With condos now accounting for over two-thirds of new home sales in
Ottawa, Bennett Property Shop continues to rule the leaderboard
While condo sales in some parts of the country began to level off in 2012, the condomarket in Ottawa continued its upward trajectory. For starters, one in five resale homes sold last year were condominium-class residences. But the truly impressive numbers, released in CMHC’s fall report, showed that multiple-unit dwellings accounted for a whopping 73 per cent of all new home starts in Ottawa. As only a small fraction of these consists of rental units, it would seem the Capital has conclusively entered the age of the condo.
Astonishingly,
there’s one independently-owned firm that’s responsible for more than a quarter
of the city’s new condo sales. Headed up by Ottawa’s own Condo Queen Marnie
Bennett, Bennett Property Shop Realty has chalked up more than 2,000 new condo sales
over the last five years alone. Given that the average price of Ottawa condos
hovers around $260,000, this means Bennett and her
team have generated sales for their developer clients in the neighbourhood of
500 million dollars. If that figure grabs your attention, you’re not alone.
The
ability to generate such heady numbers is one very good reason that Bennett’s
boutique company is known as
Ottawa’s go-to marketing and real estate firm for builders and developers. With
a 24-member real estate team and a comprehensive marketing arm, Bennett
Property Shop has accompanied numerous condo and housing projects from
conception to sale, building long-term business partnerships with industry
leaders along the way.
“Sometimes
we’re consulted from the very start; other times, we’re brought in just before
a condo launches to handle sales. We’re used to working full tilt – we can
handle whatever’s thrown at us,” says Bennett, laughing.
Bennett
is forthright about the secret of her marketing success. “I’ve been in this
business a long time,” she says. “I know how to strike the right balance
between innovative approaches and the tried and true. We’re not afraid to go
with the bold strokes – that’s what gets the attention of home buyers – but
there’s got to be substance underneath.”
Along with
other real estate insiders, Bennett sees no evidence of a condo bubble on the
horizon. “Condos really are becoming the housing of choice among many home
buyers,” she says. “In Toronto, condos now make up over 50 per cent of all new
home sales – and if you take a look at RBC’s 2012 report, you’ll see that this
is completely in keeping with demand. As a city grows in population, it’s
natural that housing will begin to shift from sprawling single homes to more
space-efficient condos. It’s one of the ways cities evolve.”
Another
statistic worth noting is the increase in value of Ottawa condominiums. Sales
of condos in the upper range – that is, those priced at half a million dollars
and up – doubled in 2012. Numbers like these can’t be explained by inflation
alone.
“The media
often point to first-time home buyers as the reason that the condo market is
thriving,” says Bennett. “And it’s true, they do account for a large slice of
the pie. But we’re finding that there’s a growing appetite for upscale, downtown
condos among middle-aged professionals and baby boomers. From where I stand, it
looks like a trend that’s going to continue.”
Visit www.bennettpros.com for all your real estate needs
