Impossible you say? I think not!
Here is a real life example of how someone sold their Vancouver strata condo for 3 times the market value.
If you’ve been following the story of 1075 Barclay St in Vancouver’s West- End, then you likely know the story already.
Barclay Terrace is a 36 Unit, 7 storey, concrete strata building located on the corner of Barclay and Thurlow Street in downtown Vancouver, which in 2015 was rezoned by the City of Vancouver to allow for large residential strata towers. When this happened, two of Vancouver’s largest developers, Westbank and Bosa, gradually gobbled them up from the individual owners.
The idea was to then wind up the strata corporation and to redevelop the property. To do so now only requires an 80% approval of the owners according to the new strata property act legislation, so this should have been a slam dunk with 34 of the 36 units (94% of the strata) voting in favour!
Then, the two remaining owners got greedy! The asking price for their two strata units went from $1.9 million in 2016, to $2.1 million.
The Buyers went back to the table, and offered $3.5 million for both properties in 2017, but the asking price then shot up to a whopping $10 million!
The formula to sell your Vancouver downtown condo for 3 times market value
In March 2018, this case went to court, and the judge ruled that one holdout owner was to receive $2.7 million for his strata property assessed at $793,000, and the other $2.2 million for his property assessed at $672,000. Not a bad premium over market value! The judge then granted the majority owners’ application to wind down the strata and sell off the property.
So there you have it, the formula to sell your strata condo for 3 times the market value! Was this a once in a lifetime opportunity? Hardly! There are many, many properties in downtown Vancouver that will be rezoned and redeveloped over time. Find yourself a few of these and fuel your retirement!
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