Occupants of Avani Centre will be able to enjoy residential amenities, as well as those in the structure?s Hiltonbranded hotel

Robin Brunet
The Vancouver Sun

Arguably the most stunning example of new urban development in recent years is Surrey City Centre, the gleaming, ultra-modern hub that is attracting young families and professionals in droves and has earned critical praise for its bold architecture and livability.

But Avani Investment Group is poised to advance Surrey City Centre’s livability and architectural appeal yet further: the developer is creating the unique Avani Centre residential tower, which will act as a gateway landmark on the southern approach to this vibrant urban community, in addition to providing a diversity of suites and a ton of amenities.

Rising atop a seven-storey Hilton-branded hotel and within easy walking distance of Surrey Memorial Hospital, Holland Park, Central City Shopping Centre, Simon Fraser University Surrey campus, and at King George SkyTrain station, with a future shopping and entertainment complex, Avani Centre features a dynamic exterior and alluring interiors by the award-winning acdf* architecture and Giraffe Design respectively.

While the hotel portion of the building will be wrapped in shimmering curtain wall, the residential tower will rise in a dramatically angular column, the deep, covered decks of each of the 181 units appearing like the structure’s concrete ribs. The elevation of the tower is advantageous to residents in that even those on the first level of residential will actually be on the eighth storey, high above the nearby Medical District with excellent views of the University District, the North Shore mountains and the Fraser Valley. 

Also, by being attached to a Hilton-branded hotel, residents will have what can best be described as `useful bragging rights’, starting with access to their homes via the hotel’s designer lobby (in addition to their own proprietary entrance). They can entertain guests in the hotel’s proposed bar or get some exercise in its fitness centre or swimming pool, (for a monthly membership, so they only have to pay for what they use). They will also have their own exclusive amenities in the tower, including an enclosed dog run on the rooftop deck and an outdoor yoga platform.

As for the residences themselves, they will be competitively priced and range from studios at 349 square feet up to three bedroom units at 1,232 square feet. “The decks of each of these units range from 60 to over 200 square feet,” says Jamie Squires, vice-president of Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing Ltd. “And because they’re all fully covered, they can be used year round.”

Squires points out that “Giraffe Design has done an outstanding job to make these homes special, using gold and silver colour schemes,” and she adds that in addition to the tower residences, there will be eight two-level city homes flanking 98^th Avenue, ranging from 1,360 to 1,597 square feet.

Squires goes on to remark that “it can’t be emphasized enough how fortunate we have been to have the talent of Giraffe as well as acdf*’s magnitude in creating Avani Centre’s gateway status.”

Indeed, the quality of Montreal-based acdf*’s recent projects has been recognized many times over, with awards of excellence from the Ordre des architectes du Québec and the coveted Canada Governor General’s Medal in architecture. B.C.-based Giraffe Design is renowned for its classical contemporary and traditional interior surroundings with a subtle French Canadian flair; some of its more high-profile residential projects include Ascend, Zhang and Prodigy.

Finally, Avani Centre provides all the convenience and excitement a new downtown core has to offer, and the best is yet to come. “Surrey City Centre is evolving rapidly,” says Squires. “New shops and facilities such as a YMCA are being built, and the first stop of the upcoming LRT line will literally be at Avani’s doorstep. This, in addition to the King George SkyTrain station, giving residents easy access to any destination in Metro Vancouver.”

Squires urges prospective buyers to register today to be kept informed about this exciting new development and for an opportunity to view and purchase prior to the public release this summer.  Please visit www.avanicentre.com for more details.

© 2018 Postmedia Network Inc

Coco Oakridge to take its place in a revitalized Vancouver neighbourhood

Simon Briault
The Vancouver Sun

Coco Oakridge

Project location: 5733 Alberta Street

Project size: 57 homes, one-to-three bedrooms, 520 to 1,610 square feet, one-beds from $819,900, two-beds from $1,299,900, three-bed townhomes from $1.8 million

Developer: Keltic Canada Development                        

Architect: GBI Architects

Interior designer: Christina Oberti

Sales centre: 5844 Cambie Street

Hours: noon — to 5 p.m., Sat — Thurs 

Telephone: 604-428-7533

Website: cocooakridge.com

Occupancy: summer 2020

Go back 60 years and much of Vancouver’s urban planning was focused on single-family homes with big yards in suburban neighbourhoods. The percentage of people who owned a car was increasing rapidly and the city was building new roads to accommodate them.

