Kerkhoff, along with Mission Group, are two of the more prominent developers in the Okanagan, but Styles says there are plenty of other independent developers, as well as developers coming in from the Lower Mainland, Calgary, and Edmonton. He says he recently received a call from a Toronto-based developer thinking about a Downtown Kelowna tower site.
Mission Group's latest project is Alma, on Abbott Street. Sales will launch this month, with studios starting in the mid $300s, one-bedrooms in the mid-$500s, two-bedroom in the mid-$600s, and townhouses around $1.2 million. Friesen says they are confident it will be successful based on the number, and quality, of registrants they have already seen — enough that they may halt sales after hitting their presale requirement.of pent-up demand in the market.
"Townhomes are actually down a little bit throughout the Okanagan right now, which is interesting because townhouses are kind of a catch-all for both people moving up and downsizers," Wilson adds, "but the South Okanagan is a little bit softer right now, so there's an opportunity there for folks if they're looking to purchase, if they're looking for value, and I think people are always looking for value.
On a larger scale, having a big central draw like Kelowna that's doing well also brings benefits to other nearby markets."They've got a food scene, a wine scene, a tourism scene, and the development scene is burgeoning. If there's any indicator that tells you there's a lot of market demand, selling out nearly 100 homes in the first days of introducing them is as clear as it gets," says Styles, alluding to the aforementioned Sokana project.