Hi, it’s Mark with Top Local Lead Generation.  We’re here talking about Squamish and what’s going on new developments in Squamish with Mr. Darren McCartney.  He’s a Real Estate Agent in Squamish and you can reach him at 604-892-4875.  How’re you doing Darren?

Darren:  I’m doing well today Mark, how about yourself?

Mark:  Good.  So tell us about this new project you want to talk about today.

Darren:  Yeah, I’ve got a new project coming; we’re releasing in the next few days here.  It’s been a new townhome project near the downtown area called New Port Landing.  As in previous broadcasts we’ve discussed you know, it’s been a very active market in Squamish in the last year for residential in general and townhomes have been very strong.  I want to just switch over to a quick map of downtown that we can look at to just give you an idea of what’s been going on and then also point out the location of this project that I want to discuss today.  One second here - maybe let me know if the map has come on screen there.

Mark:  I can see it now.

Darren:  Perfect, o.k., so downtown Squamish, the conventional downtown starts from you know, off Highway 99 at McDonalds, there is a peninsula that goes all the way down that used to be industrial so the existing downtown core is here right now and this was industrial land and they’ve just finalized a deal to redevelop this as a combination of condos, commercial space, light industrial, civic parks and that deals just been finalized after many years of work with a local developer with a larger partner from back east and so we’re going to see a large oceanfront project moving forward and it’s really going to stimulate downtown development. In recent years we’ve had lots of development in the periphery of downtown, you know, with the existing being more commercial oriented, Aqua at Coastal Village was a popular project at the south west corner of the estuary, Eagle Wind on the north west corner has been very successful selling townhomes in the last year and a half and they still have some townhomes that they’re selling.  There will be future phases but they’re near the end of the inventory of their current phase.  Directly across the train tracks there’s another 50 unit project that is more or less sold out now.  

The project that I’m bringing to market is right beyond, this is the primary high school as well as one the primary elementary schools and right up the street on the green space I’ve got a project coming called New Port Landing.  It’s being built by Kerkhoff Construction from the Fraser Valley, great company, done really good product, they’ve done other work up here and the site itself is right on the edge of a single family neighbourhood that flows into, you know single family, this is against a bunch of district owned green space effectively so, the access road is over here and we’ve got green space on all three sides of here basically and this is more or less a dead-end road and so the project itself is 29 units, combination of 2 and 3 bedroom townhomes.  Nice quality finishing inside, really nice look to the project, lots of green space.  We didn’t push the density like you can with this zoning so we’ve got lots of space outside, lots of storage downstairs in these units, just a really good Squamish product and at the onset we will have a hundred, a handful, not a hundred units, pardon me a handful of units that are under $340,000 and so we’re going to have some really affordable entry level townhomes here and then the prices will go up based on unit location and square footage effectively but some.

Mark:  do you have some shots of the renderings

Darren:  o.k. so if you look at this rendering, pardon me, and I’ll rewind a little bit, the project is 29 units in total.  We’re right on the edge of a single-family neighbourhood here so really nice transition.  We’ve got green space on three sides of the projects surrounding the projects, so you’re going to have nice forested or mountain views from almost everywhere in the project.  We’ve got a range of 2 and 3 bedroom townhomes; anywhere from a handful of units under 340,000 for the entry level phase and it will go well up into the you know, beyond that with the larger square footages and premium locations on the site.  From here you can access a trail system of green space that runs along the highway a kilometer east that just runs north and south to get to basically anywhere in Squamish from this location you’re only about a two block walk to the elementary school a 3 block walk from the 2 primary malls for shopping so it’s really nice.  A lot of the product that’s been selling is right on the edge or in the downtown core which is nice from some people but for young families and whatnot to be a little bit removed from that but still able to walk down and grab a coffee or walk to get groceries and stuff, it is nice to be away a little bit from the denser busier area of town so I can’t really say much more than that right now without the formal marketing details following online in the next couple days here but just excited that we’re going to have such a quality and affordable products coming to market by a good developer, really good market timing.  I think it’ll be a successful project and look forward to working through this and in the coming months.  I’m just going to turn this off.

Mark:  That’s great, so new projects coming, new townhomes available for under $340,000 in Squamish, beautiful Squamish, fantastic skiing, climbing, mountain biking, world class every one of these, some of the best in the entire world and much more - windsurfing, it’s a Mecca worldwide to come windsurfing in Squamish, unbelievable place, all right in your back yard, wildlife, amazing place, so townhomes for under 340, unbelievable.  Get a hold of Darren, Darren McCartney 604-892-4875 or you can check out this project when it goes live for marketing at www.squamishcommercialproperty.com.  Thanks Darren

Darren:  Thank you Mark.