Fast forward to the present day and it appears everything is being turned on its head. Land is scarce and correspondingly expensive, giving rise to a new style of urban, multi-family living focused on walkable neighbourhoods and plentiful local amenities. Car ownership is also falling as people transition to car-sharing and rapid transit.  

The new Oakridge Town Centre planned for the neighbourhood around Cambie and 41^st Avenue is a perfect example of this urban transformation, and Coco Oakridge – a 57-home project by Keltic Canada Development – is set to take full advantage.

“The big story with Coco Oakridge is its location,” said Magnum Projects’ Dave Bauman, who is marketing the project on behalf of the developers. “It will be just steps away from the new Oakridge Town Centre, the most extensive urban development in Metro Vancouver as envisioned in the official community plan from the City of Vancouver.”

“It’s a $15-billion urban transformation of the Oakridge area,” Bauman added. “Vancouver’s top-tier developers own land in this neighbourhood and over the next five or 10 years it will be fully developed into the next big urban hub in the city. The key piece of the puzzle is the Oakridge 41^st Canada Line station being right nearby, which provides rapid access to downtown Vancouver or Richmond and YVR airport.”

The numbers associated with this vision of urban renewal are eye-opening. There will be 1.2 million square feet of indoor and outdoor retail, two major daycare facilities, the largest branch of the Vancouver Public Library on the west side and a new home for the Goh Ballet performing arts school.

Along with the expanded retail offering, the development is set to include new office space, 10 towers of varying heights up to 44 storeys and three mid-rise buildings. The housing on offer will include social housing, market-rate rental units and market-rate homes for sale.

The new development will also include a community centre, a seniors’ centre and a nine-acre public park located partly on the rooftop of the mall and partly at ground level. The existing Oakridge mall will remain open during the construction of the new community, which is expected to last six and a half years. Coco Oakridge will be ready far earlier than that, however, with completion of the one- to three-bedroom concrete homes expected in the summer of 2020.

 “Our one-bedroom units will appeal to young people who are looking for easy access to rapid transit and a great west side location,” Bauman said. “For the two-bedroom homes, we’re looking at move-up buyers, likely dual-income couples. Then there are some larger townhomes on the back side that will be ideal for young families.”

Coco Oakridge homes will range in size from 520 to 1,610 square feet. In total, the project will consist of seven townhomes and 50 apartments.

Homes feature engineered brushed oak hardwood flooring, air conditioning, Blomberg ENERGY STAR-certified front-load washers and dryers, roller blinds and over-height ceilings up to nine and a half feet in upper floors. Select homes will also include retractable glass balconies to enjoy the outdoor spaces year-round.

The interior design at Coco Oakridge is the work of Christina Oberti, who has selected Scavolini-branded kitchens with Gaggenau appliance packages. These include gas cooktops, electric wall ovens, 30-inch fridge freezers, 36-inch Zephyr Siena stainless steel hood fans and 24-inch ENERGY STAR-certified dishwashers. There will be Caesarstone quartz countertops with matching full-height backsplashes, quartz kitchen islands and integrated LED lighting.

The Scavolini theme continues in the bathrooms, where Coco Oakridge residents will get marble vanity countertops, herringbone wall tiles and marble shower bases. There are Kohler under-mount lavatories, Grohe chrome faucets and accents and soaker tubs. Completing the package are large-format porcelain tiles on all walls and floors, recessed wall niches in seamless porcelain tile and frameless 10-mm glass enclosures on all showers.

Coco Oakridge, a name that is a play on Cambie-Oakridge, according to Bauman, is just one of many Lower Mainland projects Keltic Canada Development is working on. 

“This is an opportunity to get in at an early stage of what will be a huge urban regeneration on a scale you rarely see in Canada,” said Bauman. “Coco Oakridge gives you quiet luxury and boutique living, but it’s also just steps away from all these great amenities – parks, restaurants, shopping, arts, culture and rapid transit.”

© 2018 Postmedia Network Inc.

Two of Canada’s biggest banks reported second-quarter earnings

Armina Ligaya
REP

TORONTO _ Two of Canada’s biggest banks reported second-quarter earnings Thursday that benefited from bigger profit margins on the back of rising interest rates, though the bump could be less pronounced in coming quarters as pressure mounts for banks to raise the interest rates they pay on deposits.

