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Condo Crunch (CBC's Marketplace)

SpadinaBus

SpadinaBus

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I thought I would start this thread for another condo pitfall story. CBC Marketplace is a doing a feature story called the "Condo Crunch" (see the teaser below from the website). Let' see what the Miss Mesley has in mind for us next Monday night.

Wendy Mesley takes viewers inside the booming billion dollar condo market, and discovers that buying a new condominium can put consumers in a crunch with constricting contracts and murky marketing. With a helicopter hovering over construction cranes, to behind-the-scenes access at hyped sales events, Wendy takes potential buyers on an inside tour of potential condo pitfalls. "The Condo Crunch" airs Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. (8 p.m. NT) on CBC Television.

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/
 
:D hey good job! I was actually just coming on to post a notice for the program as well. Glad to see someone else was already on it! Should be good - cant wait to see some of the aerial shots and sounds like they're going to take a bite out of the 1BE marketing hype....
 
The folks in the neighbourhood are indicating that Cresford Developments may be part of the story as well. With the stories that have been posted on this board about them, it will be interesting to see what Marketplace chooses to discuss.

Perhaps as you suggest, we can see some 1BE "behind the scenes". Love to see that!
 
The show is now up on the website.

The developments that were discussed in Toronto were Quad Lofts (the infamous floors) and the "cancelled" Mode Lofts (both by Cresford). The 1BE part was not that interesting and really didn't scratch the surface about the hype. There was also a purchase of a suite in the Liberty Village towers by CBC which highlighted the lack of protection for the average joe buying a condo who don't know what a tape measure is for. The story about the guy that got an outdoor parking spot was hilarious. The unfortunate soul though. We definitely need more consumer protection in this condo business.
 
SpadinaBus said:
The show is now up on the website.

The developments that were discussed in Toronto were Quad Lofts (the infamous floors) and the "cancelled" Mode Lofts (both by Cresford). The 1BE part was not that interesting and really didn't scratch the surface about the hype. There was also a purchase of a suite in the Liberty Village towers by CBC which highlighted the lack of protection for the average joe buying a condo who don't know what a tape measure is for. The story about the guy that got an outdoor parking spot was hilarious. The unfortunate soul though. We definitely need more consumer protection in this condo business.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link 'Bus. It was entertaining but toothless. Watching a CBC expose on the condo market is like watching Hans Blix in Iraq. The lawyer's comments were meant to scare you into hiring him and that real estate agent was clearly self-serving. I'm sure he was booted off more developer-side sales teams than anyone in this city. He comes across as a total flake. No sympathy either for the young couple sitting on a $90,000 gain and whining about the lack of a walk in closet. You can't possibly expect a builder to replicate the exact dimensions of a floor plan due to the nature of construction. Everyone knows that and that's why sophisticated buyers don't buy off floor plans if they really want a certain layout.

I would have liked to see a breakdown of the sales numbers for 07- 22,000+ sales! It would have been more interesting to expose the massive buying syndicates that are gobbling up these never-to-be-occupied suites and figure out when these mysterious buyers intend to dump them on the market.
 
well, that episode sure didnt live up to the hype of the commercial... guess the laws of marketing are universal eh? I found it interesting how they tended not to mention developments by name. And I agree, they were very lacking on the big picture regarding supply vs. real demand. I guess there are a lot of nightmare stories out there... as Ive said before, I'd never have the guts to buy anything that only existed on paper.
 
The message was "look out suckers!" It was disappointing that they didn't interview any happy condo owners. I prefer Mike Holme's more balanced approach. He damns the bad but praises the good. (I have repeatedly noticed that the better units are already gone when sales officially open. For example, all units on the southwest corner of the X-condo from floors 17 to 44 were shown as sold. At greatly inflated prices, some of these units are mysteriously now available!)
 
SpadinaBus said:
The show is now up on the website.

The developments that were discussed in Toronto were Quad Lofts (the infamous floors) and the "cancelled" Mode Lofts (both by Cresford). The 1BE part was not that interesting and really didn't scratch the surface about the hype. There was also a purchase of a suite in the Liberty Village towers by CBC which highlighted the lack of protection for the average joe buying a condo who don't know what a tape measure is for. The story about the guy that got an outdoor parking spot was hilarious. The unfortunate soul though. We definitely need more consumer protection in this condo business.
Click to expand...

Interesting because I noticed that Cresford managed to get some decent PR for their new project on the south side of the Queensway near Park Lawn. I guess they can get away with calling that area High Park-ish. Still, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice...

I don't agree on the protection though. Without the liberal interpretations of these agreements most condo builders wouldn't take the risk of building. Margins are too thin, at least they were until the second half of 07. As long as the public is acting foolish they deserve to be fooled. The alternative is (wait for it.....)







buy an EXISTING UNIT! What a concept!
 
You can't possibly expect a builder to replicate the exact dimensions of a floor plan due to the nature of construction
Click to expand...

How does a builder build a building, if they don't refer to the plans? How does the city allow construction to start, if they don't follow the plans?
 
I don't agree on the protection though. Without the liberal interpretations of these agreements most condo builders wouldn't take the risk of building.
Click to expand...

That's because you're a developer.:D
 
investor said:
Interesting because I noticed that Cresford managed to get some decent PR for their new project on the south side of the Queensway near Park Lawn. I guess they can get away with calling that area High Park-ish. Still, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice...

I don't agree on the protection though. Without the liberal interpretations of these agreements most condo builders wouldn't take the risk of building. Margins are too thin, at least they were until the second half of 07. As long as the public is acting foolish they deserve to be fooled. The alternative is (wait for it.....)

buy an EXISTING UNIT! What a concept!
Click to expand...

Come on, existing condos (like houses) are just as likely to be as problematic.
 
investor said:
buy an EXISTING UNIT! What a concept!
Click to expand...

Somebody needs to buy from a plan in order for existing units to exist. If everyone took your advise there would be no resale market.

Maybe everyone should just buy used cars too. And if you buy a new car and you ordered silver, but get green... how could the manufacture possible remember all the colours chosen in those huge assembly plants!

Any other nuggets of wisdom? How about "buy low, sell high"?
 
avatarreb said:
Somebody needs to buy from a plan in order for existing units to exist. If everyone took your advise there would be no resale market.

Maybe everyone should just buy used cars too. And if you buy a new car and you ordered silver, but get green... how could the manufacture possible remember all the colours chosen in those huge assembly plants!

Any other nuggets of wisdom? How about "buy low, sell high"?
Click to expand...

From the tone of your message I would guess that you're about 20 years old at most. You're probably too young to remember the 1989-90 condo market crash. It came about as a result of a confluence of factors, the biggest of which was a giant oversupply of speculative condos that hit the market just as the rent of the economy was hit by a manufacturing led recession. Sound familiar? That's the direction that we are headed in today.

You want some wisdom? For someone with your ultra-limited cognitive abilities I suggest you avoid any investing altogether and keep all your funds under your mattress. That's just about the only way you won't end up losing everything.

Looking at your post history and seeing a swath of ShittyPlace comments. Bet you're getting a wee bit nervous holding any units in that dump, eh?
 
Warning

You want some wisdom? For someone with your ultra-limited cognitive abilities I suggest you avoid any investing altogether and keep all your funds under your mattress. That's just about the only way you won't end up losing everything.

Looking at your post history and seeing a swath of ShittyPlace comments. Bet you're getting a wee bit nervous holding any units in that dump, eh?
Click to expand...

Name-calling and bashing will not be tolerated.

While your opinions and insight can be interesting, it's not helping at all when you resort to such language.

You've been warned.
 
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