Real estate in Calgary - another bubble?

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by J pold

Being a real estate broker we are right in the middle of a lot of the WHF vs. traditional office model discussions.

None of our clients have said they would 100% WFH but nearly all want to embrace a flexible working model. Some are more flexible than others but it's pretty clear that they are going to let employees WFH 1 to 3 days a week in most cases.

Are they choosing to lease less office space given flexible working arrangements?

[J pold]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Are they choosing to lease less office space given flexible working arrangements?

Broadly speaking yes. I would say most groups say they can do with 20 - 30% less space. There is also a large focus on hotelling & collaboration in space design.

Calgary is a bit unusual because lease space here is so cheap that reducing your footprint really isn't that much of cost savings, particularly when you compare it to rates in Toronto & Vancouver.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by KTrain

Opinion: Real estate's dirty little secret: Inflated fees



https://financialpost.com/opinion/op...-inflated-fees

I got as far as them explaining the typical commission + HST in BC
Who writes these things?

[Flamenspiel]

Fees need to be negotiated with your realtor, they usually give you a discount on multiple sales. Lawyers will also discount multiples.

Wow, BC and HST. Bring Cash!

[Regular_John]

Well, it’s been an eventful few weeks for us.

The first conditional sale on our townhome fell through due to financing issues the day the home inspection was to take place. Not great as we’d booked an AirBNB out of our own pocket so we could continue WFH the afternoon of the inspection. In addition the offer we’d written on another property was just straight up ignored by the sellers, so having two deals evaporate in 6 hours of each other was pretty deflating.

We took the weekend off to collect ourselves and ultimately started showings again, had more 4 more showings, accepted an offer that was within $1k of our listing price after some back & forth.

Which of course starts the clock again on finding a new place.

Went to see a townhome in Renfrew that we’d tried to view previously but was C/S at the time, we completely lucked out as the end unit next door with more windows & a better layout had a “coming soon” sign out front.

Managed to get an offer in and accepted before it even hit the market, conditions were waived last night, we’re moving next month

[Calgary14]

Calgary's real estate market has turned "red hot" with an 11% price increase from last year (national average is 31.6% increase year over year)

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...-turns-red-hot

[81MC]

Such a bank thing to do.

[keenan87]

Anyone know if the condo market has started to turn around or is that still pretty quiet? I assume all these increases don't include condos.

[jwslam]

Originally Posted by keenan87

Anyone know if the condo market has started to turn around or is that still pretty quiet? I assume all these increases don't include condos.

Been thinking of offloading mine and the other listings in the same building look like they're moving in price or sales

[Deegee]

Such a weird market right now. With a new role in my company we're moving to Edmonton (wish our head office was in Calgary). I casually commented on a post on Facebook with someone looking to rent a place that they should buy our place and the next thing I knew we had 10 messages. Conditionally sold the place the same day.

On the flip side in Edmonton we looked at 10 places and when we went to put an offer on a place, 4 were gone and one had been pulled and relisted at $20,000 higher.

I do wonder about people who work from home right being called back to the office after moving further from the office. I've lived in smaller communities for the last decade and I can tell you the constant commute for anything is such a drag on life and really gets to you.

I don't think people need to be concerned about what happens if interest rates go up in 5 years. Financial institutions do not want to be property owners and will stretch out amortization if they have to.

[Calgary14]

I don’t think the increases are relevant for condos. From the few I’ve looked at online they are having a hard time selling at their current prices. Mind you that’s only a few and not representative of all condos but from what I’ve heard condos aren’t going up like single family houses

[Johnny199r]

Originally Posted by Deegee

Such a weird market right now. With a new role in my company we're moving to Edmonton (wish our head office was in Calgary). I casually commented on a post on Facebook with someone looking to rent a place that they should buy our place and the next thing I knew we had 10 messages. Conditionally sold the place the same day.

On the flip side in Edmonton we looked at 10 places and when we went to put an offer on a place, 4 were gone and one had been pulled and relisted at $20,000 higher.

I do wonder about people who work from home right being called back to the office after moving further from the office. I've lived in smaller communities for the last decade and I can tell you the constant commute for anything is such a drag on life and really gets to you.

I don't think people need to be concerned about what happens if interest rates go up in 5 years. Financial institutions do not want to be property owners and will stretch out amortization if they have to.

