Virtuoso marks Adera?s 10th project in amenity-rich UBC neighbourhood

Simon Briault
The Vancouver Sun

Virtuoso

Project location: 3581 Ross Drive

Project size: 106 homes, 1 — 3  bedrooms

Residence size: 775 — 1,812 square feet

Price: from the mid $500,000 range

Developer: Adera Development Corporation

Architect: Rositch Hemphill Architects

Interior designer: Lisa Hansen of Area 3 Designs

Sales centre: 118 – 6033 Gray Avenue, Vancouver

Hours: noon —  5 p.m., daily

Telephone: 604-221-8878

Website: www.http://adera.com/properties/virtuoso/

Occupancy: from the end of 2017

With Pacific Spirit Regional Park on the doorstep, the ocean within easy reach and a peaceful community setting nestled in the grounds of a world-class university, it’s no surprise that the biggest draw for homebuyers at UBC is location.

Sure enough, Eric Andreasen, vice-president of marketing and sales at Adera Development Corporation, says it’s the No. 1 reason sales of the company’s new Virtuoso development have been so strong.

“It’s in one of those preferred west side spots that everybody’s looking for,” he said. “People buy here to live in a great place or so they can get a home for their children when they attend school. But it’s also a great investment opportunity. A combination of those things make it really hot property.”

Virtuoso represents the first time Adera has used floor plates made from cross-laminated timber, or CLT. An increasingly popular construction material for multi-family housing, CLT is a large-scale, prefabricated, engineered wood panel that is lightweight but exceptionally strong.

“The CLT we’re using for Virtuoso make it a really ground-breaking development for us,” said Andreasen. “People often think of concrete buildings as being luxurious because they’re so solid. This is substituting a slab of concrete for a slab of mass timber on each of the building’s six floors. It’s just as heavy duty as concrete, but the wood functions better than concrete in pretty much every way.

“It self-insulates, it’s cheaper and it’s more sustainable. We already have a quiet home concept with our projects that are made out of concrete. This will make things even more quiet, especially when it comes to impact noise. Where we can leave it exposed, we’ll be able to provide a really warm look and feel in the building.”

Virtuoso, which will be ready for residents to move in from the end of 2017, will have 106 one-, two- and three-bedroom homes of between 775 and 1,812 square feet, all with outdoor space. Ground-floor residences have large patios and separate entrances, the penthouses feature private rooftop patios and there are balconies on every floor. It’s also the first project that Adera has built at UBC with central air conditioning. Prices start in the mid $500,000 range.

“Virtuoso is our tenth project in this location,” said Andreasen. “In the past, this area was considered to be way out in the boondocks from the rest of the campus and the city of Vancouver. To go shopping or access any kind of amenities, you had to get in your car and drive. Now, everything you need is right there in Wesbrook Village.”

There are more than 25 different shops and services within walking distance of Virtuoso. These include a liquor store, a Menchies Frozen Yoghurt, a huge Save-On-Foods grocery store, BierCraft Restaurant, a branch of RBC Royal Bank, The Hot Box Yoga, Running Room and More Bikes. There’s also a secondary school, a dentist and a doctor’s office in the neighbourhood. And residents of Virtuoso will be within striking distance of Pacific Spirit Park, which offers a network of trails contained in more than 750 hectares of forest.

“Step out of your door and you can walk down to the beach or walk onto campus and when you get home, you have everything you need right there in your community – you’d hardly have to leave,” Andreasen added.

Virtuoso homes are designed by Lisa Hansen of Area 3 Designs and come in a choice of three colour palettes. Bathrooms have porcelain floor tiles, quartz slab countertops, Grohe faucets and Duravit toilets. The kitchens feature cabinetry in contemporary horizontal wood veneer or high-gloss finishes, including soft-close drawers and under-cabinet lighting. There are built-in cooktops and electric wall ovens, Broan range hood fans, quartz slab countertops, porcelain tile backsplashes and European-style Grohe faucets.

Adera is also offering its i.D By Me program, which allows buyers to customize their homes and upgrade the fixtures. At Virtuoso, for example, this would mean a Jenn-Air appliance package in the kitchen as an upgrade from KitchenAid.

Andreasen explained that these levels of luxury are to be expected at an Adera development, but when asked to name the one key thing that makes Virtuoso stand out, he’s back to its winning location.

“UBC has put in a bunch of pedestrian-only streets and linear park spaces in the community,” he said. “Kids are riding their bikes, people are out walking their dogs and there’s a real sense of community. You’re separated from the rest of the city by the Pacific Spirit forest.

