Your Condo World Blog

By Peter Daoust

Guess what? There are only twelve condo developments in St Thomas. I could be wrong. There might be one or two more that my research didn’t pick up on, but I think I am correct with this number of twelve.

You would think that with this size town there should be four,or even five times that number of complexes, but there aren’t. What’s even more peculiar is that, unlike other nearby towns and cities, such as London, Sarnia, or Woodstock, there are no two-storey townhouse style units. For some unknown reason, the concept of building affordable lower to mid range priced condos in St Thomas never happened back in the 1960s, 1970s, the boom era of the multi-unit condo projects in the late 80s, or in the 1990s, or even in the last ten years!

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that land for expansion has always been plentiful in all directions around the city and the need to be focused on high density multi-family sites was never much of a priority.

Of the twelve complexes I identified, two are low-rise apartment style buildings, one being 21 years old and the other 31 years old. The turnover rate in both of these buildings is quite low.

So what then does the bulk of the condo market look like in St Thomas? Well, they are predominately all luxury one-floor attached condos, or detached one-floor style units. What’s more, they are all relatively new with the average age being only five years. Many of these complexes are very impressive and the current lead condo builder “Hayhoe Homes” has done a wonderful job of catering to this niche market in the last couple of years.

This blog was written during the later part of the first week of August and, at this particular time, there are only two condo units listed for sale on the MLS system in the entire St Thomas marketplace! This is an unbelievably low number given that there are tens of hundreds of soon-to-be retirees, or just recently retired people, living in the area. Many of these people travel to Florida in the winter and are attracted to the concept of carefree condo living.

All of this begs the question as to why there are not more St. Thomas area home builders out there scrambling to find vacant sites suitable for niche condo projects? Is it because development fees are too high, or is it because splashier condo sites for seniors, like the one in Port Rowan, are siphoning off some of this demand? I feel that the true answer has more to do with the fact that our current generation of developers and urban planners, carving up our farmlands to map out new development sites, have simply overlooked the emerging new needs of this burgeoning marketplace. Rather than addressing the needs of young families looking for their first new home, the real hidden strength in the market is in the development of upscale one-floor condo sites. At least that is the way I see it!.

I have one additional comment on the topic of real estate availability and the sub-topic of pricing; Remember the real estate buzz words of “getting 25% more for your money in St. Thomas”? Well, when it comes to condo prices in St Thomas, that is not the case. The average 2009 selling price of a condo in St Thomas was $177,000, according to our London & St Thomas Real Estate Board, which is higher than the average selling price of condos in any area of London in 2009. Who would ever believe that? In London North, for example, the average selling price for a condo was $175,037 in 2009, in London South $139,412 and in London East $119,778. Once again, St Thomas condo prices were the highest of all these areas.

What’s happening to condo sale prices in this area in the first six months of 2010? Well, our Real Estate Board has not yet given us a breakdown of the condo sale details, but we do know that the average residential selling prices in St Thomas, in the first six months of 2010 (homes and condos combined), was $182,080, down 0.8% from the average selling price of $183,571 in 2009. Clearly the markets continue to be strong.

How should this blog end? Well, rather than saying that you get 25% more for your money in St Thomas, we should switch the wording a little bit and say St Thomas needs 25% more new condos!

So many retiring people want to stay in the area and condo living seems to be, for many, the preferred way to go. That’s how I see it anyhow!

Cheers,

Peter

PS – Your Condo World will shortly be looking for a real estate agent to host our soon-to-be released new St Thomas/Port Stanley – Your Condo World website. If you’re interested, let us know!

PSS – The Cobras – that’s what today’s St Thomas retirees are driving!

Check it out here

Check it out here