I think it could also be the fact that Brentwood is the newest place that will be booming, so people that are in the market would prefer to park their money on a property that'll likely appreciate.

Solo is not really worth IMO If I want to invest I would wait for Concord Metro. Much better location. I been a few unit in Solo with a friend and honestly the strata fee is going to kill the owners there. Great amenities(Their gym is like the size of an actual gym for one thing) Large patios but honestly how often do people actually use it. Also the so cal shows they have isn't get great. They have a few pizza place, Starbucks and Wholes food. Nothing I find attractive.

Metro locations though already have worse traffic than Brentwood. Those new towers behind the sky train are already a shit show and there are 3 more under construction

All these down and out news stories are fine but my two closest realtor friends who work for more prestigious firms than most are posting over listing sales day after day, in seemingly all neighborhoods as well.

News stories are great, getting into a place you want may be another story imo.

In 10/15/20 years where do you see home values?

If you think higher than they currently are and you can hold long term as a “home” you’re laughing.

Parents' house is under contract. Record price/sqft for the area. Will be interesting to see how things play out because there are a couple houses on the block now where the owners refuse to sell and/or are asking ridiculous prices. With declining SFH values, it seems that my parents will get much better bang for buck for their search next year once money is in hand.

Do you think they are really 90%+ sold out?

When a family member bought pre-sale a number of years ago, we originally wanted the top floor. Went to the sales office on Sunday when their first public opening was Saturday. Was told that their top floor units were all sold out. OK, that's fine. So we settled for a unit one floor lower. A month or so later, developer came calling to say that they had to revise the floor plan of my unit (don't remember what the reason was), and we were offered a number of options, including to upgrade to 1 of 2 available units in the top floor. Hello I thought they were all sold out?!

When construction was finished and we took possession, it turned out the developer still had at least 2 top floor units for sale.

I certainly dunno what happened. But I wouldn't trust the developer's word 100% that most of the units have been sold out. It is far more likely that they want to control supply to and create a sales environment where potential buyers think they need to act fast or lose whatever available "opportunity" that is there.

There is life outside of this?? j/k, kinda. But with young family on the horizon of starting school, I could honestly care less about theatre, the sea wall, and street festivals (which don't occur only in Vancouver proper btw). Yeah, Vancouver has some admittedly good food options. But the best meals we have are the meals where the kids enjoy their own food and leave us alone to enjoy our meals at Red Robin's.

Perhaps a home in the burbs and a slower pace of life would benefit :cool:

I've been championing Vancouver's evolution into a world class city over the past years of this thread. But I also realize that with this comes ever increasing prices for all of the amenities a world class city gets to enjoy. I have no need to justify my move out of Vancouver proper, we have everything we need here in the Tricities, and if we really want a nice dinner out without the kids once or twice a year we can venture into the city with a reasonable drive.

Obviously this will vary by area/property, but wondering if there is a general guideline for what developers will offer (over assessment I'm assuming) and what the general or acceptable timeline is for completion of sale. My parents house may be in a similar situation however very very early stages of the process. With detached house prices softening in Vancouver and the bidding war days long gone, selling out to an assembly may present as the best option to cash out.

which developer?

Brentwood area isn't any better at this point in terms of traffic. With Solo and Amazing bretwood, Concord Brentwood going up in the next 10 to 15 years it could be worse.

For apartments is mostly about the location. What I am wondering right now is what happens to older apartments. I mean there haven't been this many apartments. Most of them is built starting 2010. There are a few that was built around late 1990s or early (low raise). So say when the apartment hits 30, 40 or 50 years will it get torn down coz the cost of maintenance isn't worth it. Or will we create even a bigger slums than before? Look at all those low raise around the city (usually only 3 to 5 storey high).

Will the new apartments we were building turn into slums then? That's going to be even a a bigger issue for the city down the road.

The name starts with an "A", but I'd rather not go further than that since I don't have the same deep pockets as they do in case they feel like suing. Over the course of assisting my family to deal with the said developer, I've had a brief taste of how their legal team works, and I'd rather not have to go through any of that again.