“It’s not just an urban community, it’s got this park-like, relaxed feel to it. You almost notice a change of air when you go from that crazy, high-tension world of the city to something like Wesbrook Village that’s totally different. The place has a sophisticated and intelligent feel to it while also being peaceful and serene.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Statistics present widely divergent pictures of the Vancouver housing market

Bethany Lindsay
The Vancouver Sun

House sales are down, but prices are still going up. That’s the latest message from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, but some analysts suggest the board is presenting an incomplete picture of a market on the decline.

The latest board report suggests the number of sales in the region fell by 26 per cent last month, compared to August 2015. It said the so-called “benchmark price” for all housing types increased by 31.4 per cent to $933,100 from August, 2015. The board suggests that the new foreign buyers tax, which came into effect at the beginning of this August, played at least a small role in cooling the market.

But for real estate consultant Ross Kay, figures like benchmark prices and year-on-year sales comparisons obscure what’s truly happening in Vancouver: the rapid deflation of an overvalued market that had been propped up by foreign buyers.

Take the benchmark price, a statistic that tracks sale prices of “typical” homes picked for things like age of the building, square-footage, number of rooms, and other factors. 

“Your benchmark price trails what is really going on in the market by up to eight months,” said Kay, who is based in Ontario.

A better measure, he believes, is average price.

According to the real estate board, the average price for detached houses in Metro peaked in January at $1.83 million, but has since fallen to $1.47 million, a drop of nearly 20 per cent. Across all housing types, average purchase prices have fallen by 26.3 per cent since the first quarter of 2016, according to Kay.

“(It’s) the greatest single drop in Canadian history,” he said. But, “I don’t like to set off panic either, because I know the damage that is done to poor old average homeowners in these cases.”

Those in real estate defend the use of benchmark prices. Cameron Muir, the chief economist for the Real Estate Association of B.C., said that while the benchmark does lag a bit, it helps smooth out some of the wild fluctuations in average price.

“They can be quite volatile on a month-to-month basis, and that’s because … you can have more apartments selling one month or more single detached homes selling one month, and that’s going to push prices down or up when things aren’t changing for the typical home,” he said.

But Kay isn’t the only observer to suggest that the benchmark price isn’t quite giving the whole story. UBC real estate economist Tom Davidoff said that while it’s important to use a statistic that corrects for changes in the types of homes being sold, that doesn’t mean the board’s latest numbers present an accurate picture of the market.

“I believe, even quality adjusting, homes were selling for less in August than in July or June,” Davidoff said. “I think we’re actually down three or four per cent from the peak.”

The real estate board also likes to talk about the ratio of sales to active listings, which is said to measure the balance of the market. That figure is calculated by comparing the total number of sales in a month by the number of listings on the Multiple Listing Service at the end of the month. For August, there had been 29.3 sales for every 100 listings on the MLS at month’s end, which the board says is a sign we’re still in a seller’s market and prices will continue to rise.

Kay prefers to look at the failure rate, which takes into account all of the listings available in the whole month, instead of just the listings at one point in time. Using those numbers, he calculated that 80.39 per cent of all homes on the Vancouver market last month failed to sell.

“Only one in five was successful. In March, when your market was hot, 36.7 per cent were successful — double. That’s how much your market has collapsed,” he said.

Davidoff said that those numbers sounded like an accurate reflection of what’s happening in Vancouver real estate, but Muir dismissed the idea of using Kay’s failure rate to prove anything.

“This is not a measure that has been tested by anybody,” he said. “I guess it could make good headlines.”

As for the big question about the impact of the new foreign buyers’ tax, the answer is far from clear. The board says it’ll take a few more months of data to get a better idea of what’s going on. Davidoff agrees that it’s hard to measure, because sales began declining before the tax was even announced.

As for Kay, he’s predicting the tax will lead to even bigger price declines in the coming months, which could put the B.C. Liberals in a tricky position come election time.

“Everybody’s going to say ‘rescind the tax,’” he said. “Will the government now say, ‘Wait a second, we see everybody is losing, we’re going to reduce the tax’?”

