Land speculation is a hobby in Calgary, particularly in the areas of major urban renewal, and of the areas I monitor, Shaganappi is currently the epicentre. Land owners appear to lose their mind when they perceive the value of land has gone up, and the greed tinted madness really exhibits itself in the irrational asking prices of property listed on the local MLS.

There are very few buyers out there looking to assemble large multi family parcels in the inner city. Of those, Truman is the company most capable and willing to building large condo buildings in this area. One would assume that Truman is fairly shrewd when it comes to acquiring large groups of lots in order to assemble them into something big enough to develop. Truman must have a clear idea of what it can afford to pay for land given the massive holding and upfront cost of starting a big project. Our case study today is a recently listed lot that came onto the market at an utterly delusional $1.5M. While the lot is a good one, there is zero chance of this selling at any value remotely close to the list price.

Truman recently publicized its holdings in the area. It has a very interesting and significant position on 33 St adjacent to the LRT station (its own unique development debacle tale of woe), and along 14 ave. What will be the fate of this lot? Will the seller come to his senses or will the delusional greed factor continue to guide his decisions?