Units from $180,000 to $900,000 snapped up in preview sales
Fiona Anderson
Sun
Centrepoint, Burnaby’s tallest residential development, practically sold out in two days. It is connected to the Metrotown mall and includes office and retail space. Even the developer, Intracorp, said it was surprised at how quickly the units went.
Following what is rapidly becoming a trend in the local condo market, the tallest residential development in Burnaby is almost completely sold out after just two days of preview selling.
Sales in the Centrepoint at Metrotown building took place during the last weekend in May, but were not announced by developer Intracorp until Wednesday. Prices ranged from $180,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $900,000 for the penthouse.
The last five remaining residential units in the 32-storey, 226-unit building are now open for sale to the public, Don Forsgren, Intracorp’s senior vice-president said.
Forsgren was surprised at how quickly the units sold because the project is not typical of what is offered in Burnaby in terms of the finishings and designs.
“It’s quite contemporary, it’s quite urban,” Forsgren said. “It was very attractive for people that were seeking an urban lifestyle without moving to downtown Vancouver.”
Seventy-five per cent of the buyers were from Burnaby, Forsgren said.
“With Vancouver prices, it offers more affordability, and the SkyTrain location was a factor for [buyers],” Forsgren said.
Centrepoint is part of a 385,000 square-foot project connected to the Metrotown shopping mall and includes 75,000 square feet of office space and 65,000 square feet of retail joined by bridges. Best Buy Canada, whose U.S. parent owns Future Shop, has already signed on to be the anchor tenant of the entire second floor of retail space, Forsgren said.
The retailer is offering to help design the entertainment or computer centre for buyers of units in the building. It is also giving the first 100 purchasers an average $2,500 credit toward Best Buy purchases.
This latest rush to buy is further proof that the real estate market is “out of equilibrium,” Tsur Somerville, director of the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, said in an interview.
“Condo developments selling out in one or two days is not a market equilibrium,” Somerville said.
A condo normally is what is called a “search” purchase, Somerville said. People who are buying it as a residence need to take the time to look at other properties. In that case, you don’t get sell-outs in one or two days.
What is happening, Somerville said, is that people are snapping up the condominiums for investments, and they are essentially saying “it doesn’t matter what it’s like, it’s a property and I can afford it.”
This cannot continue indefinitely, he said.
“It has to end, because all housing booms end,” Somerville said. “But when it [will] end, who knows?”
The longest boom Vancouver has seen in recent years lasted from 1985 to 1990, Somerville said. After that, prices, adjusted for inflation, went down briefly before climbing again.
“The problem I have is a lot of people go out and say all the fundamentals are really strong so it is not going to turn down, [or] if anything it will flatten,” Somerville said. “But things [do] turn down.”
And the current economic growth does not justify housing prices rising 10 per cent a year, Somerville said.
The remaining five units in Centrepoint are all high-floor three-bedroom homes selling in the low $500,000s.
The residential units are scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2007 with the commercial component being completed by the end of 2006.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
