Luxury waterfront property in Oakville !

Pretty face, but that rear... Yikes.

Developer to Architect - "I want it to have the feel of a dormitory and low-rise apartment bldg all in one!"
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I was out for a stroll along the Mimico Waterfront on the weekend. Dropped into the Waterscapes building as there was an open house - nice building. Small one bedroom around 650 sf., overlooking construction next door which will undoubtedly overshadow the view of this condo. $375K.

RE agent told me it's owned by the developer and they are really having a hard time moving it.. been at it for a few months.

:s

 

Ok I can understand a premium for Vancouver and even a premium the closer you get to downtown. But way out in the suburbs with lots of space, it should be mostly flat and steady.

I mean come on, Tsawwassen is 9k people now and it was around the same back in the 80's. My theory is people around the lower mainland have sellers seeing $2million tear down stories in the paper. If you are seller anywhere in the lower mainland and including Langley, they must be going if a tear in Van is $2million, surely my house is worth $1.8 million by now. Listings went up after the Sun newspaper printed a story on a real junk $2million tear down. There is three to four agents in Tsawwassen with the bulk of the listings. One put up a renovated average house at $1.7million, it sold. That agent started raising all her listings. Next thing you know all the agents followed suit.

Toronto and the GTA, its still reasonable enough, you could use real estate as a RRSP on steroids. You can put as much as you want in Real Estate. Good tax write offs. Now Langley is creeping up to an average house being a million.

Now lets see how the drama teacher and his trained seals handle this.

 

Haha !! Nice one

 

I was thinking you were going to mention Kleinburg, or wait... Oakville.... or wait... Woodbridge ? Or wait... Nobleton ?

A ton of subdivision homes priced at $2.5 Million for each. Pretty nuts. They are everywhere, but people are buying them. Large estate homes never go up in value, I know for a fact that all these mansions in Kleinburg, Woodbridge which sold for $2 Million in 1995, are only worth $2.5 right now. They are a liabability due to their size, maintenance and property tax bills. And due to the fact that 15 years later they need major reno's which would cost $500,000.

 

I am particularly troubled by Nobleton / King. (Not to knock the town, its quite beautiful and has country charm)

Huge subdivisions going up there, starting and listing at $1.3 Million for a standard builders home. 45ft x 120 ft lot, squeezed together in a bare bones neighbourhood.

Nothing but a No Frills, Petro Canada, and a Shoppers Drug Mart in sight. About a 20 minute drive to any highway, and about a 1 hour commute to Toronto. Very far out location, a difficult commute. Only hope is that you have a job in Vaughan which is the closest major urban centre from there.

Already had a few friends / families buy up there for big bucks... and move out 2 years later because the commute, amenities and neighbourhood structure was not worth the $1.3 price tag. (You can get the same house / lot / price in Vaughan which is a 10x better location.)

I assume they will start building a Home Depot, Restaurants, etc.. amenities eventually. But I don't see it any time soon as country-town planners have a tight grip on the developers.

 

Speaking of Oakville waterfront... I noticed most properties along Mississauga /Oakville lakeshore do not have boat docks.

Do they not own the water rights ? Or is it not allowed?

We see all these billionaires living along Lakeshore, but no boats / yachts parked out back.

Seems strange as if I had a waterfront property, I would think it would be handy to have a boat dock or boat house in case you wanted to go for a cruise.

 

Not all houses have riparian rights either, so the land might not actually own the waterfront. House listings usually mention it when there is. I think though that most boat owners would rather dock in a marina where the underwater clearance is there, and its protected from the weather. Lake Ontario can get really windy, and choppy. The water level has also dropped a ton over the past years, so a dock might not be feasible in some cases. Along Lakeshore you're never more than 15 min from a marina anyways. Thats pretty much the case from Stoney creek's 50 Point, all the way to Toronto. ( Lasalle, Bronte,, Oakville, Port Credit, Parklawn off the top of my head)

S.

 

People forget their house is the biggest investment they make, but its not the only one. house's always stay within the income range of those who buy them. When they get too high, more people try and sell. Less people buy.

People don't get into real estate as an agent because they believe they need to find buyers and sell them the house. The only selling in real estate is convincing someone to sell and give you the listing. Houses sell themselves. The smart get the concept and build up their listings. In any given area, you can tell who is who, you can see who has the most listings in any given area. When people decide to sell and want to find an agent, they see the agents with tons of listings and want to list with them.