Toronto-Dominion Bank and Royal Bank of Canada handily beat analysts expectations with double-digit growth in the quarter ended Apr. 30, helped by a strong economy and growing net interest margins _ or the profit made on loans _ as interest rates rose on both sides of the border.

TD reported a bigger quarterly bump of the two, with net income attributable to common shareholders of $2.85 billion for the quarter, up 17 per cent from a year earlier, while RBC reported a nine per cent increase to $2.98 billion.

On an adjusted basis, TD and RBC earned $1.62 and $2.10 per diluted share for the period, respectively, beating analyst expectations of $1.50 and $2.05, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

TD’s chief executive Bharat Masrani said it was “another terrific quarter” for the bank, with all its businesses on both sides of the border performing well.

“Canadian retail had a banner quarter… We benefited from our number one share in core deposits, with rising rates driving further margin expansion,” Masrani told analysts on a call discussing its results Thursday.

Both TD and RBC saw increases in net interest margins, the difference between the money they earn on loans they make and interest they pay out to savers, in both their Canadian and U.S. businesses, said Shannon Stemm, an analyst with Edward Jones in St. Louis.

The Bank of Canada has raised its trend-setting interest rate once this year and is expected to do so at least once more before the end of 2018.

A rising rate environment is helpful for the banks at the beginning of a cycle, but lenders won’t be able to get away with not passing on those benefits to depositors as rates continue to climb, she said. It’s a dynamic that is already underway in the U.S., but not quite yet north of the border, she added.

“After a given amount of time, as rates are going up, they have to start increasing deposit rates too,” Stemm said in an interview. “And so, that squeezes that margin that was falling to the bottom line.”

Year-over-year increases in net interest margins (NIM) for both banks’ Canadian divisions helped fuel their big profit beats. TD’s Canadian retail division’s NIM was 2.91 per cent, up from 2.81 from a year ago, while RBC’s Canadian personal and commercial banking division had a NIM of 2.79 per cent, up from 2.67 per cent a year earlier.

“One of the benefits has been that deposit rates have not risen as quickly as loan rates,” John Mackerey, vice-president, global financial institutions group at DBRS in New York.

“So that’s certainly helped with the margin expansion.”

In turn, both banks saw strong earnings at home as mortgage growth remained steady despite a cooling housing market in the wake of tighter regulations for uninsured mortgages introduced at the beginning of the year.

TD’s Canadian retail division net income was $1.83 billion, up 17 per cent compared with last year. RBC’s Canadian personal and small business banking division reported a seven per cent increase in net income to $1.46 billion.

TD had $269 billion in its Canadian real estate secured lending portfolio at the end of the latest quarter, up five per cent from $256 billion a year earlier. RBC, meanwhile, had $258 billion in uninsured and insured residential mortgages across Canada at the end of the quarter, up 5.1 per cent from a year earlier.

Rod Bolger, RBC’s chief financial officer, said the bank expects mortgage growth to remain in the mid-single digit range for the full year.

“And even if mortgage growth slows more than expected, the overall NIM benefit from rate hikes more than offsets the revenue impact from slower growth,” he told analysts on a conference call Thursday.

“For example, if mortgage balances grow at half our expected rate, the impact on 2019 revenue would be less than the benefit we received from one Bank of Canada rate hike.” 

The Canadian Press

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

Provincial lender has seen biggest jump

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

The quarterly results for Canada’s banks continue to show gains for the Big Banks but it is a provincial lender that has seen the biggest jump.

ATB Financial reported Thursday that its quarterly net income for Q2 2018 jumped an eyewatering 82% from a year earlier to $274.6 million.

“Economic improvements in Alberta certainly helped us deliver these outstanding results. But our customers and ATB team members are at the heart of our success,” said ATB President & CEO Dave Mowat.

The bank’s latest results set four new records: Highest ever operating net income; Best income before provision for loan losses; Highest operating revenue in a single quarter; Highest operating revenue in a single year.

Loans stood at $44.1 billion, up 8.1% from $40.8 billion the year before. Deposits decreased 3.7%, from $33.9 billion to $32.7 billion.

“We increased loans—even when times got tough. Loan loss provisions were a struggle during the recession, but we believed things would improve,” said Mowat. “That approach paid off.”

