Desperate
times demand desperate measures. When Jordan and Russ Macnab, estate
agent brothers in Vancouver, Canada, had a glamorous single-bedroom
apartment, priced at over C$600,000, that was stubbornly refusing to
sell, they decided on a marketing innovation: the “crib crawl”.
They rented a limo bus, stocked it with drinks and snacks, and took a
party of possible buyers on an evening tour to see the apartment in
question and about half a dozen others, in a mobile viewing party.
The
experiment was not a complete failure: the Macnabs attracted a lot of
interest, and are developing a television series based on their idea.
They are planning their second crib crawl next month.
As a way to shift slow-moving inventory, however, it was a flop. Not
one of the apartments they showed found a buyer. Vancouver, which until
last year had Canada’s strongest growth in house prices, is now its
weakest region. The number of homes sold in the greater Vancouver area
dropped by 23 per cent last year.
“It’s a bit of a stalemate at the moment,” says Jordan Macnab.
“Buyers are waiting for it to crash, and sellers don’t want to give it
up.”
The lack of buyers is sobering evidence that Canada’s housing boom, which began in 2000 and bounced back to life after the financial crisis of 2008-09, is now over. (more)
Please bookmark us
No comments:
Post a Comment