Marketed with names like Altitude, Triomphe, Altoria, Challenger and Griffintown, new condo developments are being promoted across the city.
But few developers can claim to have sold out within four hours – on reservations, at least – like Le Groupe Preval’s Seville project this past weekend.
Within hours, interested buyers put down deposits between $2,000 and $5,000 for 99 available units in the downtown development’s first phase, Preval co-chairman Jacques Vincent said in an interview yesterday. More than 250 potential buyers were interested, lining up outside the project’s sales office.
"In the coming weeks, the people will sit down and sign their formal contracts," he said.
The 450-unit Seville project – to be built in several phases over several years in the Shaughnessy Village – targets first-time buyers with condos ranging from $144,000 for a 416-square-foot studio to $325,000 for a 976-square-foot two-bedroom apartment.
It’s a market where builders are poised to become "the future millionaires of Quebec," billionaire commercial developer David Azrieli said.
"Will we be the next millionaires of Quebec, I don’t know?" Vincent said. "But I think that we should recognize that he (Azrieli) was right over what happened this weekend. I don’t want to speak this language about millionaires, but one of success."
During the next few years, thousands of new condo units are scheduled to be developed in the Montreal area. Yesterday, developer Devimco Inc. announced about 800 new condo units alone as part of its $475-million Griffintown project.
Still, many buyers -especially first-time ones -are willing to wait since the condo inventory in the resale market is relatively low, brokers say.
"I think we’re going to have a lot of inventory in two years," said Carl Remillard Fontaine, a broker with Profusion Realty who specializes in selling condos downtown, in Westmount and on Nuns’ Island. "That said, I don’t see too much right now. Condos that are well-priced tend to sell very quickly."
Fontaine, who sells more condos in the high-end market, said he only has 20 listing for condos right now, compared with his usual 50.
Vincent agreed that there is demand for new condos in the city.
"I think that there isn’t too much inventory in Montreal -maybe in the higher-end market," he said. "Montreal has well-absorbed the condos it has. It’s not like in the 1990s. Then there were a lot of homes, condos and houses that didn’t sell. Today, we don’t find any catastrophic projects that are completely empty, where there is really no one in there."
Vincent said the Seville project has found a niche in promoting a downtown address to young professionals for about $350 per square foot on average -a lower price than what’s normally found in Montreal’s downtown core. The area, a dingy, boarded-up strip on Ste. Catherine St. W. between Chomedey and Lambert Closse Sts., is in dire need of rejuvenation, and for the right price, Prevel’s young buyers are willing to get on-board.
"It’s one of the most dense areas in Canada," Vincent said of the area. "And there hasn’t been much available in terms of condos in this area. Also, the availability of condos downtown has tended to be more in the high-end market."
Vincent, whose group is currently developing two other Montreal condo projects with more than 700 units apiece, said he believes most developments will sell.
"I think that all projects will be developed, but at different speeds. I’m not saying that there aren’t those that could fail, but generally, in these projects you can’t improvise," he said. "You need significant financial backing. The banks demand a significant amount of pre-sales."
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