TD reports 17% rise in profits
Second quarter reported earnings at TD were $2.9 billion, up 17% and adjusted earnings were $3.1 billion, up 20% compared with the same quarter last year.

“We delivered exceptional earnings performance across the Bank in the second quarter, by continuing to attract customers and deepen our relationship with them,” said Bharat Masrani, Group President and Chief Executive Officer. “At the half-year mark, we are extremely pleased with the earnings growth in all of our business segments, on both sides of the border.”

The bank’s Canadian retail banking operations saw a 17% rise in earnings to $1.833 billion. The strong performance included the successful launch of some new mortgage tools.

“We continued to transform the customer experience this quarter with the launch of a digital pre-approval tool for mortgages which, combined with the mortgage affordability and pre-qualification tools, help customers feel more confident about their home buying decision and deliver a more seamless and personalized experience across multiple channels,” the bank says.

RBC adds $251 million to earnings
Royal Bank of Canada has reported net income of $3.060 billion for the second quarter ended April 30, 2018, up $251 million or 9% from the prior year.

It said that strong performance in its Wealth Management, Personal & Commercial Banking, and Investor & Treasury Services, and solid earnings in Insurance; all contributed to the rise.

“We maintained good momentum in the second quarter, delivering earnings of $3.1 billion. Our businesses executed on client focused growth strategies while continuing to demonstrate strong risk management,” commented Dave McKay, RBC President and Chief Executive Officer.

Scotiabank reports is results Tuesday.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

If someone dies at a property

Mike Mangan
BCREA

If someone dies at a property, is the death a material latent defect that must be disclosed in writing to all other parties before entering an agreement under Rule 5-13?¹ Or, is the death a stigma and, if so, must the listing agent disclose it?

In Wang v. Shao, the owner was a grandmother whose daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren lived at her property on Vancouver’s westside.² The 10-year-old granddaughter attended a private school nearby. In November 2007, someone shot and killed the son-in-law immediately outside the property’s front gate. When media reports linked the son-in-law to organized crime, school authorities asked the granddaughter to leave the school. The girl finished the school year at a local public school. Then, she enrolled in a private school in West Vancouver where she would have more opportunities to speak English. In approximately June 2008, the family moved to West Vancouver. But for the son-in-law’s murder, the granddaughter would have stayed at her westside private school and the family presumably would not have moved.

Roughly a year after the family moved to West Vancouver, the owner’s daughter (the seller) listed the now vacant property under a power of attorney. She told the listing agents that she was selling because of the granddaughter’s move to private school in West Vancouver, where she would have more opportunities to speak English. The seller intended that the REALTORS® would convey that explanation to any buyer who asked the reason for selling.

The seller also asked if she had to disclose the murder to buyers. After consulting her managing broker, the senior listing agent advised the seller to seek her lawyer’s advice. The senior listing agent understood that she need not disclose the murder, but if a buyer asked whether anyone had died there, she would reveal it. In her Property Disclosure Statement, the seller denied knowledge of any material latent defect in the property.

At the buyer’s request, the buyer’s agent asked the listing agent the reason for selling. The listing agent answered by repeating the explanation that the granddaughter had moved to a school in West Vancouver with more opportunities to speak English. The listing agent did not know that the murder had prompted the school change.

In September 2009 the buyer entered a contract to purchase the property for $6,138,000. Shortly after subject removal, the buyer learned about the murder. She refused to complete. The buyer feared that the assailant could return and mistake her children for members of the son-in-law’s family. Later, the seller sold the property to someone else for less money.

The seller sued the buyer for the loss on the re-sale. The buyer counter-claimed for rescission for failure to disclose the murder as a material latent defect, or alternatively, misrepresentation.

The court distinguished between a property defect and a stigmatizing event. A defect involves some intrinsic quality of the property. The son-in-law’s death was not a defect in the property, but it was potentially a stigma, being an event or circumstance that a buyer personally dislikes. Since a seller cannot predict what the buyer might subjectively dislike, the seller does not normally have to voluntarily disclose a stigma. The buyer must ask.

But, when the listing agent conveyed the seller’s explanation that she was selling because the granddaughter had changed schools, it was a fraudulent misrepresentation by omission. The answer, while true on its face, was an incomplete half-truth. It concealed the fact that the granddaughter changed schools as a result of the son-in-law’s death, and that the murder was a factor in the decision to sell the property. In Wang, the buyer was entitled to rescind the contract.

