Millenial buyers Tom Holmes, 35, left, and Berkeley Loh, 29, in the demonstration unit of their new condominium now under construction in B.C.Berkeley Loh, 29, and Tom Holmes, 35, have been together a few years and living in their 800-square-foot Olympic Village rental, but they always had a plan to buy. They’d seen friends and family members buying properties, and they had a fear of missing out.
Ms. Loh has three millennial age colleagues from Aritzia also buying condos, and another colleague who’s planning on starting a family recently purchased an empty property in Port Moody with plans to build a house. Another friend has bought a rundown house and is going through renovations.Among the building amenities is an office space shared among the owners, which has become a bit of a must in the new pandemic world.
“A couple of decades ago, my parents or my grandparents might have decided to buy a suburban home because it was more affordable, and that is not an option for millennials. But I know millennials who have purchased a rental property and they rent it out and they live closer to work, and they rent themselves.
“We have done surveys for the last several years, and consistently we find that millennials are always in the market — which makes sense, because first-time buyers drive the market.” “They are moving into the marketplace in significant numbers,” Mr. Ryalls said. “They are probably buying a condo or a townhouse, although, that said, some of them are buying a $900,000 or $1-million house further out, a decent house with a suite in the basement as a mortgage helper.”
“However, these numbers do not account for those who are financially sidelined and still can’t enter the field as owner or renter.”Mr. Holmes says his friends in London are also buying; however, they’re buying in the city’s outer regions instead of the central core.