The problem with this. Now in Vancouver, even the lazy have to hustle to make a living. They are all telling the same story, the foreigners are coming and they are going to buy up the entire lower mainland. The big problem with Canadian real estate, we the general public don't have actual sales data. We don't know if it really sold or not. We don't know what they actually sold for and we don't know how long they are on the MLS for. Like they do in the USA! Agents here flat out lie to get listings.

When I moved to Eastern Washington, the town had a really nice neighborhood called Eagle Rock. The houses there where dirt cheap. You could get a 5k sqft. 5bedroom home on 2acres there for $500k. I looked on the MLS and noticed the houses up there sat on the market 2 years and if they did sell it was in the $380k range. Now this would be great for a retiree, but with someone with 30 years working life left. Bad investment. I believe the hard sell on the investment aspect of real estate in Vancouver, mixed with hidden real data. There is no real demand in the lower mainland. The real estate agents have now killed what little demand there was.

Yes foreign money is going to come in. But most is going towards the big money deals. Do you know how big listing agents get killed? They start building one or two spec houses at a time to sell.

 

Across Canada, a large number of Canadians are not happy with the rise in real estate. As Vancouver has risen dramatically over the last few weeks, more and more people are getting angrier and its not because they didn't buy a home and make money flipping houses.

It?s not just Vancouver. Most urban Canadians upset over soaring housing prices: poll

Interim report on real estate licensee misconduct expected in mid-April

A growing angry population and agents rigging the casino, is a recipe for disaster. When bubbles pop, we see things like GM posting record sales and year later bankrupt and needing a major government bail out! Hence why economist make a good living, but don't get rich playing the market! Vancouver's may go for a year or two more, but it will come down and hard.

 

There is news stories of people flipping their houses for $100k to $200k profits. As pointed out our market is ripe with shadow flipping.

Another story going around is this: "Last week a delusional dink paid $4.23 million for a Kitsilano house. But not just any house. A normal one, on a regular lot – only 33 feet wide. Renovated? Sure. Palatial? Nah. Worse, the greedy sellers had asked for only $3.495 million, so the dink threw an extra $735,000 on the pile. More bizarre, the house has a rental apartment in the basement, so some person will end up sharing your $4-million digs while paying the same as if it were a $1 million shack."

Even radio DJ's are talking about that one. Anyway here is the house:

http://www.greaterfool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/KITS.jpg?8f4c78

Sure I understand people want to be downtown. But the majority who buy these types of houses are not rich.

30 minutes drive away for $6million and under you can buy estate homes on acreage.

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/16525628/24410-26-AVENUE-Langley-British-Columbia-V2Z3A6

Under $4million estate homes on small for the area 2acre lots

19838 3 Avenue, Langley, BC, House For Sale | REW.ca

Its obvious the dumb money is in the market. Dumb money when it invests big money they loose big money. If Vancouver real estate is a rising investment, the rising tides would raise all ships. 20 acres therefore would be worth a lot more in the near future! Reality, why Phoenix has never gone parabolic, its surround by desert! The lower mainland is surrounded by vacant land. Most people don't seem to notice North Van has room for a lot of development, so does Burnaby. Sure we have Asian money flowing into real estate now. But foreign money flows never last. Regular Canadians, even wealthy Canadians can't support this market.

 

water depth
lots of shallow, still, sea-weedy stinky stagnant water in oakville/mississauga

 

Wind and heavy lake ice = erosion. You need to maintain a serious breakwater along a spit to create proper mooring facilities. Have a look at Oakville Harbour, Bronte Harbour, Port Credit.

 

Besides the erosion issues. To build even a small dock is a real hassle in Canada.

 

I'm actually thinking of selling. Downsize property and out buildings for a better house on less land. Even looking in Toronto. My thinking Id rather be stuck and up side on a really nice house VS having land and an older farm house.

 

I'm looking GTA and some areas near Vancouver. Oh meant upside down in my last post!

 

Never discount the value of having land. You may regret looking out your window and seeing in your neighbors house rather then green grass and trees. Also backyard privacy is priceless on a winters evening when sitting in the hot tub with the wife or girlfriend.

 

True.. Downsizing would be 40acres to 5 or 10. I like rural areas. I think Ontario is overall steady.