The B.C. condo market has slowed significantly in the last eight months, enough that developer Rocky Sethi acknowledges that it was a “brave” move launching the first phase of the city of Penticton’s first master-planned community.
“But we’ve got 127 condos to sell, and that’s actually not a lot of condos. We’re not putting down 300 condos. There are only 127, and then that’s it for now. So, we’ll start, and then people will see what we’re doing here.” “This situation is even worse in the land development market. There has never been a time that I have been selling real estate in the last 22 years that I have seen so many court-ordered sales.
The sales launch of the ultra-high-end Curv, a 60-storey downtown tower promising to be the world’s tallest passive house tower once built, has not been immune to the down cycle. Last summer, marketer Jacky Chan, chief executive officer at BakerWest Real Estate, said he had presold a Curv unit at a record $4,400 per square foot – which raised eyebrows among the real estate community, because there were already signs the market was slowing.
“Nobody is really throwing anybody a bone, right? Everyone is suffering. Nobody has a lot of cash lying around doing nothing. They are all servicing their increased cost because of the increased interest .”“It’s a huge opportunity for developers to snatch up some of these shovel-ready or DP ready projects,” he says.