People aren't thinking about the possible return to the office this year or next. They also aren't thinking about interest rates ever rising, needing financial breathing room in case of illness or divorce, saving enough for retirement, or really anything else as long as they can make the monthly payments. It's only about right now. They'll figure out how to make competitive hockey for the kids and annual vacations to Mexico still work with a $650,000 house, no worries there.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

I don’t think the increases are relevant for condos. From the few I’ve looked at online they are having a hard time selling at their current prices. Mind you that’s only a few and not representative of all condos but from what I’ve heard condos aren’t going up like single family houses

I think the condo market has a bigger backlog of people who wanted to sell in the past but ended up renting instead. So there is more supply coming on.

Also, I think often the condo market lags the single family market on the way up, because people who get priced out of a single family home buy a condo instead as a starter property. So it take awhile for that to play out.

I think the condo market is likely to begin moving up in the next couple of months.

[Ahuch]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I think the condo market has a bigger backlog of people who wanted to sell in the past but ended up renting instead. So there is more supply coming on.

Also, I think often the condo market lags the single family market on the way up, because people who get priced out of a single family home buy a condo instead as a starter property. So it take awhile for that to play out.

I think the condo market is likely to begin moving up in the next couple of months.

The price differentials are insane on Condo listings right now... I'm always amazed some realtors are willing to take on a listing when they're priced so much higher than other units (even in the same building) and nothing is moving because of how underwater they are on their mortgage and can't take the hit.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Ahuch

The price differentials are insane on Condo listings right now... I'm always amazed some realtors are willing to take on a listing when they're priced so much higher than other units (even in the same building) and nothing is moving because of how underwater they are on their mortgage and can't take the hit.

Yeah, I meant actual sales prices will probably go up, that doesn't mean overpriced stuff will sell. If a building is at 240k and everything goes up 10% that takes it to 264k and I can totally see that happening this year. The people who have been listed at 299 for the last 6 months still won't be able to sell though.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Ahuch

The price differentials are insane on Condo listings right now... I'm always amazed some realtors are willing to take on a listing when they're priced so much higher than other units (even in the same building) and nothing is moving because of how underwater they are on their mortgage and can't take the hit.

We call that "buying the listing".
Lots of sellers go with whatever agent tells them the highest number, so it's common for newer agents in particular to just over promise, get the listing and then hope.

But they are at least in pole position to try and get a price reduction later vs losing the listing to another agent in the first place and never gaining the client.

[Flames0910]

IDK about condos going up in a couple months, the market dynamics are different than for detached. And there is no shortage of more, newer supply in the pipe too.

I sold my condo last fall and am just glad to be out. I don’t see prices recovering in the near term, supply is just too far ahead of demand.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Flames0910

IDK about condos going up in a couple months, the market dynamics are different than for detached. And there is no shortage of more, newer supply in the pipe too.

I sold my condo last fall and am just glad to be out. I don’t see prices recovering in the near term, supply is just too far ahead of demand.

It agree it would take a change in demand for condo prices to move up. I think that's possible as covid gets to be done (less of a backyard premium) and people start getting prices out of single family. We'll see.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Johnny199r

People aren't thinking about the possible return to the office this year or next. They also aren't thinking about interest rates ever rising, needing financial breathing room in case of illness or divorce, saving enough for retirement, or really anything else as long as they can make the monthly payments. It's only about right now. They'll figure out how to make competitive hockey for the kids and annual vacations to Mexico still work with a $650,000 house, no worries there.

It will be interesting, but with a unknown of whether WFM will be more accepted later. I know our company is saying we won’t necessarily be returning to the pre-pandemic norm after vaccinations, etc.

So knowing some of thing, I am less inclined to move out of the city, but rather keep things flexible. Condo in the city seems like a good choice and then AirBnB out when work allows. If I am not a winter person, I’d like to work remotely from somewhere less frigid.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Ahuch

The price differentials are insane on Condo listings right now... I'm always amazed some realtors are willing to take on a listing when they're priced so much higher than other units (even in the same building) and nothing is moving because of how underwater they are on their mortgage and can't take the hit.

I will never understand condo maintenance fees. It’s one of the things that is a bit off-putting from buying a condo. You could practically rent a condo for the amount you’d pay in condo fees and property taxes.