List a brand new condo for under $100,000 in Metro Vancouver’s red-hot housing market, and the hordes of home buyers will come – judging by a frenzied scene in downtown Surrey on Saturday.
Hundreds of people waited in line to snag a piece of the new, 35-storey Evolve tower, located on the corner of 133 Street and 103A Avenue.
Despite some nasty exchanges between staff and impatient customers, Evolve sold 300 homes worth about $70-million in a mad hour-and-a-half-long rush.
“You don’t see that under $100,000 every day,” said Curtis Honey, who drove all the way from Edmonton with his twin brother to pick up a 316-square-foot microsuite“It is pretty small, but I think there’s ways to work around it and maximize the space.”
Platinum Project Marketing, which presented the condos to prospective buyers, said young buyers are interested in trading space for financial freedom.
“If your payments were $600 a month with all of your maintenance and everything inside and included, then you’d be able to have more money for life,” said spokesman Bill Morrison. ”We’re finding, especially with a younger group of buyers, they don’t seem to collect as many things as older buyers do, they like to collect experiences.”
Out of 406 homes, only about 80 were microsuites – and most were gone by the end of the day, including the cheapest listing at $93,900, Morrison said.
Platinum said its high-tech sales presentation, including augmented reality and holographic technologies, helped spark the surge of interest.
The sale continues on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
The tower is one among a group of condo buildings to be built in Surrey’s West Village, which is expected to become a major hub for the city in coming years.
More than 2,800 homes are forecast to be built in the area over the next seven years.
The expected move-in date for the Evolve tower is 2018.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Jon Woodward
