Sechelt Development - Trail Bay Estates

[RFM]

All of this is fascinating to me; so much so that this morning I went on Google Earth and used 'street view' to drive around that development. Unfortunately, the imagery is from 2011 so there is not much to see as pertains to the current condition.

In the Pleistocene epoch, when I was more active in developing commercial property, we used to plow our undeveloped land every year so as to minimize the rodent population explosion, control weeds and tsk, tsk, make sure that NO protected species made our land their home. I doubt that there has been much maintenance here and it would be nice if someone from Sechelt drove over and took some current photos.

I want to mention two other things about this development:

First, situated as close as it is to Hwy 101, you should be aware that traffic noise travels upwards. If you want to read an exhaustive discourse on that subject, just click here. The obvious fact to me, just looking at the photos you've posted is that all those lots will suffer significant traffic noise, which seems a bit inconsistent with the 'idyllic' lifestyle promoted for that development.

Second, I'll repeat here my concise list of the pros and cons of vacant land as an investment.

The upside:
Potential increase in value
Build the house you really want

The downside:
Potential decrease in value
Complicated for average person to build the house you really want
Notoriously difficult to finance
No cash flow
Property taxes and/or association fees
Maintenance and/or liability insurance
Value dependant on the area’s fortunes
Permits and approvals may become more difficult as ordinances and political changes occur
Zoning restrictions
Illiquid
Few tax benefits, including that you can’t depreciate land

By and large, vacant land continues to be the domain of the strong sophisticated investor with a diversified portfolio.