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver report covers sales in Whistler, Sunshine Coast, Squamish, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, New Westminster, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and South Delta. It does not include figures for Surrey, Langley or North Delta, which are reported by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

BCREA
other

In May 2016, in response to public concern over the flipping of single family residential properties in a surprisingly robust residential market, the provincial government amended the Real Estate Services Regulation concerning the assignment of Contracts of Purchase and Sale (CPS).¹

The amendment is designed to ensure that buyers and sellers are properly advised about the implications of the potential assignment of the CPS. With that disclosure, the parties will be able to negotiate terms and conditions that best suit their particular circumstances.

Section 8.2 of the Regulation requires a licensee who prepares a contract for the purchase and sale of property to include in that CPS clauses providing that the CPS may not be assigned without the written consent of the seller and that the seller is entitled to any profit resulting from an assignment of the CPS. This requirement applies to a buyer’s agent who prepares the CPS on behalf of a buyer/client or a listing agent who prepares the CPS for a buyer/customer. Note that development presale contracts under the Real Estate Development Marketing Act are specifically exempted from the requirements of section 8.2.

Section 8.2 (3) provides that, “unless otherwise instructed by the party to whom or on whose behalf the licensee is providing trading services,” the licensee preparing the CPS has to include the required clauses. Where a buyer specifically instructs their buyer’s agent in writing not to include the clauses, the buyer’s agent is required to provide a written notice to the seller’s agent or, if the seller is unrepresented, to the seller directly advising the seller to seek independent legal advice. The notice must be in the form approved by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia (Notice to Seller Regarding Assignment Terms) and cannot be included as a clause in the CPS.

Where the listing agent is simply preparing the CPS for a buyer who is a customer rather than a client, and the listing agent does not represent that buyer, it cannot be said that the listing agent is providing trading services to that buyer. Section 8.2 (3) deals only with instructions from a person to whom the licensee is providing trading services. Accordingly, a listing agent acting solely for the seller could not be instructed by a buyer to add, remove or amend the required clauses in an offer prepared by the listing agent. They are only obligated by section 8.2 to include the required clauses in any offer prepared by them. If a buyer/customer asked the listing agent to add, remove or amend the required clauses the listing agent should advise the buyer that, as a result of section 8.2, they are precluded by law from making those changes. However, if the buyer themselves physically added to, removed or amended the required clauses, the listing agent would be obliged to present that offer, as written, to the seller. In this situation, the listing agent would be wise to get written confirmation from the buyer that the buyer, and not the listing agent, made the changes.

If a listing agent receives a CPS that does not contain the required clauses or those clauses have been added to or amended and the Notice to Seller Regarding Assignment Terms is provided, the listing agent has an obligation to ensure that their client, the seller, is informed about whether the CPS may be assigned. If the CPS may be assigned, the listing agent must inform their client about the conditions in the CPS regarding the right of assignment and the seller’s right under the CPS to any profit resulting from the assignment, if applicable. In that case, the onus will fall to the licensee to establish that an adequate explanation was provided. A prudent licensee may wish to create written evidence of that explanation.

If the listing agent receives an offer prepared by a licensee acting for the buyer that has added to, removed or amended the required clauses, but does not contain the notice required to be prepared by the buyer’s agent, the listing agent still has a duty to advise the seller of the implications of the addition, removal or amendment. The listing agent may even wish to advise their client to seek legal advice. Again, a prudent licensee may wish to create written evidence of their discussion with their client.

Copyright ©2016 BCREA

Capital gain payable on non-principal residence

Canada Revenew
other

When you sell your home or when you are considered to have sold it, usually you do not have to report the sale on your income tax and benefit return and you do not have to pay tax on any gain from the sale. This is the case if the home was your principal residence for every year you owned it.

If your home was not your principal residence for every year that you owned it, you have to report the part of the capital gain on the property that relates to the years for which you did not designate the property as your principal residence. To do this, complete Form T2091(IND), Designation of a Property as a Principal Residence by an Individual (Other Than a Personal Trust). If you are the legal representative for a deceased person, you can designate a property using Form T1255, Designation of a Property as a Principal Residence by the Legal Representative of a Deceased Individual.

____________________________________________________________

Note:

Because your home is considered personal-use property, if you have a loss at the time you sell or are considered to have sold your home, you are not allowed to claim the loss.

____________________________________________________________

If only a part of your home qualifies as your principal residence and you used the other part to earn or produce income, you have to split the selling price and the adjusted cost base between the part you used for your principal residence and the part you used for other purposes (for example, rental or business). You can do this by using square metres or the number of rooms, as long as the split is reasonable.

See Did you file Form T664? if you filed a capital gains election on the property you disposed of. If you did file Form T664 you may need to complete the T2091(IND)-WS, Principal residence worksheet.

