Friday, November 16, 2018

Are Condos Cool Again?

How about that condo life? Are they back in vogue or is the rental side taking over the scene? Well I did some digging into the data and Condos might just be cool again. We are selling about 40 units a month in Vancouver and that is about 10% of the local sales. The median price for Condos is trailing the overall median by about a hundred grand. But with most condos having association dues, that mean buyers are paying about the same monthly payment for the median condo as they are for the median home.

Here in America's Vancouver the luxury condos have started to come back. In each of the last 6 months at least one condo unit over $600,000 has closed and several seven figure units have gone as well. The most expensive unit was a darling at $3.1 million. That one was sold in September in the Tidewater Cove development. In fact two $3 million plus units at Tidewater have closed in that six month window. A few seven figure units have sold downtown as well including a 3000 footer on the 11th floor of Vancouver Center 3.

With the waterfront apartment buildings coming online right now and more on the way, and the under construction units in the new Kirkland Tower on the waterfront, a little action in the market bodes well. A fair bit of condo activity is happening in that critical $500k - $1M area that will help pave the way for more units on the new waterfront.

Overall I'd say condos are in fact cool again. Millennial buyers are definitely showing a high level of interest in both luxury apartments and condo units. It seems our young people are staying in the city more so than their predecessors in Gen X or Baby Boomers.


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