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Condo storage lockers

Well, you have a different experience than I did at Parade then. I owned an unit in this building until earlier this year. I bought the unit originally from the builder in 2007. I paid $3,500 for a locker. Come July 2011 (registration), posters went up next to all elevators saying lockers are available at $2,500. There was a Concord Adex logo on the top of it. I immediately cursed myself for buying earlier.

From my observation of 2 of the locker rooms, about 1/4 of them are empty. Unless owners/tenants are not using them, my best guess is that they are still owned by the builder.

I've also heard through management that Concord still owns parking spots in the building. Driving through the garage, there are empty spaces scattered. There are also numerous signs up on the bulletin boards of tenants/owners trying to rent out their spots, ranging from $90-$150/month. Break even for these spots for owners assuming a 3% interest rate on funds borrowed is about $130/month. People aren't making money off the parking.

On the selling front, I was not able to recover my parking/locker costs from a comparable unit without. People are not willing to pay $35k for parking and $3k for locker in this building (when adjusting a similar unit). If my calculations are correct, I got about $25k for both on an adjusted basis. This is after getting 6 bids over a couple months. Units without parking/locker also sold much more quickly than units with.

This is just one building in many though. I cannot say its consistently true for all buildings. But I can tell you right now that its not an isolated incident. i live in the Bay/College area now, and I see parking spots going for $85/month in an under 5 year old building. Lockers look healthy at $40/month on average.

Also note that parking/locker rents is separate from condo rental rates. Condo rental rates are very healthy in most buildings I've seen (in terms of occupancy). They don't seem to sit like parking/lockers and don't need price drops. Of course, it could mean the prices were reasonable in the first place, namely, okay for renter incomes, but too low to cover current market prices for the owners. As a tangent, I don't know why owners are using their original cost as a basis of their return. They should be using the current market values. I could drop the money for a condo into a savings account and earn a better return than owning and renting out condos right now.
 
Well, you have a different experience than I did at Parade then. I owned an unit in this building until earlier this year. I bought the unit originally from the builder in 2007. I paid $3,500 for a locker. Come July 2011 (registration), posters went up next to all elevators saying lockers are available at $2,500. There was a Concord Adex logo on the top of it. I immediately cursed myself for buying earlier.

This is odd. I didn't notice postings by the elevator on Parade. I saw postings on the bulletin board at Parade though. It advertised $4,500 and up so I emailed out of curiosity and the prices I was given ranged from $4.5-6k. They didn't advertise parking though. I swear, the lady in charge of handling lockers must be pocketing money in between the prices...
 
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That is weird. But there were no price tiers when I bought, or during the subsequently advertised prices on the bulletin boards. The lockers I've seen in the building are all the same size.

Parade is 10 Capreol Court and 15 Iceboat (podium and tower respectively). Perhaps you mean Luna next door (25 Capreol and something Telegram Mews)? I heard they have lockers that are bigger and attached to their parking spots for select units.
 
That is weird. But there were no price tiers when I bought, or during the subsequently advertised prices on the bulletin boards. The lockers I've seen in the building are all the same size.

Parade is 10 Capreol Court and 15 Iceboat (podium and tower respectively). Perhaps you mean Luna next door (25 Capreol and something Telegram Mews)? I heard they have lockers that are bigger and attached to their parking spots for select units.

There weren't sales postings by the elevators. I assume management didn't allow it. Postings are posted at bulletin boards at 10 Capreol Crt. The only postings that seemed to be allowed on elevators were notices to residents of fire alarms, incidents or such that affects residents. The posting on the bulletin at 10 Capreol Crt clearly said $4,500 and up and there was phone and email contact. The contact was the lady in charge of lockers and parking at all the concord buildings. I didn't look at the 15 Iceboat bulletin, so maybe it was just posted in that building.
 
Then they raised the price. The notice was in the management only bulletin board, and it was posted July 2011 or there abouts. It was a Concord Adex contact, for $2,500 per locker. They probably had tons back when the building registered, now they are last to their last few, and raised the price.

So I guess the trend is basically $3,500 for pre-construction, they realized they had way too many left upon occupancy/registration and lowered it to $2,500, and now they have only a few left and raised it back up to $4,500. Lesson learned (for this building only), with 20/20 hindsight, I was stupid to buy during pre-construction and should have bought it upon occupancy/registration, but luckily didn't wait until 2012 to buy one (or better yet, I should have not bought one at all and rented). Note from my selling experience, recovery of the locker price is not possible if at $4,500. No buyer was willing to pay remotely that. The locker, along with parking and upgrades, were the worst decisions I made with this condo.

If you really want one, I would negotiate with Concord. Its costing them around $20/month to hold on to any remaining lockers. That doesn't even consider their cost of capital. I wouldn't be surprised if you can get a better price than $4,500. With that said, they may need to save some for some of the unsold units they have in the building. They are still holding onto units around the bridge plus the bridge units as at a couple months ago when I talked to them.
 
Actually, the posting I saw was back in August 2011. After noticing the bulletin posting, I emailed to inquire about it and I got the following response.

Standard lockers are $5,000.00 plus hst

Smaller lockers are $3,500.00 plus hst

Oversized lockers start at $6,500.00 plus hst.
 
I just know I bought mine for $3500 in 2007, and when I saw the sign in 2011, I was like @#$@ $1000 cheaper!

But I don't think there is a point in talking about what it was selling at in 2011 or 2007. If it can't be bought in 2012 for that price, then its not valid.