Completing your Schedule 3

Report only the gain on the part you used to produce income. For information on how to report the gain see Real estate, depreciable property, and other properties. You will also find an example showing how to report the capital gain on a disposition of land and building for a principal residence partly used for earning income.

Forms and publications

• Guide T4036, Rental Income
• Guide T4037, Capital Gains
• Form T1255, Designation of a Property as a Principal Residence by the Legal Representative of a Deceased Individual
• Form T2091(IND), Designation of a Property as a Principal Residence by an Individual (Other Than a Personal Trust)
• Form T2091(IND)-WS, Principal residence worksheet
• Income Tax Folio S1-F3-C2, Principal Residence

Related topics

• Lines 126 and 160 – Rental income
• Reporting your business income and expenses

If only a part of your home qualifies as your principal residence and you used the other part to earn or produce income, you have to split the selling price and the adjusted cost base between the part you used for your principal residence and the part you used for other purposes (for example, rental or business). You can do this by using square metres or the number of rooms, as long as the split is reasonable.

See Did you file Form T664? if you filed a capital gains election on the property you disposed of. If you did file Form T664 you may need to complete the T2091(IND)-WS, Principal residence worksheet.

Completing your Schedule 3

Report only the gain on the part you used to produce income. For information on how to report the gain see Real estate, depreciable property, and other properties. You will also find an example showing how to report the capital gain on a disposition of land and building for a principal residence partly used for earning income.

Forms and publications

• Guide T4036, Rental Income
• Guide T4037, Capital Gains
• Form T1255, Designation of a Property as a Principal Residence by the Legal Representative of a Deceased Individual
• Form T2091(IND), Designation of a Property as a Principal Residence by an Individual (Other Than a Personal Trust)
• Form T2091(IND)-WS, Principal residence worksheet
• Income Tax Folio S1-F3-C2, Principal Residence

Related topics

• Lines 126 and 160 – Rental income
• Reporting your business income and expenses

Majority of foreign buyers buying luxury homes

Ephraim Vecina
REP

The real estate industry cannot be trusted to remain objective about the B.C. government’s recent imposition of a 15 per cent property transfer tax on foreign buyers, according to a veteran observer.

In an August 31 analysis, The Globe and Mail national affairs columnist Gary Mason noted that the emergence of an increasingly loud chorus against foreign investors—supposedly funnelling unchecked sums into Canadian real estate—essentially left B.C. officials with no choice but to take quick action.

“The province’s long-governing party faced the real prospect of losing next year’s election unless it did something to address public anger over the high cost of housing. Which is how we ended up with the government in July imposing a 15-per-cent property-transfer tax on foreign nationals buying real estate in Metro Vancouver,” Mason wrote.

The industry’s response to the tax has been baffling, he added, especially since their concerns about foreigner-driven price spikes became visible only recently.

“It was not long ago that the real estate community in Metro Vancouver held an unequivocal view of the notion foreign nationals from China were buying up the region in bulk and forcing house prices obscenely skyward in the process: It was unadulterated bunk,” Mason said.

“It has been fascinating, in the interim, to observe the angst the tax has stirred in the same real estate sector that had been insisting foreign nationals had little to do with the spectacular rise in house prices. Today, many [industry players] are suggesting sales have fallen off a cliff since the tax was introduced. Prices are cratering.

The analyst argued that any Chicken-Little-style warnings of the “death of real estate” in B.C. would be “ludicrous”.

“What it may affect is the eye-popping commissions many agents in this province, and in particular Metro Vancouver, have been pocketing,” Mason mused. “If the tax has, in fact, slowed sales activity, this is only a good thing, as the gold-rush mentality that had taken hold was creating a price bubble that had become increasingly concerning for lending institutions across the country.”

“It is clearly impossible for the real-estate industry to separate the public good from its own self-interest,” Mason concluded. “Consequently, most anything [agents] or their proxies say about this issue needs to be greeted with profound skepticism, if not outright dismissal.”

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Inquiries for luxury homes dropped 55 per cent after foreign tax introduced

Frank O’Brien
Vancouver Courier

Searches for Metro Vancouver homes on China’s largest foreign property real estate portal plunged the day the B.C. government introduced a controversial 15 per cent tax on foreign homebuyers.

“The 25th of July was the day the B.C. government announced the tax, and it was also the day juwai.com had the lowest number of buyer inquiries for Canadian property in nearly two weeks,” said Matthew Moore, president of the Americas for Juwai.com.

