How many units?
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COVID and the housing market
- Thread starter mimico_polak
- Start date
How many units?
If they need to redo a lot of concrete (especially if there is surface parking above) that doesn't surprise me at all.
Jeez. I'll never own a condo ever again. At least an older one.
I've seen photos....concrete is literally falling off the sides and water coming in. And the parking is under the building, not another parking lot.
@Lightcycle I can check actual numbers, but just from looking at the building it's no more than 100 units.
I've heard worse. Our old building we lived in was a Co-Op where my parents were supers. I heard they had 50-70k special assessment.
The balconies all were crumbling slowly and were not maintained. And the underground garage was in such a state that the surface parking was taken away and people had to park on the tennis courts and other parking areas as it was not 100% that it wouldn't collapse (it didn't).
Have a look at the reserve fund study. Probably the age old problem of owners trying to keep monthly charges down to keep unit prices as high as possible. They could have added 30% to their condo fees and never faced a SAF again but their units would sell for five figures less (and cost you more to live in assuming you got out before the hot potato got dropped).
Our old building was 30 years old when sh!t started falling apart. Worse bill I got was for $3500 to repair the heating element in the parking ramp. Total for the year was around $5K. *IN ADDITION* to monthly maintenance fees!
Yep, exactly this. The residents voted for SAFs in lieu of raising the condo fees. Still, I was paying about $0.75 per square foot back in the day. I think right now, the monthly fee is closer to a $1 per sq ft. Plus whatever SAFs pop up for a 50-year-old building with no reserve fund.
There's the Jane street condo with $1.75 in their reserve fund. What happened to the reserve fund studies needed to meet the condo act?
$3500 is typical for a repair to one cable, maybe a bit high. Replacement starts around $50 SF but could triple depending on site situations. A typical ramp is 1200 SF. very specialized work and a lot of smoke and mirrors.
I could be interested in a loft conversion like Harbourfront. An old proven structure with all services surface mounted. There's one in the west end where the parking isn't below grade.
Those suck too. Was involved with one where they left a lot of the original conduit running through the demising partitions. Unsolvable issues after construction.
I’d buy a condo only after 5 yrs and before 20 . Get in once the bugs are sorted and get out before the parking garage fails .
In retirement my 2m house would pump a lot of rent money . Renting makes a ton of sense later in life . Parking garage leaks , who cares ? Not me
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In retirement my 2m house would pump a lot of rent money . Renting makes a ton of sense later in life . Parking garage leaks , who cares ? Not me
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Plus you get to allocate your income and assets whichever way you see fit, instead of having your equity/debt all tied up in the same fixed asset.
Way more mobility and flexibility as well. If you don't have to worry about stability for family, ie. child-free or empty-nesters.
Kids already live 4000 kms away , parents would be ( should be LOL) gone . No big reason to be here . Live on the boat in the summer and Portugal for the winter . If I need to buy back in collingwood and Owen sound have nice hospitals
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Priller
Well-known member
The problem with concrete buildings is that it's easy to kick the repairs down the road, as you rarely get sudden catastrophic issues like you might with a leaky roof in a timber structure, for example. But the costs of repair mount exponentially, so ignoring a minor $10,000 waterproofing issue eventually leads to a $100,000 localised repair, which can then easily grow into a $1,000,000+ slab replacement within a couple years, especially if road salts are involved.
Add in condo boards mostly peopled by cheapskates determined to pinch every penny, and you get deeply incompetent property managers that are a product of that approach (usually staffed by kids making barely above minimum wage or one semi-competent person trying and failing to manage 30+ properties). Then you get cheap engineers who operate by telling owners what they want to hear in order to keep their business, and then put together crap half-arsed tender packages. These tenders are perfect for scuzzy contractors who specialise in manipulating the low-bid process by keeping their base number tight and then exploiting the bad spec/contract and poor oversight to maximise extras and do substandard work. In the end, the owners collectively pay exponentially more for less, all in the name of saving money up front.
Add in condo boards mostly peopled by cheapskates determined to pinch every penny, and you get deeply incompetent property managers that are a product of that approach (usually staffed by kids making barely above minimum wage or one semi-competent person trying and failing to manage 30+ properties). Then you get cheap engineers who operate by telling owners what they want to hear in order to keep their business, and then put together crap half-arsed tender packages. These tenders are perfect for scuzzy contractors who specialise in manipulating the low-bid process by keeping their base number tight and then exploiting the bad spec/contract and poor oversight to maximise extras and do substandard work. In the end, the owners collectively pay exponentially more for less, all in the name of saving money up front.
Is that a spot in the Algarve? I could live there.....
Priller
Well-known member
Portimao around the corner, Jerez just across the border. I'd be sticking around until May 1st and catch two GP rounds...
A few years ago, my buddy planned a European MotoGP vacation around the race schedule. IIRC, there were 5 races over the span of 7 or 8 weeks, all within driving distance of one another (something like Spain -> France -> Czech Republic -> Germany -> back to Spain once again).
He never made it out there, but I thought, "Wouldn't that be the life? Following the MotoGP caravan from country to country, watching them set up during the week, watch all the testing and qualifying and races. Then rinse and repeat the following week."
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