Anna Asi, M.A.

Vancouver Olympic Village New Prices Revealed!

Realtor Bob Rennie dodged questions Thursday morning about whether taxpayers would even come close to breaking even on the Olympic Village development.

Hosting a media launch about sales that start Friday at what’s now branded The Village on False Creek, he said Rennie Marketing Systems was working to stabilize the city’s asset and to maximize revenue.

Rennie said he sees the downtown condo market stabilizing and the real estate market reviving from its recent slump.

Instead of aiming to sell approximately 480 unsold units like he did last May after the 2010 Winter Games ended and the property was returned to developer Millennium Water and the city, Rennie aims to sell 230 condos in two areas of the village. Of the 737 condos at the village, 263 have sold, most of them in 2007. Friday’s launch is the third time the units have gone on sale.

Receiver Ernst and Young has contracted with a company to rent approximately 114 units to get the “ghost town” populated fast. Those units don’t include the 119 rental units purpose-built by the developer or the city’s 252 market rental, co-op and below-market rental units in the village.

Rennie blamed slow sales after the Games on bad timing due to a sluggish economy.

“I do not believe we ever had a product problem,” Rennie said. “What I do have is a pricing problem, and that pricing problem on May 15 was compounded by the fact that there was 480 units for sale and people didn’t see any sense of urgency and everybody just moved to the sidelines and folded their arms.”

He’s confident the prices are appropriate now. He said market testing done before the latest sales launch attracted 31 offers in 10 days. They included 12 for units that cost more than $900,000, 11 offers for units priced from $600,000 to $900,000 and eight offers for units under $600,000.

Seven chairs sat outside the sales centre at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Fourteen chairs labelled with people’s names were positioned outside the sales centre just before 11 a.m. Thursday morning. The sales centre was to open at noon Thursday with sales to begin Friday. Rennie said he was giving a tour to 1,058 realtors through the site yesterday starting at 2 p.m.

Prices for the unsold units have been reduced an average of 30 per cent from May 2010 rates. Rennie said rates on the lower priced units weren’t reduced much—a studio now goes for $349,500 to $354,900—but prices on larger units that were priced at $1.5 million saw greater reductions.

He aims to sell 60 units in 60 days.

He noted the receiver for the village, Ernst and Young, has been tackling building deficiencies and that regular new home warranties protect owners.

Only a bank and a private liquor store operate at the village. Rennie said London Drugs is eying population numbers, negotiations are underway with an unnamed grocery store—previously the grocery seller was meant to be Urban Fare—and a consultant has been hired to focus on leasing the other commercial spaces.

The city is owed $740 million for the development.

© Copyright (c) Vancouver Courier

Whistler Olympic Athlete's Village

Olympic village condo prices to be slashed by an average of one-third

Condo prices at the troubled Olympic village project will be reduced by an average of 30 per cent from May 2010 levels, according to Ernst & Young, the project's receiver. The following is a look at how much Olympic Village units are going for on the market.

$575,000: 1 Beds, 1 Baths - # 710 1633 ONTARIO ST.

$589,000: 1 Beds, 1 Baths - # 405 1633 ONTARIO ST.

$469,000: 1 Beds, 1 Baths - # 703 123 W 1ST AV

$469,500: 1 Beds, 1 Baths - # 405 123 W 1ST AV

$760,000: 2 Beds, 1 Baths - # 710 123 W 1ST AV

$998,800: 2 Beds, 2 Baths - # 804 123 W 1ST AV

$498,000: 1 Beds, 1 Baths -# 201 181 W 1ST AV

$539,980: 1 Beds, 1 Baths - # 502 181 W 1ST AV

$1,238,000: 2 Beds, 2 Baths - # 607 181 W 1ST AV

$1,259,000: 2 Beds, 2 Baths - # 909 181 W 1ST AV

Courtesy of Vancouver Sun.

More Canadians were on move in 2010 and they were mostly headed West

TORONTO - A new report from the TD Bank suggests that Canadians are taking the phrase "Go West, young man" seriously.

More Canadians were on the move last year as a percentage of the population than any year since 1998, the bank says.

And most were headed West to take advantage of better job prospects and higher standards of living.

The analysis shows 337,000 Canadians migrated within the country's border's last year, 45,000 more than in 2009. The level represents about one per cent of the total population, the highest since 1998.

Except for New Brunswick, only Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia experienced a net inflow of people last year.

And the report predicts that westward bound migration will continue over the next two years, although not up to the levels seen during the resource boom prior to the recession.

In relative terms, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island are losing the most people. Ontario and Quebec will continue to keep shedding numbers, but by a tiny fraction relative to their populations, the bank said.

• Community Centre
• Full-size gym
• Games room
• Arts and crafts room
• Aerobics studio and fitness centre
• Multipurpose rooms
• Dock for non-motorized boats
• 69-space daycare and outdoor play area
• 6,000 sq. ft. of commercial /restaurant space
• Underground parkingwill be developed

• More than 5,000 residential units
• Mid-size grocery store and community serving retail/services
• Full-size community centre
• Non-motorized boating facility
• Three to five licensed childcare facilities
• Two out-of-school care facilities
• An elementary school
• Interfaith spiritual centre
• Restoration of five heritage buildings
• 10 hectares of park land, including habitat, playgrounds and opportunities for urban agriculture

•  181 Athletes Way - Olympic Village
• 151 Athletes Way - Olympic Village
• 1616 Columbia - Olympic Village
• 181 W. 1st Ave. - Olympic Village
• 123 W. 1st Ave. - Olympic Village
• 1661 Ontario - Olympic Village