Inquiries about Metro Vancouver homes priced at $1 million or more have continued to fall, dropping 55.6 per cent in August compared with a month earlier, Moore said. Inquiries about Vancouver-area homes priced at $1 million or less dropped 8.3 per cent in the same period.

Last week, juwai.com had 30 pages of Metro Vancouver homes for sale — at least 300 properties — ranging from $650,000 North Vancouver condominiums to a five-bedroom house in Shaughnessy listed for $10.8 million.

Byron Burley, juwai.com’s Shanghai-based vice-president, told a real estate conference in Vancouver in June that the Chinese-language site normally has approximately 3,000 residential listings from B.C.

“There has been a demonstrable pull back in Chinese demand in Vancouver,” Moore said, adding that the “inquiry fall has been much greater for luxury properties.”

Moore cautioned that it’s too early to say a trend is developing.

“Vancouver inquiries have been very volatile, with big monthly variations in the past. So looking at a short period like this may not give us an accurate view of long-term trends.”

But juwai.com tracking shows that Chinese buyers looking for foreign property had begun shifting away from Vancouver even before the tax came into effect.

“The shift to other cities has been going on for months, with buyer demand momentum shifting to other cities with similar appeal but lower entry prices,” Moore said.

“Right now, Seattle is the No. 1 city in North America for Chinese buyer inquiries, even displacing Los Angeles.”

He added that here has also been an uptick in Chinese buyers searches for homes in Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa.

“We’re in a period of uncertainty that could go either toward a demand slump in Vancouver or toward a renewal of demand as the uncertainty subsides. It’s too soon to tell just what will happen in the long run.”

B.C.’s new foreign buyer tax, which came into effect on Aug. 2 and is applied only in Metro Vancouver, is linked to a 71 per cent drop in detached housing sales during the first two weeks of August compared with the same period a year earlier.

“Right now, local deals are being nixed, detached sales have plummeted and foreign buyers are moving on to other cities,” said Neil Hamilton, a senior property adviser with Macdonald Realty Ltd. in Vancouver.

But, like many other agents contacted, Hamilton said the market could recover quickly once the shock of the foreign tax wanes.

© 2016 Vancouver  Courier

 

Real-estate tax shows no sign of slowing Vancouver’s luxury condo market

Joanne Lee-Young
The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver’s real-estate transfer tax for foreign buyers doesn’t appear to have slowed the market for high-end, high-rise properties. 

In May, the Holborn Group said it had hit a new high price for a project in Canada when it sold all 214 luxury condos at its Trump International Hotel and Tower Vancouver at an average of $1,615 per square foot — but now Bosa Properties has claimed the record, with more than 100 of the 116 units at its Cardero development in Coal Harbour pre-selling in the $1,750-per-square-foot range.

It comes just weeks after the B.C. government brought in a new 15-per-cent property transfer tax for non-Canadian buyers of residential real estate in Metro Vancouver in a bid to dampen the hot market.

There appeared to be little concern over the tax at the first pre-sale of new condo units since the levy was introduced. Bosa began marketing its luxury Cardero project, which is slated for completion in late 2019, on Aug. 20.

The launch coincided with heated debate about what the immediate and long-term impact of the foreign buyer tax might be on blistering home prices. There have been some initial signs of a significant slow down in the percentage of sales in some Metro areas compared to last year, along with examples of price cutting.

And yet, less than two weeks after the Cardero launch, Bosa had pre-sold all of its one-bedroom (443 sq. ft., $600,000-$700,000) one-bedroom plus den (682 sq. ft., $730,000-$840,000) and 718 sq. ft. two-bedroom units. Just the larger two-bedroom and three-bedroom units remain, measuring between 1,389 sq. ft. and 1,545 sq. ft. in size, with starting prices for the largest of these hitting $2.9 million, or $1,880 per square foot.

“We’re incredibly pleased with the response thus far to our offering, and please to welcome well over 100 new homeowners to the Bosa Properties family,” said Daryl Simpson, vice-president of marketing at Bosa Properties in an email.

There have only been a few new condo launches this year in the downtown core and outside of it, “there are a handful of units available on Cambie and at UBC, but if you look at the number of units in East Vancouver, there are also just a few left and they are the sub-penthouse ones in the $1.2-million range,” said Jon Bennest, co-owner of Urban Analytics, which analyzes real estate data and compiled the report information for the Urban Development Institute. 

