Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by ImportPsycho

Not sure which development but someone said Alexander Square.
Sigh, can't imagine what's going through those who bought in presale, waiting for their new home...
What happens now, delayed until dev rebuild? Or whole thing gets scrapped?

If the presale contract was anything like ours, the developer will have the option to do whatever they want. Extend the timelines beyond what was promised to rebuild, or simply cancel and refund the deposits.

[stewie]

Bummer. I take my dog to the dog park that is just up the street followed by a short stroll around the block and I've seen that building go up for quite some time and all the progress that had been made. Now it's just a pile of dust.

[TOS'd]

Originally Posted by Eff-1

If the presale contract was anything like ours, the developer will have the option to do whatever they want. Extend the timelines beyond what was promised to rebuild, or simply cancel and refund the deposits.

I'm dealing with a client, developer, right now who changed the building design which also altered all the floor plans and unit plans. This was after a majority of the units were sold. Now they are requesting brand new updated marketing sets so they can start selling all the units again. Kind of sucks for the future owners, seems like a big hassle and in a hot market the units may have all gotten more expensive.

[JDMDreams]

^^ how does that work? So all the ppl that bought just got refunds? I'm interested in the new master plan thing they are building in BBY, South gate? But not how what's going on with this presale stuff and all the insurance bs going on now. We can't be the only city in the world that has condos, they must flood everywhere.

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by TOS'd

I'm dealing with a client, developer, right now who changed the building design which also altered all the floor plans and unit plans. This was after a majority of the units were sold. Now they are requesting brand new updated marketing sets so they can start selling all the units again. Kind of sucks for the future owners, seems like a big hassle and in a hot market the units may have all gotten more expensive.

Yeah that was one part of the contract I hated. The developer has so much leeway to change designs and floorplans after you sign. There are thresholds where if the changes exceed them, then the buyer can cancel, but those thresholds were quite high.

Like one of my neighbours ended up with something like 8% less square feet than what she paid for. Say you're paying $1k per sq ft, that hurts.

[JDMDreams]

I saw on FB advertise that weird concrete Tesla power wall built by father in law house sold. Wonder how much it went for

[CRS]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

I saw on FB advertise that weird concrete Tesla power wall built by father in law house sold. Wonder how much it went for

Listed for $2,999,000 and sold for $2,910,000

[donk.]

Originally Posted by Eff-1

Yeah that was one part of the contract I hated. The developer has so much leeway to change designs and floorplans after you sign. There are thresholds where if the changes exceed them, then the buyer can cancel, but those thresholds were quite high.

Like one of my neighbours ended up with something like 8% less square feet than what she paid for. Say you're paying $1k per sq ft, that hurts.

Also units are often measured to outside walls, meaning insulation, stud, drywall chew off 1/2ft X perimeter footage as an example

800sqft condo, 20x40ft rectangle lets say, thats 120 linear ft x 1/2ft = 60sqft loss
= actual condo size is 740sqft.

Add in room dividers, extra walls, etc, and that can easily be 700sqft.

Those of you buying units, if you actually measure each room, you will find its often less than listed sqft. This applies to 50 year old buildings too.

first world problems.....

[Hondaracer]

When I did home owner turn overs for town homes I had some buyers (this isn’t racist but 100% of the people who did this were Chinese) take out a tape measure and start measuring the inside sq footage of rooms to make sure they were getting what was on the layout plan.

I’d have to explain that baseboards, built ins, etc. Limit the overall footprint snd I even had to tell one group if you want to get this deep you’re gonna have to get a lawyer because I’m not arguing over inches from plumbing drops etc.

[carsncars]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

When I did home owner turn overs for town homes I had some buyers (this isn’t racist but 100% of the people who did this were Chinese) take out a tape measure and start measuring the inside sq footage of rooms to make sure they were getting what was on the layout plan.

I’d have to explain that baseboards, built ins, etc. Limit the overall footprint snd I even had to tell one group if you want to get this deep you’re gonna have to get a lawyer because I’m not arguing over inches from plumbing drops etc.

Yeah realistically what's built is going to vary from plan a bit. With previous presales, I'm sure there's been ~10% variance in actual sq. ft., but if the functional layout is the same I'm pretty happy.

My friend bought a presale where they originally had a 4x6 "den" on the plan, but what was built was more like 2x10 due to how an electrical/networking closet had to be included adjacent his unit. That would annoy me - while they're close-ish in sq. ft. 4x6 is a lot more functional than 2x10. (My friend ended up getting a free parking spot from the developer as compensation. Didn't have to sue, but did have a lawyer draft a couple strongly worded letters.)

[Hondaracer]

Lol if my den went from 4x6 to 2x10 I wouldn’t complete on it

[Qmx323]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

We are selling our home right now. Some of these buyers ask the dumbest fucking questions. I just need to rant.

How do some of these dumbasses come up with the money to buy a place in this market?

Don't underestimate stupidity I guess.

Hi

What does the ".5" mean in the 1.5 bath part?

Which half do you get? and what are the halves?

Thanks

[carsncars]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Lol if my den went from 4x6 to 2x10 I wouldn’t complete on it

Hah they thought about it but they bought presale in 2013 and it completed in 2016... it had already appreciated significantly, I think they would've accepted it even with the 2x10 den and no free extra parking.

