PROPERTY : Marketer George Wong says rush for luxury residences exceeded expectations
Derrick Penner
Sun
Sellers of the luxurious Two Harbour Green project in Coal Harbour moved 65 units for a total of $160 million within 10 days, a pace the realtor is claiming as a Vancouver record.
Marketer George Wong, of Platinum Project Marketing, Macdonald Realty, said it wasn’t quite a sellout, but that was only because he held back seven units — including the $7.25-million penthouse — for potential buyers targeted in the mailing segment of their marketing campaign.
Many potential buyers put down a $10,000 “appointment fee” to see the project’s presentation centre, then paid an average of $2.5 million per suite, or $900 per square foot. Wong added that about 90 per cent of the buyers were from the Vancouver market.
“It certainly exceeded our expectations,” Wong said in an interview, adding that it goes to show that Vancouverites are beginning to “recognize the finite value of Coal Harbour” as a premium neighbourhood.
He added that it surpasses the sellout of the project’s predecessor sister tower, One Harbour Green, which sold out in eight weeks for a total value of $110 million.
The sales results come as no surprise to observers of Vancouver‘s high-end real-estate market who still see a high demand for properties that, in the rarefied air of multi-millionaires, are regarded as bargains.
“I think [Two Harbour Green] is under priced,” rival realtor Bob Rennie, of Rennie Marketing Systems, said. “That is just one of the best buys in the market,” because there are so few waterfront properties left in Coal Harbour.
The only sites left to be developed are Three Harbour Green and the proposed Fairmont Hotel project near the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, Rennie added, so a builder cannot come along in three years to throw up another tower in Coal Harbour.
“That’s it, in the history of Vancouver,” he said.
Malcolm Hasman, of Angell Hasman & Associates, said the luxury market in Vancouver “is enormous, and hungry for quality waterfront [properties].”
“We are so affordable on an international level for the kind of high-end real estate we’re marketing,” he added.
Hasman, a long-time seller in the luxury market, said Vancouver is increasingly popular among an international clientele — particularly from developing countries and mainland China — who have portable wealth and like the city for its quality of life.
Wong said he expects most of the remaining units to be sold by the end of next week, except for the penthouse, the sale of which will be handled “similar to a Christie’s auction.”
He said 10 parties have been selected to preview the suite. They will then make “formal documentation” to bid on it, with a closing date of June 24.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005