Berczy: Post Mortem

Whenever a development launches in a prime A1 location like The Berczy, it is sure to garner a lot of attention. This is true no matter what the economic climate or how hot the real estate market is. The Berczy had many investors and first time buyers salivating at the prospects of owning in a beautiful building in one of the best spots in the city, but unfortunately many of them went home disappointed after sales started this past weekend. The situation reminds me a lot of a previous post I wrote last year – Prepare to be Disappointed. Some of my observations from the weekend:

As early as Saturday afternoon I had already received several calls from agents or would-be clients from other Realtors who were lamenting the fact that there were no small suites to buy
On both sales days – Saturday and Sunday, it seemed there were no small suites available by the time the clock struck 10:30am.
There seemed to be an allocated amount of suites to each day of sales, so if you had an appointment at 10:00am Sunday you were better off than an appointment at 2:00pm Saturday.
On Saturday there was a huge crowd of agents outside the sales centre trying to get in without an appointment. Presumably by Sunday they had gotten the message as they were turning people away if they did not have an appointment.
No detailed price list was ever released so it’s hard to know if the developer was raising prices at the last minute or not since there was nothing to compare the stated prices to.
The sales reps said they were NOT holding back units for future events
The rescission rate for this event could be high because buyers were buying 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice of suite since their 1st choice was not available.
Even the larger 1000 sq ft + suites were selling briskly over the weekend. This suggests that while investors went away disappointed, end-user buyers with means did mostly get what they wanted.
My clients managed to get a 2 storey unit with 11′ ceilings for $491 per square foot.
City view suites on higher floors were going into the mid $600s per square foot – still reasonable.
Kitchen and Bathroom finishes were above average – especially nice were the integrated appliances and forward thinking design colour palattes
Sales centre and model suite was very well designed and presented.
Bottom line, this is not an investor-driven building and will likely be a fantastic piece of real estate when it is built in a few years.