Bob Rennie’s recent speech at UDI was full of facts and figures. He remains positive on Vancouver’s future and its real estate market. Bob has long been Vancouver’s #1 Condo Project Marketer and his predictions have been right on. Here is an overview of his speech.
Consider the recent sales of Downtown Penthouses “celebrity product”. Shangri-la Penthouse just sold for $16 million, so did the Fairmont. Residences on Georgia sold their Penthouse in the spring for $18 million. Ritz Carlton is asking $29 million for the Penthouse. The Ritz Carlton broke $2300 prsqft average!
Downtown’s population was about 40,000 in Expo’86. Today it is around 85,000 and projected to be 120,000 by 2020.
The B.C. Government is spending $5 billion branding Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics which will guarantee tourism to the city for a long time.
The supply of new condos in Downtown is shrinking…no more sites. The City will continue to move East.
Safe to say Vancouver is Canada’s resort city? World address? World class city? We have limited land combined with immigration of money and people from China. 2007′s population of Vancouver 2,249,000. Expected growth is 450,000 for next 10 years. For population density it is the 4th highest in North America, after New York, San Fran and Mexico City. By 2021 it will be 2nd after New York.
City Hall has now preserved office sites for the next 10-20 years.
Between 2001 and 2006 Vancouver had 151,700 foreign born newcomers. Metropolitan Vancouver grew by 12.6% , which is 12 times the national average of foreign born newcomers.
Vancouver’s Downtown has limited supply and a resort appeal and this is therefore not totally reliant on local incomes for the prices the condos achieve.
He reviews the condo numbers for various neighbourhoods and suburbs, together with what’s happening in Vancouver East and False Creek South East.
As the cost of entry becomes onerous for the Developers, supply will shorten, less choice for the consumer. Densification is the answer.
Watch Vancouver light up after the Beijing Olympics as the spotlight will be on us! Like it or not!
An excellent speech…lots of good info here. Read the article and tell us what you think.
Do you agree with Bob? Do you agree with densification? Will Vancouver just get more expensive? No more cheap real estate for the first time buyer….the 20 something year olds will continue to live at home til they are 30? Have we really become an Executive City?
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