Two more condominium projects in Greater Vancouver have gone into receivership after the builders said they are facing financial challenges, widening the scope of condominium presale problems in recent months.
Buildings H&H at Homer and Helmcken in Yaletown by developer Chandler Homer Street Ventures Ltd., and the Garden City building in Richmond by developer Cook and Katsura Homes Inc., are now in the hands of receiver The Bowra Group, leaving people who bought into the buildings doubtful about their move-in dates.
The two buildings went into receivership on November 28, 2007, before The Bowra Group received the assets of Eden Group's development The Sophia at East 11th Avenue and Main just last week. The Eden Group also cancelled presales to two other developments, Montgomery Estates and The Elsye, in recent months.
Nicola Way of www.assignmentscanada.ca
"I don't think actually it will make a lot of difference," she said. "Definitely over the last four years since assignmentscanada.ca was formed, we have listed thousands of assignments and presales."
Way said that a developer's financial collapse such as this one is a rare occurrence considering the number of developments in the city.
"The Riverbend development in Coquitlam, and then The Sophia, and then these two -- these are the first ones (in which) receivership has actually sort of come into play. It actually is a rare occurrence," she said.
Earlier this week Finance Minister Carole Taylor said presale developments are reliant on buyers' finances to continue building.
"If you said that you can't have any presales, then we'd all have to recognize that a lot of the building would have to stop," she said. "Because they use those presales as method of financing."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber
