Courting a variety of buyers

Often times, a type of housing is popular amongst a particular demographic. Retirees are drawn to one-level detached townhomes. Young couples want the single family home on a tree lined street in a neighborhood they can afford. The single fervent worker-type loves the glass clad downtown condo. What’s interesting about these townhomes is that they are home to the whole spectrum of homeowners.

This has a lot to do with location. The 86 unit complex of attached homes with underground heated parking were built twenty years ago in a first tier suburb. The homes right across the road from this sidewalk are modest 1940’s built properties. There’s a cute little park at the corner yet the rest of the neighbors are commercial spaces like Applebees and Costco. And just to the other side of the Courtyard at Marriott is a main thoroughfare: I394.

What developers need is land, a buyer, and a price point the buyer can afford. Land prices in older areas are tricky. Opportunity strikes when a rundown commercial area is underused. Then there is the potential for redevelopment. At this transitional spot between residential and commercial, an urban looking row house turned out to be a great fit.

Since land acquisition is tricky in older areas, the availability of a relatively new home becomes a premium feature. Buyers are attracted to the open floor plan, the tall ceilings, large closets and underground parking. This option has ten minutes access to downtown and yet is outside the hubbub of the urban core. It is close to a major transport artery, and easily accessible to friends and relatives in the western suburbs. All this at a price point just slightly above the average house price.

Young professionals like it. Retirees with kids in the city like it. Kids of families in the ultra wealthy suburbs to the south like it. Single parents with an adult child fit in nicely. These 86 town homes work well for a variety of household dynamics. That’s unusual.

When developpers have to make a bet on a project and speculate on who will show up with the funds to buy them, they often are more focused in their expectations. Zoning changes allow them to proceed, but it is the conception of the buyer that drives the constuction. Because, in the end, they get reimbursed for their efforts by the consumer, not the city planners.