Written by 7:08 PM Mortgage Industry News • 5 Comments Views: 5

Lack of Presales Sink The Ritz

Ritz-Carleton-Vancouver It’s largely about the pre-sales in construction lending these days—and one of Canada’s headliner projects (the $500 million Ritz Carlton Vancouver) just didn’t have enough.

"To get financing, you need a certain amount of presales – and because we didn’t have enough units sold, financing didn’t turn out the way we wanted," said project spokesman Joo Kim Tiah to the Globe.

62 of the 123 Ritz condos were sold, or just over 50%.  A few years ago that might have been enough to get the project financed and completed.  But not in this market.  In the Ritz’s case, its banks wanted over 60% pre-sales.  (Lenders are now looking for upwards of 75% in other big condo projects around the country.)

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Last modified: July 11, 2024

Robert McLister is one of Canada’s best-known mortgage experts. A mortgage columnist for The Globe and Mail, interest rate analyst and editor of MortgageLogic.news, Rob has been covering Canada's mortgage market since 2007.

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