Representation of 1818, a 54-unit tower overlooking Stanley Park, from Landa Global Properties. Landa Global Properties
Vancouver’s line of billionaires on Alberni Street is gaining momentum again after a break in the West End luxury market in recent years.
By 2018, the West End condo market had slowed, especially at the end of luxury and ultraluxe. But as the world slowly returns to normal, and so does immigration and tourism, the downtown luxury market is poised to do business again, says developer Kevin Cheung, chief executive of Landa Global Properties.
The company has invested heavily in Vancouver’s Alberni Street electric corridor with three projects, including a pair of 43- and 48-story passive house towers at 1468 Alberni St. A complete block of apartment and office buildings will give way to heritage style. towers, designed by Robert AM Stern Architects of New York, with Vancouver MCM Partnership. Its 1650 Alberni Tower, in collaboration with Asia Standard Americas, is being designed by SOM, the architects of the One World Trade Center in New York.
When he was interviewed a year ago, Mr. Cheung said developers who had plans to launch had put them on hold. He described the mood as one in which developers waited cautiously and wondered who would have the courage to launch first. This year, the mood is a little different, which is why he is one of the first to launch the presale, for his 1818 Alberni project, which had been on hold.
“With the return of immigration and tourism and people coming to the city center, we basically wanted to put our project on the market,” Mr. Cheung. “We have confidence in the market, but it is not yet a proven market. We are not in full recovery where everything is coming back and there are a lot of product launches. We are not there yet. But we have a lot of things pending in the Alberni corridor, so we have to to start”.
Mr. Cheung said other developers who have not yet launched their marketing efforts are in a holding pattern, waiting for buyers to return. The 1515 tower of Bosa Properties, designed by German architect Ole Scheeren and part of a global trend for tall “jenga” style buildings, was launched last fall. It arrived just after the launch of Jim Pattison Developments’ 2 Burrard Place.
As for other luxury projects in the West End, Mr. Cheung says, “They haven’t been released, but I know they’re in the planning stage. During our market meetings, [marketer] Bob Rennie presented a bunch of figures from all the projects that have the potential to launch next year. There are a lot of players on the same boat waiting to go. “
Two weeks ago, Mr. Cheung began previews in 1818, a 21-story, 54-unit boutique tower designed by Rafii Architects. It is one of the shortest buildings because it is close to Stanley Park and is aimed at the type of buyer who appreciates an exclusive view and a Rolls-Royce car service. The price is $ 2,300 to $ 2,400 per square foot, and last week Mr. Cheung had already sold about 18 units in the building. These prices are conservative compared to those before the pandemic, he said.
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Representation of 1400 Alberni, which will be the development of the highest passive houses in the world. By Landa Global Properties.Landa Global Properties
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Representation of Westbank Alberni Tower by Kengo Kuma at 1550 Alberni Street. Construction is expected to be completed this year.KKAA
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Representation of Westbank Alberni Tower by Kengo Kuma at 1550 Alberni Street. Construction is expected to be completed this year.KKAA
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Representation of 1400 Alberni, which will be the development of the highest passive houses in the world. By Landa Global Properties.Landa Global Properties
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Representation of 1818, a 54-unit tower overlooking Stanley Park, by Landa Global Properties. 1818 has just launched its presale, priced at about $ 2,400 per square foot. Landa Global Properties
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Representation of 1650 Alberni, by the developer Landa Global Properties. Landa Global Properties
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He initially planned to build two units per floor, but due to the pandemic crisis he reconfigured the floor slabs to include two smaller two-bedroom and one three-bedroom rooms that occupy half a floor. To his surprise, the three bedrooms have sold out faster, with starting prices of $ 3.8 million. Both bedrooms start at $ 1.8 million.
“For a downtown project, having 2,000 square feet, half a slab of earth, is very rare,” he explains. “I do not think you will receive this offer again in Alberni Street, except in the attics. Having lots of great three-bedroom rooms with water views is very unique. “
Alberni Street has had luxury shops for years, but when it comes to housing it is now a new row of emerging billionaires. It is becoming the pony of the show of elaborate architecture and equally decadent lifestyles. Cheung says the transformation was largely the result of the city’s West End community plan, which covers the center of the peninsula between West Georgia, Burrard, Stanley Park and English Bay. Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s city program, said the average family income in the West End is just $ 51,000.
“I think in the West End community plan they put all the highest densities on Alberni Street and a lot of sections that don’t have social housing requirements. The City Council designated the street as very high, “Cheung said.
“I’m sure you’ve heard of comparisons with Rodeo Drive, where Alberni starts at one end with luxury retail and a small residential segment and ends with Stanley Park, so it’s a very limited offer. the heights and basically with the building policy, we had to show leadership in design and sustainability, and that gave rise to all these ‘starchitects’. That’s how it was formed. “
As for the buyers, Mr. Cheung said he did not know the demographics, but believed they were end users, not investors.
The rise of the luxury market, however, also coincides with the rise in immigration and tourism, which indicates that foreign wealth is driving the market.
Condo seller George Wong, director of Magnum Projects, said the downtown market slowed in 2018 and continued to stagnate for years to come, with some recovery in the fall of 2020. In 2021, the developers started launching projects they had been waiting for. the margins. The luxury market is not yet where it was, but the expectation is that it will pick up momentum.
Mr. Wong marketed Three Harbor Green more than a decade ago, and the attic, which was then sold in the $ 11 million range, is now priced at $ 49 million. However, the market for this type of housing is extremely niche.
“This is for the super, super, super rich … there are very few people on the planet who can afford this, and this caliber of people are people who don’t even live here full time. It’s a second home.”
Last summer, he marketed 2 Burrards for $ 1,900 per square foot, and this project worked “exceptionally well,” says Mr. Wong. There are degrees of luxury in the West End, he says.
“The luxury condo would be in the $ 2 to $ 5 million price range, and the high-end luxury would be in the $ 5 to $ 12 million price range. I would say the luxury price range is below $ 5 million. has worked decently, but has not returned to where it was in 2017. The high-end luxury market has yet to find its way back, because we are missing the super-rich, and COVID had stopped many of its international trips. “But once it reopens … Canada is so sought after for the life and education of children, just for safety.”
Representation of Westbank Alberni Tower by Kengo Kuma at 1550 Alberni Street.KKAA
Very few locals can afford this type of product, he says.
“Even our high – end luxury market product is cheap [for international buyers]. ”
To attract investors to 2 Burrard, they lowered prices and made the suites smaller.
“There was a lot of anxiety about how people would react in the city center, so at 2 Burrard we had 239 houses and we wanted to make sure we had a good business card for the budget and the appetite of investors.
“Investors had stayed away from the center for a while. So we were very attentive and very concerned about that, and we weren’t sure if they would come back.… We wanted to be more conservative to test the market, so we did the suites as well. smaller to attract the investor “.
The result was that more than 65 percent of the project was sold to investors.
“That’s pretty healthy. We were very happy with how it turned out.”
Once China comes out of the blockade and buyers return, the downtown market should pick up even more, he said. Buyers from around the world buy in Vancouver, but China is the key global buyer: wealthy buyers with available capital.
And foreign wealth drives high-end towers that reach the city center, Mr. Wong. This has been the phenomenon for about 15 years. Even though Chinese cities are closed, these buyers are still finding ways to buy property in Vancouver. And for very wealthy buyers, many of the homes are secondary properties, not primary residences, he says.
“A lot of people in China can’t travel, but once they relax, we’ll see a huge influx.
“People are finding ways to send money here. Living in China hasn’t always been a habit, isn’t it? And Vancouver is very attractive.
“Some take their money and buy without coming here.”
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