Once aware of a stigma, a listing agent should seek instructions to voluntarily disclose it, or alternatively, to disclose it if asked. A buyer’s agent should ask about any stigma of concern to the buyer.

When a buyer asks whether anyone has died at the property, if a listing agent chooses to answer, they must tell the truth. But, what if the death is linked to the seller’s reason for selling, as in Wang, and the listing agent knows it? If a buyer asks the reason for selling, and the listing agent elects to answer, then the agent must tell the truth and disclose the death.

Copyright ©2018 BCREA

Developers are finding it harder to sell newly-built homes in the Greater Toronto Area

Steve Randall
Mortgage Broker News

Developers are finding it harder to sell newly-built homes in the Greater Toronto Area this spring.

Sales of new homes in the GTA in April totalled just 1,727, the lowest number for April in 20 years according to data from Altus Group highlighted in a report from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

“While home-buying intentions remain strong, a combination of challenges is keeping many interested buyers out of the new home market this spring,” said Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice-President, Research Consulting Services. “First-time buyers need to save longer to qualify for a mortgage, and potential move-up buyers are faced with a bigger gap than a year ago between the price of a newly-built home and the price they can get for their existing home.”

There were 502 detached, linked, and semi-detached houses and townhouses sold, 65% fewer than in a year earlier and 70% below the 10-year average.

Condo sales were also down 65% year-over-year with 1,225 sales, 38% below the 10-year average.

Combined inventory was around 5 months of supply at current pace and totalled 14,297 units, up 14.8% compared to March.

The benchmark price for new single-family homes decreased in April to $1,151,815, which was down 5% over the last year, and the benchmark price for new condominium apartments decreased to $739,965, which was 29.8% above last April.

Government policy is having an impact
BILD president and CEO David Wilkes said the government’s policy measures is having an impact on demand but says it needs to take a long-term view of housing requirements in the GTA.

“We have 115,000 new residents coming to the GTA every year and we need to be building 55,000 new homes annually to meet their housing needs. Government policy needs to recognize the need to increase housing supply as part of a long-term solution for our region,” he said.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media

Canada’s big banks are locked in a competitive pricing war

David Paddon
Vancouver Courier

Canada’s big banks are locked in a competitive pricing war over variable-rate mortgages, but economic trends point to more interest rate hikes ahead — leaving Canadian mortgage borrowers struggling to interpret the mixed messages.

The Bank of Canada has raised its trend-setting interest rate once this year and is expected to do so at least once more before the end of 2018. When interest rates rise, banks are inundated with demand for fixed rates, so borrowers can lock in their rates.

As a result, Canada’s lenders are working to attract borrowers to variable-mortgage rates, which are tied to the fluctuations of the central bank’s overnight rate. They are offering special rates as low as 2.45 per cent for May, some of the biggest-ever widely advertised discounts advertised by the big banks. At the same time, they have increased the rates of their fixed-rate mortgages.

Even in this rising interest rate environment, experts suggest current variable-rate options are attractive when compared to fixed-rate mortgages.

“Up until recently, when asked, I had been favouring the fixed over the variable,” said Dave Larock, president of Integrated Mortgage Planners Inc. in Toronto.

His attitude changed after fixed-rate mortgages became more expensive in response to higher bond yields and variable-rate mortgages got cheaper due to competition among lenders.

As a result, the gap between the available rates from the 15 lenders Larock consults widened to nearly one full percentage point, with the five-year variable rate at 2.45 per cent and five-year fixed rate at 3.39 per cent.

“That’s your margin of safety,” Larock said. “That’s how far variable has to rise before you’re paying more than the fixed rate.”

Larock cautioned there are plenty of warnings that the Bank of Canada’s influential overnight rate will be going up again this year — a move that would quickly push up the cost of a variable-rate mortgage.

But he said it’s debatable whether the central bank will act as quickly as economists anticipate, adding it’s statistically unlikely that the overnight rate will go only upward over the next five years, given historical trends going back 28 years.

“Even if rates go up first, there’s a very reasonable chance that at some point they’ll drop (again).”

As a result, borrowers could very well end up paying less total mortgage interest over the next five years by choosing a variable rather than fixed rate, Larock said.

But some argue it’s unwise to become too focused on securing the lowest available interest rate.

