Now that the developers behind the troubled former Olympic Village have relinquished control, the return of $740 million in city loans depends on the market, experts say.

Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties went into receivership on Wednesday, and Ernst & Young has the job of ensuring the City of Vancouver gets its loan repaid.

The receiver will likely look to Village marketer Bob Rennie for advice on strategy.

"We'll now move ahead with price reductions and incentives and a marketing program that's been sitting on my desk for a number of months," Rennie told CTV News.

David Bowra of Bowra Group, which has acted as a receiver for many troubled condo projects, says there's a common perception that when a company is in receivership, buyers will get discounts -- but that isn't necessarily true.

"In the end of the day, it's going to be simply: What's the best strategy for overall recovery? And that may be a short-term, may be a longer-term strategy, but given the number of units and pricing of these units, I don't think you're looking at a short-term strategy," Bowra said.

The upscale development has struggled to find buyers since the Games ended, despite 223 presales in 2008.

Only 36 more have sold since the units hit the market in May, leaving 454 units unsold -- more than half of which are currently priced at more than $1 million.

Across the street at the Wall Centre False Creek, it's a different story. In just six weeks of presales, 400 units have sold.

But there's a big difference in price: the Wall Centre units are priced at $630 per square foot. The Village condos sell for $1,000 per square foot.

Tsur Somerville of the UBC Sauder School of Business says prices at the Village are out of line with the current real estate market.

"It's a question for the city of, do they want to price them at market -- whatever that is -- take the hit and just be done with it, or do they want to sit around and wait for the market to come to them?" he said.

Mayor Gregor Robertson says that it's important for condo prices to reflect the market to get sales going.

Until the city sees money from the Village, he says that taxpayer dollars will service the debt.

"It's a big loan on our books, but within the property endowment fund, we have the ability to carry that loan. We hope to see sales contributing to that as soon as possible," Robertson said.

Competition for buyers will be fierce: Wall Centre False Creek is launching sales for another tower next week.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson