Your Condo World Blog

We would like to start off this blog with the following disclaimer. Most of the luxury condos along Ambleside Drive are owned by professional people who are not students. Yet having said this we would now like to point out that some university students do make these units their homes.
Relax in your jacuzzi tub, read a good book while sitting next to your gas fireplace, park you car inside your garage at nights and barbeque off your private patio. Student living, for those fortunate enough to be able to afford it, can be very much like having a nice home away from home. The Ambleside Drive condos north of the university and south of Fanshawe Park Road offer all of these amendities.
How many university students come from families who are prepared to shell out $220,000 or even more for a nice townhome? Well suprisingly enough, it does happen quite frequently. Real estate for some people is looked a\upon as a commodity that can be readily bought and sold without too much emotional involvement. Real estate has also helped to make many people rich. G.T.A. parents of students going to school in our town find our prices to be very attractive.
It should also be noted that doing real estate deals in London Ontario is somewhat different than trying to do deals in Toronto. Offers to purchase are frequently signed up with good faith deposits being as low as a thousand or two thousand dollars. Home inspections can be done after an offer is accepted as a condition to the offer and not all listings sell out in multiple offer situations. Toronto people looking to purchase here are also often impressed by the uniformity of our north London condo neighbourhoods. Look at all of the expensive new homes being constructed in the north and north-west sections of our city and the monies being spent on building more university facilities. Look at how busy the Masonville Mall area always seems to be. Our north end of town is booming. Condos here that cost in the $220,000 range would probably cost twice that much in areas like Richmond Hill, Thornhill or in Mississauga.
We know that condo listings on Ambleside Drive, condos listings on Richmond Street north of Windermere Road and condos listings on North Centre Road just north of the Masonville Mall always seem to attract an inordinate amount of attention whatever the season happens to be. All we can really add to all of this is “yes we are open to do business.” Cheers
P.S. Thirteen condo units sold on Ambleside Drive in 2011 using our MLS system with an average selling price just shy of the $219,000 mark.

Our U.W.O. has over thirty thousand students in attendance and the location of the Jacksway cluster of condos is undoubtably one of the best locations in the city for students opting to live off campus. The bus service to the university from this location is superb and the Masonville Mall next door with all it’s amenities offers everything students will ever need. These low rise buildings offer controlled entries, balconies, wood burning fireplaces in each unit (just small ones) and plenty of parking.
In our December 15th blog we talked about this complex in depth and we noted was that the average selling price of it’s two bedroom units actuallly declined in the year 2011. That point caught a few of our readers by suprise.
Isn’t the one hundred and forty thousand dollar price range for a two bedroom condo quite reasonable, given what two bedroom units in many of our downtown condo buildings go for? Sure renting out the second bedroom in one of these units will not make you rich but it will help you pay the condo fees,the taxes and the hydro.
In our past blog we also noted that over 70% of the units are owned by investors who then rent them out. What they are simply doing is managing the task of having their rental income’s pay down their mortgages. With interest rates at such low levels this strategy seems to work well.
Now for some inside news. While the lobbies and hallways of these buildings are kept in pristine conditions some units are now in need of interior upgrading. This is especially true of many of the units used for rentals. Improvements now needed to many of these units include floorings, appliances, sinks, countertops, kitchen cupboards and tub surrounds. We are not trying to be insulting in any way by mentioning all of this but that is what sometimes happens to a unit after it is rented for a long period of time.
If you intend to work with a real estate agent to find a unit make sure that he or she digs up the very best for you. The nicer units do tend to sell more quickly.
The second point that we overlooked in our December blog is that there are differences in the two bedroom unit designs. Some two bedroom floorplans have two full baths while others only have one and a half baths. If you intent to have two unrelated people living together in one of these units this design feature may be of importance. There are fewer two full bath models in existance.
Once again, the Jacksway complexes service very well the housing needs of many of our U.W.O. students. Purchasing just the right unit can often be a little bit tricky of an exercise. Hopefully this information will make you better aware of how and why some of these units offer better value than others. Cheers

858 and 860 Commissioners Road East

By Dianne Wilson

London certainly has many condo projects available, we can’t talk about all of them but there are some like the units on Commissioners that always seem to draw an inordinate amount of attention.

Many people downsizing prefer these complexes as do professionals working next door at Victoria Hospital London Health Sciences Centre. London Health Sciences continues to grow with a workforce of over 15,000 employees, volunteers and physicians working across three hospital sites. In fact, with it’s rapid growth it has to shuttle employees from off site hospital parking to the hospital. People also prefer the location due to the proximity to buses, shopping, and downtown. Amenities in this building are abundant with a pool, sauna, tennis courts and exercise room. Many people also prefer the gas “Magic Pack” heat and central air unit over electric baseboard heat. Balconies and open underground parking are also highly desirable.

These units offer extremely good value. Now let’s look at historical selling prices. To also note, each complex has a different management company.

2005
One Bedroom $77,400
Two Bedroom $98,300

858 Commissioners in the year 2010
One Bedroom there were 5 sales: with a low of $95,500, to a high of $106,500 for an average selling price of $100,000
Two Bedroom there were 2 sales: with a low of 119,000 and a high of $125,500 for an average selling price of $122,250

860 Commissioners in the year 2010
One Bedroom there were 3 sales: with a low of $97,500 to a high of $103,500 for an average selling price of $99,667
Two Bedroom there were 7 sales: with a low of $118,000 to a high of $129,000 for an average selling price of $122,557

858 Commissioners in the year 2011
One Bedroom there were 3 sales: with a low of $95,000 to a high of $124,000 for an average selling price of $104,667

Two Bedroom there were 3 sales: with a low of $118,000 to a high of $124,500 for an average selling price of $120,167

860 Commissioners in the year 2011
One Bedroom there were 0 sales
Two Bedroom there were 7 sales: with a low of $116,000 to a high of $124,000 for an average selling price of $119,786

You’ll note that some prices can be an anomaly and drive up the average selling price. This can happen where units have been significantly improved or in multiple offer situations. Also, there are premiums for units on higher floors and premiums for desirable floor plans including corner units, larger floor plans, or more windows for natural light.

So there is much more to pricing condo units than meets the eye and a realtor that is familiar with the complex can directly assess that for you. That’s how we see it anyways.

Cheers!