Recall our post on July 19th about this new iconic development in Vancouver?
The wife and I were unable to make it to the July 19/20 weekend preview of Vancouver House at Four Seasons Hotel. But we were pleasantly surprised to learn that they were holding another road-show - at ION Orchard this time - over last weekend. So we decided to drop by to have a look yesterday.
Firstly, one advice to marketing agent/foreign developers looking to market their projects here in Singapore: Please stick to holding your property previews/launches at the function rooms of our local hotels or at least some dedicated enclosed locations. The spot that was chosen to hold the road-show was so "open" that once the mall started filling up with human traffic (especially on a Sunday), the surrounding noise level became rather distracting and not conducive at all to talk shop. It did not help when Mediacorp had decided to hold an event at the atrium one level down later that afternoon. We reckoned that whatever conversation will be mostly drowned out once the event starts.
As far as sales status is concerned, we were informed that about 35 units were sold during the July 19/20 preview. This already exceeded the 30 units that was earmarked for pre-launch in Singapore. Given the better than expected take-up, the marketing agent has managed to secured more units for sale in Singapore and thus explained the second road-show at ION.
A preview was held in Hong Kong last week, where another 100 units were put out for pre-launch. Another preview will be held in Taiwan this week.
Some
additional information we have gotten on Vancouver House yesterday:
- Units on levels 48 - 57 are deemed the "Estate Floors". These consist of larger units - the smallest units are 2 bedrooms with library of over 1,800sqft) and come with high-end furnishings and an island kitchen.
- The aircon/heat are included in the maintenance charge, which will cost you 55 Canadian cents per square foot per month. This means that you can (if you so choose to) switch on the air-conditioning 24 hours a day during summer or heat during winter without busting your power bills.
- There are 2 additional payments that are involved in the purchase, GST (5%) and Title Transfer Tax - which is the equivalent of stamp duty (2%). However, these are payable only upon the project's completion in 2018. And should you choose to resell your unit before completion, the GST/Title Transfer Tax will become your buyer's problem.
- Speaking of resale
("subsale" in our local terminology), you can start to resell
your unit once the S&P is signed. This will be done via a reassignment
of your unit. And unlike in the
- A capital gains tax is applicable when you sell your apartment. The tax rate may be subjected to revision every year. But for 2014, any capital gain is taxed based on 21% of half of your total gains, e.g. if you sell your apartment by 31st December 2014 and make a profit of say, C$200K, your tax will be 21% of C$100K = C$21K.
- Mortgage wise, one can only take a bank loan of up to a maximum of 65% of the total purchase price. The current interest rate being offered by banks is around 3%.
- So what will it cost you to rent out your apartment? The typical charge from property agents is 1 month's commission + another 5 - 6% (based on annual rental) for management fees. But with Vancouver House, the developer has thrown in a "Rental Management Package" for the first 2 years. What this means is that they will absorbed the rental commission and management fees during this period.
- The expected rental
yield is around 5 - 7% gross. The current vacancy rate in
- Unlike most
property transaction, no legal fees will be incurred for conveyance. The
S&P document for property purchase in
- One question may come to mind since there is no lawyer involved in the conveyance: does this mean that whatever initial down-payment that you pay will go straight to the developer's bank account? If so, what happens if they abscond/go bankrupt?? The wife and I checked (since we had the experience of a supposed renowned developer going bust on us in NZ) and whatever money that is paid will still be held in trust by a lawyer appointed by the developer. So one can rest easy.
And speaking of
payment, below is how the payment scheme works for Vancouver House
- Reservation fee of
S$5,000 payable on reservation.
- 10% purchase price
payable upon execution of S&P agreement. The reservation fee will be
refunded upon receipt of full 10% deposit by developer's solicitor.
- Further 15% of
purchase price payable within 6 months after execution of S&P
agreement.
- Balance is payable at closing on completion
In
terms of unit orientation, apartments within Vancouver House have primarily two
facings:
- North/North-West,
with a view of
- South/South-East,
facing
The wife
and I were told that apartments facing North/North-West is supposedly the
"premium" units, which probably explained why most of the North/North-West facing apartments are the larger apartments. Also, many of the North/North-West units have already been sold.
Pricing wise, the North/North-West units are typically at about C$100/psf premium compared to its South/South-East counterparts. So we were advised that one should look at North/North-West units if buying for resale/subsale purposes. But if buying for rental yields, one should probably go with the cheaper South/South-East facing units.
The apartment layouts are generally quite regular in shape (i.e. no awkward corners). But between the standard 1-bedroom apartment and the 1-bedroom "flex" unit, the wife and I preferred the former.
This is because the standard 1-bedder has what we termed as a "proper" bedroom + living + dining area, while the "flex" unit only has a sliding partition between the bedroom (which also acts as the living area) and dining area. Also, the "flex" unit is a tad too small for our liking.
The 1-bedroom units were priced at around C$1,000 - $1,200psf, which were quite comparable to the selling price of other new developments in Vancouver.
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