverage... even more so if you are buying presell.

single homes have been in decline/stagnant for a few months already, it would only take so long before we reach a point where it affects condo purchases (as in it makes more financial sense to spend a bit more to buy house rather than condo)

This, combining with an upward view on interest rate, you might be in for a surprise when closing on the presell.

^
You're talking like it's just a choice or an A/B selection box at the bank... dude... it's a massive difference in income levels required whether the bank approves you for $600k or $1.2 million... how can you act like it's discretionary?

You do own an interest in the common property when you buy a strata unit, so it's not quite correct to say that you do not own land. This is particularly important when it comes time to wind up the strata corporation if the land on which the complex sits is worth more than the cost to repair the buildings and other capital assets of the strata corporation.

Ontario is different in that condo boards are legally required to fully fund the depreciation costs on the capital assets. In BC, the Strata Property Act only requires strata corporations to undertake a depreciation report which provides an estimate of maintenance costs. Many strata councils encourage owners to vote in favour of deferring a depreciation report because they are cheap and/or they do not wish to have their complex's flaws out on the record lest it affect the value of the property.

Ideally, you want a strata council to have a depreciation report and to follow a maintenance plan that ensures that strata costs remain predictable and that any major expenses are fully funded in the long term. It may be better to buy a unit in an established complex because operating costs typically stabilize after several years and you actually get owners who care about the property and are willing to spend money on necessary maintenance and repairs.

I heard Toronto strata is really expensive just wondering why? What's the difference?

More snowplowing and rules in regards to strata reserves and depreciation

The really simple explanation is that they pre-load all future maintenance... there are no special assessments... so from day 1 they are building a giant contingency for anything in the future.

Positive side? You likely never get a special assessment and there's always money for repairs. You could potentially, with good timing, move into a building that gets a giant repair and you didn't pay for it (everyone else did).

Negative side? If you live there temporarily (like... even 5 years is temporary) you pay a shit-tonne into something you'll never realize any value from and are basically paying for everyone else's repairs.

Personally I prefer our method. I'd rather pay a special assessment at some point than to be constantly tipping buckets full of money into a never-ending abyss named "maybe"

If it weren't for strata, I likely wouldn't have sacrificed moving further east and getting into a detached. That was the single, most prominent, factor.
I can deal with a lack of physical land, and tight quarters. But not, what seems to equate to me, as socialized housing.

And on this note, I have just spoken with a mortgage broker. She was telling me that with the current state of things, 1st tier banks are roughly willing to lend ~4x your annual salary on mortgage applications, assuming a minimal amount of other other supporting assets and details.

With tiny 700 sq ft boxes up in the air costing $600k in Vancouver, and crappy bungalow asking for $1.5M+, how does anyone on a regular income afford to buy? FailFish

I'm pre-approved for roughly 5X my household yearly salary. If you're buying detached in Vancouver(or surrounding), it means you either already own property or have money from parents/relatives/etc.

They're not all like that though, my building is 8 years old now and was marketed as a luxury building when new... pool, hot tub, sauna, full sized gym and party room... I'm paying $250 a month and that includes gas. I can't complain. It was ~$215 when I got there 7 years ago so it hasn't gone up much and everything is clean/well-managed. I live next to the Strata President too so I hear most of the (if there is any) dirt/real-talk on the building too.

New condos with no amenities though are a joke STARTING at $400 a month. I couldn't justify that.......... but I also wouldn't know what to do if I was suddenly put into a position where I was saying "I can't justify this!" hahaha

Regular people aren't buying homes in the City of Vancouver. They are buying homes in the Fraser Valley, outside of the Lower Mainland, or are renting. If you want to stay in the City of Vancouver, you gotta make a high income these days.

By owning I mean you can have a say about what to do with it.

When a house is old and it makes sense to actually tear it down to build a new one, a house owner can do it to his heart's content.

When a condo is old and it makes sense to actually tear it down, you would have to basically convince every single owner in the strata to agree to do something with it, otherwise it's just continuos repair and more repairs.

In a strata unit, you own the right to live in it and that's about it.

Exactly. The freedom is what I saw as being the biggest sacrifice. Not just the fees.

Shackled to your bank or shackled to your strata. Take your pick.

$6000/year strata x 25 years = 150k..

Just puked a little in my mouth

I woudln't be so critical of the strata fees though -- after all, a good hunk of them end up going back into building maintenance and regular daily usage stuff.

If you were to do the math, the equivalent example would need to look at how much maintenance costs on a detached house would cost over 25 yrs as well, and I bet that number won't be pretty either.

Not really. You're still shackled to the bank either way.

That’s a pretty far cry from the $500k that you can just come up with otherwise to buy a house. Not to mention the bills, and tax increase that comes with it.
Pick your poison.

Lol I saw some leaky condos posted with like $1100 strata for like $350k 2 br. I wonder how hard it is to sell 1 - 2 br condos with strata >$800.

Depends some of the newly build(brand new) luxury condos most likely have strata feels of >$800 for a 1bedroom. But those condos really does have a lot of services in it to make it worth it.

idk about you guys, but I'm pretty satisfied with my 240$ monthly fee for 750sqft in 20 year old building....