[Hondaracer]

Was walking around yesterday and thought I’d take some pics of those examples we were talking about yesterday regarding taking advantage of the boulevard section of properties

Obviously some jurisdictions seems to be far more strict but you can see here in EV, there are almost no restrictions to taking your property right up to the sidewalk:

The property line marker is circled here:



Some more examples:





And this is that house for sale I posted a few pages back where you can see the hedges only have a slight set back and the laneway even has it’s own entrance from the sidewalk:





I’m curious if they had to have this design approved in order to have that section of walk to the laneway from the sidewalk because the address of this house is not on the street where the walkway comes out on, so it’s not really like you could say it’s a primary entrance etc. The main home address is on Cambridge but this walk comes out onto Kamloops

Imo in EV at least, I think CoV would rather have home owners take care of their section of boulevard rather than them have to touch it

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Was walking around yesterday and thought I’d take some pics of those examples we were talking about yesterday regarding taking advantage of the boulevard section of properties

Obviously some jurisdictions seems to be far more strict but you can see here in EV, there are almost no restrictions to taking your property right up to the sidewalk

...

I’m curious if they had to have this design approved in order to have that section of walk to the laneway from the sidewalk because the address of this house is not on the street where the walkway comes out on, so it’s not really like you could say it’s a primary entrance etc. The main home address is on Cambridge but this walk comes out onto Kamloops

Imo in EV at least, I think CoV would rather have home owners take care of their section of boulevard rather than them have to touch it

At the same time Vancouver is so ridiculously restrictive (Burnaby too) about how you build on your own property - what trees you must retain, permeable surface, the exact location of the house on the lot.

The setback rule (~20% of the lot has to be the front yard) combined with the laneway house setup reduces backyards to nubs of land for a standard lot. The lost privacy and lost livability of such homes is so frustrating. Making it 10% doesn't harm the feel of a neighbourhood - if anything, for some areas, it makes it nicer.

[bcedhk]

Landscape encroachments are the type of bylaws where the City will only react to after multiple public complaints. Plus, they usually give a letter asking the owner nicely to trim the hedge/landscaping to meet the baseline standard.

Most of the time, the City will point to the fact that these greening features improves the streetscape but will also be the liability of the owner should anything happen (e.g. person sues the owner because he tripped from a vine sticking out).

[Hondaracer]

^ so a colleague at work had to build a retaining wall in order to add a driveway to his property (this is in north Van though)

The city required him to get an insurance company to insure the stupid retaining wall because it was required in order to build the driveway slab..

Beaucracy like that is understandable I guess but it’s also why it’s so incredibly difficult to build anything

[Bonka]

I was looking into boulevard gardens myself since we have a small strip on our block that foot traffic and sometimes vehicular traffic throw their litter on - figured fixing it up would deter these trash hags from throwing their crap on the street. CoV definitely encourages boulevard vegetation, they even have a section on their website outlining prep work, including food.

[bcedhk]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

^ so a colleague at work had to build a retaining wall in order to add a driveway to his property (this is in north Van though)

The city required him to get an insurance company to insure the stupid retaining wall because it was required in order to build the driveway slab..

Beaucracy like that is understandable I guess but it’s also why it’s so incredibly difficult to build anything

I think there are pros and cons. These rules ensure the public sidewalks and roads are not a hot mess. On the flip side, it leads to long delays and extra cost for owners. Also, a very boring streetscape.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by sonick

Reminds me of when the wood development in Richmond on Cambie and #4 went up about 10 years ago. I think they found the cause to be a heater that was left on.

Or the one on Victoria and 5th ave.
I remember the news saying the fire was hot enough to melt some of the plastics on the fire engines.

I wanna say that one was more than 10 years ago too.

[68style]

Originally Posted by Bonka

I was looking into boulevard gardens myself since we have a small strip on our block that foot traffic and sometimes vehicular traffic throw their litter on - figured fixing it up would deter these trash hags from throwing their crap on the street. CoV definitely encourages boulevard vegetation, they even have a section on their website outlining prep work, including food.

I’m curious about this, cuz I was over around 62nd and Heather the other day (West of Cambie) and saw one house on the block who had not only built on the Boulevard between their house and the sidewalk, but on the other side of the sidewalk on the grass between the road and sidewalk they put in white planters filled with dirt and plants too.

I thought that was pretty sketch, bit of an eyesore too... if I was a neighbour there I’d be kind of pissed.

[carsncars]

My coworker had a presale contract for Alexander Square.

He said the developer and builder have already notified them that they have full commercial construction insurance and expect to restart construction as soon as possible.

[bcedhk]

Originally Posted by 68style

I’m curious about this, cuz I was over around 62nd and Heather the other day (West of Cambie) and saw one house on the block who had not only built on the Boulevard between their house and the sidewalk, but on the other side of the sidewalk on the grass between the road and sidewalk they put in white planters filled with dirt and plants too.

I thought that was pretty sketch, bit of an eyesore too... if I was a neighbour there I’d be kind of pissed.

Planters that are low lying are usually allowed on City RoW in front of the property. Again, the owner will be liable for anything if someone sues the City for the planter as a tripping hazard or dings their car door when they park next to it

[Hondaracer]

2501 Cambridge, the EV house I posted last week for 2.9 has sold in under 10 days:



Veryyyy interested if it went over ask. If so that’s insane

[Doubl3_H]

Wouldn't surprise me if it did go over. People are paying $2.1mil for a van special on a 33*108 lot.....
Another house nearby listed for $1.6mil, but the buyers are hoping to get $2.2mil.