Anthem? :suspicious:

Maybe this developer starts with Amaco_ since there is a history tied to shady italian mobsters

http://gangstersoutt.blogspot.ca/201...lo-and-de.html

It's not surprising that developers hold specific units. Lots of them say sold out but then wait till market goes up a bit and then release them out again.

Could it be possible that on the day you bought your unit, the top floor units were already assigned to someone else. But those buyers have 7 days to rescind, so maybe they did so within 7 days, thus the units became available again, and simply never resold?

It's certainly possible. As I was saying in my previous post, I dunno the whole story.

To me, it seems more likely that the units were simply withheld from the public to create a more urgent sales environment. I've seen the sale tactic being used in other sales environment in the past, with the most poorly done one being many, many years ago at Carter Motorsports when a sales dude blantantly lied about the availability of a brand new scooter I was looking at.

In a pre-sale environment, I'm not sure I agree with you there. The goal is to sell all units as quickly as possible so the development can secure its financing to start construction. Why lie to someone who wants to buy one of the most expensive units (assuming), when it could otherwise be sold?

One possible scenario is they were purposely holding it back for a VIP client who expressed interest but hadn't signed yet. In that case, I could see that would be frustrating if I were you.

But I don't think any salesperson on the planet holds back immediate sales from interested buyers with cash-in-hand, in the hopes of creating more demand from more fictional interested buyers who haven't yet surfaced. You only do that if you have another buyer already in mind who you would rather sell it to for relationship-building purposes.

Your logic makes sense, but I assure you thats not the case. Anthem has already built their entire building at marine and fell without selling a single unit. If they don't need to secure financing, like a smaller builder would, and they have multiple buildings on the go in the same area they will certainly hold back units to control supply. When people have 20 choices in a few blocks compared to 100, the panic sets in and they make an emotional, and often overextended purchase.
They aren't worried about risking moving down the line to add some profit. Its a fucking long one.

Is the same with big developers. They build one complex at a time when fully knowing they are going to build 10+ buildings in the area. To drive up demand. Also if the first one sells well, you can bet the second, third price will go up. If the first don't sell well they can always delay in building till price goes up.

Many developers like to hold onto units within a building, more specifically somewhere like amazing brentwood, or big developments like this, they hold onto units in each building (some of the best units) to sell off once the entire development is complete (once the major injection of supply has died off and the values start to pickup).

I was talking more about the mentality of a single sales rep dealing with a single buyer, not so much the entire market strategy of an entire developer.

I see Anthem more as a situation where they are betting the market keeps growing, and so they would rather sell post-completion and bet on higher prices, but you're right the result is technically the same in that they are withholding supply that much longer. But if Anthem didn't think the market was going to keep rising, I guarantee you they'd be pre-selling just like everyone else. They have 3 other buildings on the North Shore with the same strategy, and most won't be ready for another 2 or 3 years. With Marine and Fell, they definitely won that bet.

TD and BMO are having a promotion. 2.45% variable closed 5 yr term. Locked anytime (minimum 3 yrs or remainder of term whichever is lesser) There will always be a 1% minus prime discretion. Has anyone else looked into this? Thoughts?

Yes! I just saved $6500 in the nick of time on my 5 year term.

I signed 2.9% variable with TD and the last step was to close with the lawyer.

I called all the parties and got it lowered to the promotional rate. Thank you god.

-every- developer does this.

A small developer we used to build for would hold back 2-5 units in a 25 unit townhouse complex. They would also have a early VIP event a few weeks early basically where anyone who registered online would be invited. If sales went good on that day prices would be jacked up the following week for the full blown sales event.

Are there any negatives to this promotion or something you found you didn't like but could live with?

I have a mortgage renewal coming up soon as well.
TD/BMO/Scotiabank are all at 2.45% variable now until end of May.
HSBC is now at 2.39%.

wonder why we keep enabling this type of greed
are there a substantial shortage of condos and th?
I suppose the vip are mostly investment activities