But the main message of my post is valid. Each building is different. Don't listen to the real estate agent telling you its hard to sell units without parking/locker. It depends on the building. I have my experience earlier this year with my unit selling for $35,000 more compared with the exact same unit. But I had parking, locker, upgrades, and no pole in my living room. The cost of each of those is as follows (2007 prices) - parking $28,000, locker $3500, upgrades $15,000, pole $6,000 = $52,500. My loss on these items is $17,000. No floor differential between my comparable since we were on the same floor. I sustained less loss than another unit, which sold $7000 less than mine, and had all of my items. That person is also 4 floors up, so his loss is $7,000 + 4,000 (floor premium) + $17,000 = $28,000.

Doing it simplistically, based on the 15% deposit the builder had in place when purchasing in 2007, my return on a levered basis (capital only) was around 25%/year. If I didn't get all the extras, my return would have been about 40%/year. Having said that, it was still a good choice, since my alternative would have been the stock market, which has negative returns over the same period.

Thus, don't assume you can get your money back by buying a locker (or parking). Like everything, its a question of supply and demand. At Parade, both of those have demand that is lower than cost in my case.
 
Thus, don't assume you can get your money back by buying a locker (or parking). Like everything, its a question of supply and demand. At Parade, both of those have demand that is lower than cost in my case.

I agree this is true. It depends on supply and demand. It also depends on the buyer. Some buyer might not be so desperate and will lower their offers. Some who MUST own that unit and loves it so much will pay more for it. The buyers will dictate the price they are willing to pay.
 
I think it depends on the mix in the building.

In a higher end, larger unit type of building, buyers will want a parking spot and locker in all likelihood.

In a lot of "entry level buildings" with many small units that cater in large part to renters, the buyer/landlord/investor will probably not be willing to pay a lot extra unless the economics make sense to purchase these "add-ons".

Also, in a lot of older buildings, there were 1 and even 2 parking spots and if the population in the building includes a lot of "older" retirees, they often do not use their 1 or 2nd parking spot and hence there are an excess of these available and hence do not command large dollars. In many new projects parking is at a premium. I suspect as we keep building and parking lots disappear either people will abandon their cars totally...hence Zip cars etc., or people will pay a large premium. My suspicion is again it will be building dependent with upper/upper middle buildings commanding the premiums, and low/mid buildings not.
 
Not sure if this is appropriate for this thread or not but there's been some mention of price for both lockers & parking.

Does anyone know what the average resale value of these are? I have two parkings & lockers downtown in Liberty Village which I'm considering selling. There's one builder in the area which I can get prices from but I'm not sure if resale value of these should be higher than new construction? The thinking is that once a building bought up if you didn't have a a parking or locker it's hard to buy one?

Anyway, if anyone could give me a ball park figure on what the asking price should be for these re-sale I'd very much appreciate it.

Thanks,
 
Does anyone know what the average resale value of these are? I have two parkings & lockers downtown in Liberty Village which I'm considering selling. There's one builder in the area which I can get prices from but I'm not sure if resale value of these should be higher than new construction? The thinking is that once a building bought up if you didn't have a a parking or locker it's hard to buy one?

Prices for resale are always lower than pre-construction these days. If you're selling above builder's current price, you're over priced especially for parking and lockers. Parking and lockers usually sell below builder's current price. You may or may not be able to get same as builders' current price.
 
Sorry but that's ridicules and utterly untrue. I know people who have sold parking in the past and it's always been higher then what's currently selling.

Price is set by supply and demand. In new construction you have the opportunity to buy multiple parking spots if the builder allows it. In re-sale, if you buy a a unit with one parking and need two, the supply of additional parking is sporadic and often not available. Making it more valuable. Many people are stuck with no parking making re-sale very valuable to those who need it.
 
Sorry but that's ridicules and utterly untrue. I know people who have sold parking in the past and it's always been higher then what's currently selling.

Price is set by supply and demand. In new construction you have the opportunity to buy multiple parking spots if the builder allows it. In re-sale, if you buy a a unit with one parking and need two, the supply of additional parking is sporadic and often not available. Making it more valuable. Many people are stuck with no parking making re-sale very valuable to those who need it.

Stipe, this is not necessarily true.
In new construction especially nowadays,
builders often offer parking with 1 bedroom/dens and larger units. The assumption is that smaller units may buy a parking spot if wanted/needed. Depending on the mix in the building, I have seen buildings where there are not enough parking spots.

Similarly, in a resale building, if one knows one needs 2 parking spots and there is only 1, the individual will not buy the condo unless he/she knows that a rental spot can be rented or additional spot can be bought at a reasonable price.

As I said, I have a condo in an older building (35 years old....excellent building in high demand) but at least 2 years ago there were parking spots offered as low as $75-100/month. As there are a number of older individuals in the building(there is really a full range mix of ages), they have gone from 2 cars to 1 or in some cases no cars. There are more parking spots than units, hence the low price ascribed to it. The building being mid/downtown (on Bloor Street) is undergoing a transition and as it gets more young people an attractive feature is the guaranteed 1 parking spot and the ability to get a 2nd.

Interestingly, the lockers command a fair amount and are in high demand...getting almost as much as a parking spot.
 
That's an interesting perspective. I would have thought differently but I guess it depends on the demographics of the area.

I appreciate all the input. Thanks!
 
Since a lot of people move from homes to downsize, they often want to store things.

as well, condos notoriously do not have enough storage.

We also find that the summer furniture from the balcony gets stored in winter in the storage locker.
 

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