Quote:
Originally Posted by darklord700
Recently I was at a pre-sell downtown condo event. $700 a sq/ft and people were buying sight unseen, floor plan be dammed. Rumor had it one buyer snapped up 10 units at once. I kind of knew some of the people there who normally weren't condo investors but they were buying this time.
Bad sign for me that the market is over-heating as all of them were investors. Spending almost $400K for a studio or half a mill for a $600 sq/ft 1bedroom without window just so that you don't have to drive to work, I don't get it. $500K gets you at a decent 1000 sq/ft unit in Arriva that's fit for long term living. Seems like a lot of people are buying on hype.
Also the condo fee on this brand new building was incredibly low, like $400/mth for a 600 sq/ft unit. This had to be wrong. Once the builder dumps all the units, the board will increase condo fee for sure. I suspect the builder kept the condo fee low so they can sell easily and they don't have to pay in to the reserve.
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billionaire Chinese investors can't wait to get their money out of HK or the mainland. They will buy anything in any quantity regardless of the price because they're not investors. They're fleeing to safe assets. Even if they lose %20-%30 during a downturn it's still better than having their cash where it is now. This has already been document in articles in the NY Times and the wall street journal. This is why the Chinese have over taken the Russians in buying up apartments in Manhattan. They're buying anything that moves. Bob the $100,000/year engineer, his stay at home wife and 2 kids are not the ones buying up 20 units at a time in these developments. Condos are being treated like investment vehicles and commodities. This isn't about housing at all. When people understand this they will realize that when they buy to live, they're competing with people that have so much money the price is irrelevant. It's a bubble, it's completely inflated and not based on any type of real-estate or housing fundamentals. It's basic supply and demand. That is why in Toronto they're building complete garbage condos that are falling apart after 5 years because Chinese buyers will buy this stuff sight unseen and not care at all about that. It only hurts the people that need a place to live. Calgary hasn't gotten that bad yet but it's getting there fast. The biggest housing bubble in the history of humanity is currently in china, now that it's maxed out those that caused it are moving it over to hot markets around the world with stable governments. They did a number on Manhattan, London, Paris, Vancouver, Toronto, now it's moving to smaller but well off markets like Calgary.