Hi everyone and happy new year. It is January 2nd, the first construction day of the year and time for me to make some predictions. I think this will be a very eventful year, and possibly hard to predict what will happen. In December I will review my predictions, and see how I did.
1. The City internal process to modernize infill building standards will be long, difficult, and controversial, however, at the end the outcome will be worth it because it will reduce contextual front setbacks among other changes, and deal with many parts of the bylaw that are no longer useful for the builders, communities, and the planning department (this is a highly optimistic prediction because of the political nature of this work, even so I am hopeful that much needed changes will happen).
2. Killarney land prices will moderate or slightly drop in 2018 - I was wrong about land prices last year, or perhaps just focussed too much on the outliers. Even so the run up in land value over the past year or two was remarkable, given the economy has really just stabilized vs. improved. So I will again predict the land values will not be higher than in 2017.
3. Government meddling will impact new home sales - This is an easy prediction to make, because by making it harder to borrow, even for really well qualified buyers, the new home industry usually would take the hit. This is a toxic prediction for me to make because I am building new houses right now for sale in spring 2018. Perhaps the inner city product will prove more resilient than the deep suburbia, we will see.
4. The spring market will be very good - the all important spring market will bring massive quantities of buyers out to the show homes in Killarney. I think the amount and similarity of the Killarney product deluge that is now underway will be interesting to watch, and a lot of buyers will be drawn to the generous selection.
So there you have four predictions for 2018, I hope everyone has a healthy and productive year.