It used to be that buyers would “drive to qualify” for an affordable house. And incomes haven’t risen by 30 per cent in places like Chilliwack. There’s just so much about our business that I haven’t got a clue anymore why it’s working. I just wonder how people are affording what we are building. I’m more surprised that costs are going up like crazy. “I’m surprised that values are going up like crazy. “I’m surprised by everything,” says the developer who has almost 50 years in the business. There’s no point wishing he’d held back some of the houses to sell at higher prices, he says, because he could never have guessed the way things would go. The same house had originally sold for $500,000 in 2014. Van Maren just recently watched one of the houses sell for $1.2-million. Over the past two years, the pandemic triggered a super-sprawl reaction, accelerating the move into places such as the Okanagan, with wealthy buyers seeking the comforts of square footage, scenery and distance from others, who had the luxury of working or running businesses from their homes. Van Maren Group has sold all but one of the 285 custom-built houses in the subdivision, with about 30 houses sold last year still under construction. The Cottages on Osoyoos Lake in Oliver, B.C. They were people with good jobs who were relocating, and they had a lifetime of funds to support the move. Initially, he thought that buyers wouldn’t go higher than $300,000 but it turned out that they had deeper pockets. Also, he wouldn’t have worried about the top-end price. Van Maren would have built bigger houses with more amenities, because most buyers ended up living there year round. The Van Maren Group sold off all but one of the 285 custom-built houses in the subdivision they built to the south of Okanagan Lake on Osoyoos Lake, quaintly called The Cottages, with about 30 houses they sold last year that are still under construction. The giant chairs became a marketing success story, because they caught the attention of many a vacationer (often from Alberta), who’d come seeking the semi-desert climate and wineries, golf and boating charms of Okanagan Lake, not far from the U.S. Several years ago, developer Eric Van Maren had the idea that in order to market his 70-acre multi-phased water-view vacation property in Oliver, B.C., he’d rent space along the highway to erect 13-foot high Adirondack chairs that would serve as signage.
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