77 WALTER HARDWICK AVE., UNIT 404, VANCOUVER
ASKING PRICE $1,299,000
SELLING PRICE $1,225,000
Days on market Seven
Taxes $3,845
Maintenance fees $723.39
Listing agent Danny Chow, Rennie & Associates
Selling agent Bryan Yan, Regent Park Realty
The Action: The seller of this Olympic Village condo paid $1.565-million plus HST in 2010 – a loss of more than half a million dollars, according to selling agent Bryan Yan. "If they got in early, they got burnt," he says.
He says prices dropped in 2013, when the city took over sales. At that time, he sold a 1,200-square-foot unit, with a water view, in the same building for $860,000. "That's more like a Burnaby price," Mr. Yan says.
Last December, he advised a client to purchase this unit, and she jumped on it. She'd been looking for three months in Richmond and Yaletown as well.
"I said to her, 'If you had talked to me a year earlier, I would have got you an even better deal [in the building],'" Mr. Yan says.
What They Got: The two-bedroom, 1,292-sq.-ft. unit at Kayak at the Village on False Creek was one of the first Olympic Village sales. It features radiant heating and cooling, hardwood floors, gourmet kitchen, twenty-four-hour concierge and membership to the Gold Medal Club with indoor pool, gym and sauna. The platinum LEED-certified building is steps to the seawall, Canada Line and shops.
The Agent's Take: "It's worth $1.225-million right now, but in the next couple of years it will revert back to the $1.5-million price. Within three to four years, it should. It has the water view and people pay heavily for the water view," Mr. Yan says.
As well, Mr. Yan says, it has the Chinese practice of feng shui on its side. Properties facing water to the north are forecast to have good feng shui in the coming years, he says.
Kerry Gold