Gibsons Development - Soames Place

[Skook]

April 14, 2014 Update:

Soames Place Sales Centre is open for business this upcoming long Easter weekend. The annoucement appeared in last Friday’s Coast Reporter Real Estate Weekly (April 11th). If you go, you could win a prize and I assume you don’t have to buy a condo to get it. So with this big news, I thought it was time for a Soames Place update. I have been popping into the project’s Facebook page every two to three weeks or so to see what’s new. As you can see with the pics on the right the project is underway. We learned about the first hole dug; then it was the setting up of the crane; and, by mid-March it was the footings and the elevator slab. I wait with bated breath for the next construction pics which should be coming soon.

I have been under the impression that projects such as these need to have 50% of units presold to procure financing, and recently I heard that may have increased to 60%. Soames Place has not reached that presale level - far from it. So, I assume Leeon Projects Ltd must be able to go it alone, has private investors, or perhaps is using another business as collateral.

How are sales going? Back on November 4, 2013, 22 condos units were listed on MLS and today there are still 22 units listed. Here is the updated spreadsheet. I say “updated” because the units with no MLS data in my November 13th post above became “Sold” on the website floorplans on December 20th. As I mentioned in that November 13 post, the developer was required to set aside two 'social housing' units to receive the zoning bylaw amendment. I concluded that these must be #205 and #405 since they have the smallest square footage and the smallest price tag. As for the remaining 4 “Sold” units, since they were never listed there is no corresponding sales data; perhaps, the buyers signed a Pre-Sale Contract to Purchase, put down a deposit and will ante up the balance when Soames Place is move in ready.

(I won’t be surprised to see all these listing removed In the not too distant future and then only 10 or so of the units relisted)

How about that Soames Place social media marketing? How’s it going? I think it can be summed up in one word: pfft.

Twitter is moribund with only two tweets sent out: one on Nov 19, and the other on Nov 25. There was no reaction to either and neither resulted in any additional followers.

Facebook seems to be the go to platform for the Realtors although they’re not exactly wearing it out with only 1 or 2 postings a month. My first VP post back in October showed 60 total “likes” and this increased to 91 by the end of December. By the end of January, 4 more “likes” were garnered and as of today the total stands at 96. The “Most Popular WeeK” (when most people were “talking” about the page) occurred on November 24, 2013. The “Most Popular Age Group” (talking about this page) remains 25 - 34 years old - say, isn’t that that the group with the humongous debt after leaving college and university; and, you know, the group with all the high paying jobs, right? And, didn’t I read somewhere that this group are great savers and therefore have the deposit tucked away and will be able to handle that mortgage - or was I dreaming all this?

What I take away from this FB graph for Soames Place is that there aren’t very many “talking about this page” anymore - only 4 after the April 2nd post (blue line) and as for “New Likes Per Week” well you might as well say “0” if you look at the action since January 15 (black line).

(This graph is a composite image of screen captures taken on past visits to the Facebook stats page)

It’s too bad a few dozen of those “Likes" haven’t morphed into sales. It’s early, though, and I’m sure the Grand Opening kick-off will help ignite that pent-up subconscious desire to buy.

As for those commercial spaces for lease, maybe they’re worth consideration in another post sometime in the future.