Hi, it’s Mark from Top Local Lead Generation.  We’re here with Mr. Darren McCartney; he’s a Realtor in Squamish, BC, beautiful Squamish.  Darren does commercial and residential real estate and we’re going to do a little update about what’s going on in Squamish.  You can reach Darren at his website squamishcommercialproperty.com or you can call him at 604-892-4875.  How are you doing today Darren?

Darren:  I’m doing well Mark, how about yourself?

Mark:  I’m good.  So what’s going on in Squamish?

Darren:  I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked because it had been a busy market so I’ve disappeared for a three or four months on you here.  It’s been a pretty epic year here when you look back at previous years and a lot of what we’ve talked about in the past is how the market really lags here on recovery after the previous economic meltdown and we never regained that 20% that we lost.  We’ve had a really strong year in all residential sectors that has been very active, fun to be part of and a little bit more recognition coming Squamish’s way due to I think pent-up market demand and lots of marketing with the Sea to Sky gondola.  Lots of people’s friends move up here, they hear about it, they spend some time up here and they realize what Squamish has to offer; you know that 45 minute commute and a really unique lifestyle, 60% of the population under 40, just a lot of interesting things if you’ve got a young family and if I can for a minute here I want to pull up a graph to show you some of the numbers in the last year.

So yeah basically, in line of what I’ve been saying here, this goes back, this is a five year HPI which shows every type of housing over the last five years in Squamish from August 2010 to current and you can see; blue is detached, red is townhome which is what I want to talk about today but you see detached housing, single family stayed just flat until the early 2014 and it’s just been steadily coming back in line with the pre-2008 levels which is still very affordable by lower mainland standards and then townhomes as well has been creeping up through that time period, condos have been the last to catch up and that’s really just due to the fact a combination of what people want to buy when they move up here and there were some receiverships and stuff like that previously that really kept values down so with that all out of the market you’re seeing it move up and just to give you a quick example here single family in the last years has gone up 17% on value on the average home sale and we’ve had a 24% increase in volume, ok so that’s pretty substantial from a sales perspective and then down here under attached which does include condos, we’re up 18% on value and then 54% in value which much of what townhomes do to the lower number they were selling with after that recession time period and if you drill down on that a little bit further you see what’s going on here with actual detached pricing and so you know we came in the 500 range, the average is now up to 600, townhomes were steady in the early to mid to mid-300’s and we’ve seen the start to climb now into the 380 range and well into the 400’s at this stage of the game and so we’re really in a market where we’re starting to get proper recognition for what you get and finally just reasonable, manageable pricing so it’s both affordable but it’s also something that encourages development because they can actually make a little money and so we’ve seen these townhomes numbers go well into the 400’s now and if you look at municipality close to us like North Vancouver as an example, being close to downtown Vancouver and so forth and say 40 minutes from here it’ll cost you $550,000 to get into a comparable townhome of what you may get in the high 3’s or early 400’s here in Squamish brand new which is great and one of the reasons that this particular segment of the market you see it here, it’s really starting to spike in that 2015 is doing so well is we’re all about getting young families here and essentially you get that affordable entry level, medium sized square footage but you also get the storage that you need to put your toys, your mountain bikes, your skate board, your baby carriages, all that kind of stuff.  So it’s very interesting where we’ve seen that strength – can you see me now again?  So it’s just been really interesting because you know we’ve really see that area going on full steam and we’ve had over, well over a hundred new unit sales in the last year approximately and that’s substantial and what’s happened now is there’s very little inventory left, there were two very successful projects downtown and the one with a few remaining units is almost sold out until they move into future phases and I am getting close to start to market a project coming in the near future and so next time we talk I can give you a bit more information on that but we’re just finalizing the details right now and so we’re going to see townhome selling I think successfully through the fall and next spring just because it seems to be the right product type and affordability is still there by lower mainland standards.  That’s really what I want to share with you today and just do a quick update on the townhome market specifically.

Mark:  Perfect, so I have been talking with Mr. Darren McCartney, he’s a real estate broker or agent in Squamish, commercial and residential.  You can reach him at squamishcommercialproperty.com or give him a call 604-892-4875.  Beautiful Squamish, the next place to go.  Thanks Darren.

Darren:  Thank you Mark.