Abbotsford townhome project holds presale lottery
Jaonne Lee-Young
The Province
Cinema District townhouses in Abbotsford by Diverse Properties. Photo by Diverse Properties
Home sales and prices have rocketed during the COVID-19 real estate boom. Now, that heat is spilling into the townhome and condo market, where sales had been hammered by government policies in 2019 and then languished for most of 2020.
“Interest in the presale market always follows big rises in the market” for existing homes, said Vancouver real estate agent Mike Stewart.
He named several presale townhome projects — Forester in Coquitlam, Founders Block in North Vancouver and Five Road in Richmond — where developers recently said they had sold out.
This weekend, Diverse Properties was collecting forms for a lottery draw at its Cinema District, a project in Abbotsford,” so it can “determine the priority of buyers to make it fair for everyone interested in purchasing” one of seven 3-bedroom townhomes, starting at $770,999.
It is aiming to complete construction by January 2022, but the lottery will also lineup potential buyers for one larger show home unit it is also selling.
“There’s just been such high demand for these because they have legal rental suites. They were releasing their last phase and we just decided to be organized instead of dealing with all the craziness of multiple offers,” said real estate agent Wendy Tyson.
Interested buyers have until Monday at noon to submit a form. Entrants will receive a price list on Tuesday and then get details for a Zoom call on Wednesday at 6 p.m., during which there will be a live draw “for transparency.”
Michael Ferreira of Urban Analytics, which tracks presale trends, said buyers have been “lining up” again for townhome presales.
This clamouring to buy townhomes, however, hasn’t yet hit presales of highrise or low rise condo units, where there are more projects on the market. But even in those markets, buyer interest has perked up.
It comes as analysts and economists are debating where the housing market will go as low interest rates and tight supply fuel price surges, and there is a return of investors and speculators. Sales of existing detached homes and condos have been selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars over their asking price
The shift in a matter of months is hitting a market where timelines can last for years from the launch of presales to the completion of a project.
“For most of 2019 and 2020, it was difficult to generate the level of buyer interest and urgency needed” for developers to proceed, said Ferreira. “Sales reps were making literally thousands of calls to realtors and prospective buyers to try and generate sufficient interest.”
He added that highrise projects are “seeing significantly higher interest levels, particularly among investors, that will allow most projects to” move forward. Ferreira, however, said “the interest is nowhere close to the … frenzy we saw in 2016-18” when there were double-digit price increases for presale contracts.
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