Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson says the city is looking for larger scale developments that will address the increasing demand for housing in the community.
But he says it is not a level playing field when it comes to attracting developers for those type of projects.
He says the return on investment is the largest incentive for developers.
“So down in Vancouver in the heyday, throughout the Lower Mainland, the Okanagan, developers could actually make their money back on large scale multi unit development, condos in particular, on pre-sales. So the investment to build the facilities that they were planning to build, they could actually get their cash back on pre-sales because the difference between building costs and the value of those properties was such that they could do 25 percent, 30 percent pre-sale, and they got their cash back and build a condo.”
Simpson says the difference between the market price for units in Quesnel and the cost of building those units is not high enough for large scale housing developers to make the kinds of profits that they’re used to.
He says they are now seeing developers look to be more in the long game, and look to be more reasonable in what their expectations are of the profit margin, so he’s hopeful that they can entice some of those developers into the community.
Simpson says they hope to assist in that process in the New Year by dong a more refined needs assessment.
“We’re hoping in the New Year to put a tighter package together for developers where we’ve done a lot of that market analysis work for them, so that they’ve got some comfort that investing in Quesnel will get their return, even if its not as high, but they will definitely get their return on their investment quickly.”
Simpson says the city also has an incentive package for new housing development in all areas that includes a 5 or 10 year property tax relief, as well as the waiving of development cost charges.
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