Downtown Vancouver Updates

[jlousa]

It's already under a tower, it belongs to the same parcel as 1166 Alberni, it's probably close to the allowed height and fsr, any gain wouldn't come close to being economically viable to demolish and rebuild.

[officedweller]

It was the plaza of the adjacent building, so I doubt that that there was a lot of available density on the site.

[SpongeG]

i took some pics of the area too today - lol - I was surprised how fast its been done looks good

the one restaurant has taken advantage of the new space - the other spaces haven't done so if you look int you can see the old store fronts way behind the new looks gret compared to before - will they move up or sort of have a hallway in between? thats how its operating now... the new lobby looks like it will be nice

[SpongeG]

some other random pics from today

[Delirium]

^ it's so weird seeing that corner as a parking lot now. thanks for the pics.

[osirisboy]

I never thought id say this but that parking lot is way better than those two buildings that were there before, they were friggin gross. I hope the city doesnt try and make that a park, I think that location is better suited for a building with restaurant/retail on the bottom.

[Hed Kandi]

..

[Yume-sama]

It's interesting to see the MLS activity from before the Olympics until now. Is anyone here a realtor? Perhaps you could shed some light on this. The few buildings I looked at, anything from just below $1 million ($700k) - over $1 million (but below $2 million) seems to have sold during the Olympics. Particularly in buildings that are under construction. It would be fascinating to find out how many actually did sell during the month of February.

Some of these units have been for sale for well over a year, too. Like several Penthouse units in my building that have been available from pre-construction.

Of course, 3HG sold a reported $46 million (that's probably like 4 units, though ) and Jameson House sold quite a bit, I'm told.

[djh]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

It's interesting to see the MLS activity from before the Olympics until now. Is anyone here a realtor? Perhaps you could shed some light on this. The few buildings I looked at, anything from just below $1 million ($700k) - over $1 million (but below $2 million) seems to have sold during the Olympics. Particularly in buildings that are under construction. It would be fascinating to find out how many actually did sell during the month of February.

Some of these units have been for sale for well over a year, too. Like several Penthouse units in my building that have been available from pre-construction.

Of course, 3HG sold a reported $46 million (that's probably like 4 units, though ) and Jameson House sold quite a bit, I'm told.

Yeah, funny you should notice that because my wife and I noticed the same thing. We remember how insanely busy the Concord showroom was. I said to her "Who in their right mind comes to Vancouver to watch sports and ends up buying a house?" and she said "Well, the kind of people who can spend 3 weeks jetting around the World just to watch sports. They saw the city on one of those blue-sky days with the mountains glowing and said 'Hey honey, if this is how gorgeous this place is in the Winter, we should come back here in the Summer! Hey, why don't we just buy a small pad here?'". Which totally makes sense.
Nice life if you can get it.

[Yume-sama]

And with the flattering imagery that NBC showed all through-out the Olympics, maybe there is a lot more of that to come

I could see an uptick of people from California coming here.

And, depending where you live in the World, Vancouver can actually be considered not all that expensive.

I also think people vastly underestimate the amount of decamillionaire's and hectomillionaire's there are in Canada and North America, let alone the World.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by djh

Yeah, funny you should notice that because my wife and I noticed the same thing. We remember how insanely busy the Concord showroom was. I said to her "Who in their right mind comes to Vancouver to watch sports and ends up buying a house?" and she said "Well, the kind of people who can spend 3 weeks jetting around the World just to watch sports. They saw the city on one of those blue-sky days with the mountains glowing and said 'Hey honey, if this is how gorgeous this place is in the Winter, we should come back here in the Summer! Hey, why don't we just buy a small pad here?'". Which totally makes sense.
Nice life if you can get it.

These sales are not a "good thing" for any regular joe who lives in Metro Vancouver. They push up real estate prices for everyone, and someone who spends a few weekends a year here contributes little to the vitality of the city.

[Yume-sama]

They're not buying the cheaper properties I notice many of the same ones are still for sale, for a long time

Unless you were just a few pennies shy of buying that $25 million penthouse at 3HG, you have not much to worry about.

At least no more than usual. And they do pay those property taxes the city so enjoys spending.

And if I were Mr. Moonbeam the case could be made that part time residents are GREEN residents because they don't use any services!

[djh]

Originally Posted by whatnext

These sales are not a "good thing" for any regular joe who lives in Metro Vancouver. They push up real estate prices for everyone, and someone who spends a few weekends a year here contributes little to the vitality of the city.

Well, if you always want to see the glass as half-empty, then of course they are not a good thing...

[NetMapel]

Well, as an average joe, I wouldn't be buying any of those luxury penthouses anyways. I guess it wouldn't affect me whether they're sold to foreign millionaires or Canadian millionaires

[Zassk]

Originally Posted by whatnext

These sales are not a "good thing" for any regular joe who lives in Metro Vancouver. They push up real estate prices for everyone, and someone who spends a few weekends a year here contributes little to the vitality of the city.

They are increasing the net worth of every regular joe who owns a little piece of real estate anywhere in the region.

[Denscity]

I heard something like 32 million worth of real estate sold during the olympics. WHich might only be 3 penthouses but probably not.

[Yume-sama]

Definitely seems like a very low number, considering one building by itself said $46 million. In Vancouver $32 million isn't actually all that many sales...

Maybe 50 ?

$320 million actually seems more reasonable. Though I would assume that would be about "normal" for a month.

[jlousa]

That number was for only one developer Aspac, other developers have been busy as well, at least one of them has sold ~80% of a project that has not even begun marketing yet.

[Yume-sama]

Ritz Carlton II? Such demand they had to double the height... right?

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by djh

Yeah, funny you should notice that because my wife and I noticed the same thing. We remember how insanely busy the Concord showroom was. I said to her "Who in their right mind comes to Vancouver to watch sports and ends up buying a house?" and she said "Well, the kind of people who can spend 3 weeks jetting around the World just to watch sports. They saw the city on one of those blue-sky days with the mountains glowing and said 'Hey honey, if this is how gorgeous this place is in the Winter, we should come back here in the Summer! Hey, why don't we just buy a small pad here?'". Which totally makes sense.
Nice life if you can get it.

a lot of gay people have that lifestyle and they like Vancouver and buy here - I know some people who pop up from the states once in a while to a condo here - same as a lot of gay people here have pads down in palm springs or mexico - having two good incomes and no kids leaves you with more to snap up real estate