The affordability of new concrete condominiums in the City of Vancouver has fallen noticeably in the last few quarters, according to UDI, which represents developers and this week released its second quarter report. 

By comparison, the UDI’s affordability index for new concrete condos in the suburban areas is more stable.

Bennest said at one recent pre-sale of a development on Main Street, there were some “500 to 600 real purchasers” for about 100 units. Developers understand that some “400 buyers might not be as keen” on buying if they moved the price higher.

“People with more equity are (the ones) getting to buy when there is not as much choice,” he said.

The development industry is generally known for believing the antidote to high prices is adding more supply. But increasing density in the West End and downtown won’t bring down prices, Bennest said — particularly bearing in mind the designs for some proposed high-rises in the area.

This week, Bosa Properties and Kingswood Properties filed an official rezoning application for another luxury condo building across from Cardero. They are planning a 43-storey tower with 217 condo units in a design that involves several sets of cantilevered floors and looks like a giant stack of Jenga blocks. Bosa paid $120.5 million for the land in 2014, according to vancouvermarket.com.

“I don’t feel adding towers in the West End will increase affordability,” said Bennest. The land prices being paid by developers are one thing. There are also “the design guidelines,” he said.

“When you go to 50 storeys, the construction costs are much higher. Developers and the City of Vancouver want buildings they can be proud of aesthetically and in an architectural way.”

Bennest cited the twisting shape of Westbank’s Vancouver House as an example. “Every single floor plate is different because they (need to) sit 3/4 of an inch (off from the floorplate below)” in order to achieve the building’s shape.”

“It’s going to be very expensive,” he said.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Inspiration from Milan guides style decisions for Bosa Properties

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

Cardero

What: 119 homes in a 26-storey concrete building

Where: 1575 W. Georgia St., Vancouver

Residence sizes: (for remaining homes) 2 — 3 bed, 1,389 — 1,545 sq. ft.; pricing available on request

Developer and builder: Bosa Properties

Sales centre address: 18th floor — 1500 West Georgia Street

Hours: noon — 6 p.m., daily

The old adage “a place for everything and everything in its place” takes on new meaning at Cardero, Bosa Properties’s new collection of highrise condominiums to take shape near Vancouver’s Coal Harbour.

Homebuyers who find themselves drawn to the eye-catching steel angles and glass exteriors of the highrise will find that the interiors reflect a similar minimalist esthetic, thanks to clever home technologies and the developer’s space-saving design products.

“Homeowners at Cardero have good taste. They’re design-savvy, up on trends, and have a keen focus on the details of their surrounding environments,” says Macartney Tonello-Greenfield, director of marketing for Bosa Properties, which worked with BYU Design on the interiors.
True to the Bosa family’s roots, the developer took its cue from the innovative designers showing in Milan, Italy, at the Salone del Mobile interior design show. The annual exhibition attracts designers and builders from across the world for a survey of avant-garde lighting, textile, art, architecture, product and furnishing design.

It’s there Bosa Properties was inspired to bring in the technology that defines the kitchen area and some finishes, Tonello-Greenfield says.

“We also looked for inspiration on overall interior decorating trends and reflected them throughout [the homes].”

The kitchens of Cardero’s “Coal Harbour” and “Estate” collections offer a playground of state-of-the-art technology: a wave or a gentle press on the countertop brings up a flat-screen television, vent, spice rack or electrical outlets, which can then be hidden discreetly beneath the surface.

Tonello-Greenfield says the technologies marry form and function.
“We wanted to ensure homeowners were able to enjoy the beauty of the kitchen form, without sacrificing any functionality,” Tonello-Greenfield says, referring to the porcelain slab backsplashes, modern matte-glass upper cabinetry and quartz countertops. “We looked for innovative and integrated technology to enhance each of our unique kitchen designs.”

The Italian trip also inspired the developer to acquire the oak veneer cabinetry, equipped with inserts that hold cooking tools and dishes in place. Storage is a priority: In closets, built-ins organize spots for shoes and shelving is ready for storage of clothing and accessories.
As in many Bosa Properties, Cardero suites in the Tower Collection include BosaSPACE furniture, a trademarked collection of movable, compact furnishings allow homeowners to redefine their homes according to their whims: a dining table slides out from within a kitchen island. A desk in the living room area can transform into a seating area as well. “Homeowners love the flexibility that these pieces bring to their homes, and the functionality they provide,” Tonello-Greenfield says.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

BCREA
other

Download Document