“You might actually not be doing what’s right for you, given all of the things that are around the financial needs of you or your household,” said Stephen Forbes, a CIBC executive vice-president whose role includes personal banking.

Forbes pointed to a client in Toronto who initially wanted to borrow $800,000 through a variable mortgage to help pay for a $1.6 million house.

“Her only focus was on rate. She wanted the lowest rate possible,” Forbes recalled.

But the client changed her mind after taking a broader look at the situation, including her household income, non-mortgage debt, children’s ages, and her and her husband’s lifestyle aspirations.

The fixed-rate option provided her the certainty she wanted over knowing what her rate would be for the foreseeable future, he said.

In the end, Forbes said the client opted to borrow only $650,000 with a fixed-rate mortgage — not variable — and also consolidated non-house debts in line of credit at a lower rate.

There are times when a variable rate mortgage is the perfect decision for a borrower, Forbes said, but that depends on the individual’s circumstance and their ability to cope if the variable-rate mortgage becomes more expensive.

“What I see sometimes that worries me is when people use a variable rate mortgage as a lever to borrowing more — hoping that rates will not change down the road.”

There are ways for people with variable-rate mortgages to protect themselves from a higher interest rate, Larock said.

Borrowers can structure their household budget to be able to pay the higher fixed-term rate for the next five years — even if the variable mortgage’s rate is lower, he said.

“Instead of just pocketing the extra cash … plow that savings back into the mortgage to pay if off more quickly.”

© 2018 Vancouver Courier

 

Crest showcases a look that’s both classic and contemporary

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

Crest

What: A total of 161 wood-frame condo units and 18 concrete townhomes in two six-storey luxury wood buildings centrally located off Lonsdale Avenue

Where: 150 8th St. East, North Vancouver

Residence sizes and prices: Ranging from 563 to 1,300 square feet, from the $570,000s

Developer and builder: Adera Development Corp.

Sales centre: Suite 101 – 1200 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver

Centre Hours:  By appointment only

Sales phone: 604-980-0016

Design buffs will immediately recognize features of West Coast Modern design at Crest, Adera Development Corp.’s planned community in North Vancouver. But it takes the ingenuity of designers like those in Portico Design Group to transform the classic look into interiors that will impress homebuyers intent on surrounding themselves in contemporary décor.

“Whether visually through views, or through the materials themselves, we want our surroundings to feel alive and fresh,” says Natalia Kwasnicki, a designer with Portico Design Group.

Crest’s “alive and fresh” contemporary space will adapt nicely to the timeless elegance of West Coast Modern exteriors, recognized for their roof overhangs, plentiful use of wood and stone, open floor plans and generous-sized windows that take full advantage of the view to the outdoors.

The style has been popular since the late 1940s, and still brings admirers to some of Vancouver’s more established sites, such as the provincial law courts downtown, the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, and many structures built by master architects such as Fred Hollingsworth and Arthur Erickson.

For Kwasnicki, it was a pleasure to bring those influences indoors, by using materials that reflect North Vancouver’s natural beauty. “I think we, as West Coasters, want to be living in the outdoors, and [if] we can bring that in to our own homes, we do.”

The kitchen cabinets, for instance, are fashioned in wood tones that are very realistic for laminate, she says. These same wood tones balance contemporary white quartz.

“The visuals of the materials are in themselves nostalgic, [such as the] flat-grain wood and natural stone looking tile, but they are executed in contemporary ways,” she says.
Portico Design Group offers both light and dark colour schemes; those who select the lighter scheme would do well to bring in Scandinavian décor style to emphasize a contemporary style, she says.

“The lighter scheme is a bit bolder in its wood tone choices, which are not typical … and it’s a great palette for some matte black accents. The dark scheme is a more neutral scheme that would really work for anyone.”

Kwasnicki says she’s impressed with the ways in which buyers can tailor practical details in their suites, thanks to Adera’s introduction of the “ID By Me” interiors plan. This plan gives them many options and upgrades, including millwork and air conditioning. It allowed Portico Group designers to envision décor that can adapt to every one of these options, she says.

“Bringing all the options to the table at the beginning [of our work] allows us to design those options in, so that they work with every permutation [the buyer may choose],” she says. “We want to ensure that we are thinking about every element and that there is a cohesiveness to the design.”

© 2018 Postmedia Network Inc.