GabrielHurl
Active Member
Totally agree with that - the difference between each side of Bay Street is very evident.
Ïce Condos > condos made of ice
Ïce Condos > condos made of ice
The change in the market has been rapid, according to Ms. Lawlor. Now developers are deploying virtual sales centres, rent guarantees, generous terms on deposits or extending “cooling off periods” up to 100 days for buyers to break the deal with no penalty.
“New construction condo sales market was on fire, just really buoyant. We were all just absolutely thrown off our game,” Ms. Lawlor said. “Like a month ago, we were absolutely still doing large-scale gatherings, notably at the ROM when we launched 11 Yorkville. We gathered 2,000 brokers and there was only 593 units in the building. There was a huge demand and not enough supply, and that was driving our marketplace pre-COVID.
“These launches would take us close to the 70 per cent of sales mark. We were doing them on iPads, we were processing 100, 150 sales in a day.”
Now, the sales have slowed to a trickle, and some new launches are being delayed, perhaps as far as September. “There were launches we were ready to bring to market in April and May and they are definitely on hold,” said Ms. Lawlor, who adds that Baker has worked with many of the city’s largest developers – Metropia, Capital Developments, RioCan, Dream, Urban Capital – and has about 20 sales centres on the go right now.