I’ve been very fortunate with my past real estate investments. My Vancouver condo, and farmland near Yorkton, SK have altogether made me over $75,000 in pre-tax capital gains, at least on paper. 😉 Not too shabby considering how 5 years ago I still had student loan debt and a negative net worth. 😛
Researching a New Investment Idea
Recently I was brainstorming ideas for my next investment. Stocks are pretty volatile these days due to lower commodity prices like for oil, wheat, coal, and base metals. 🙁 Residential properties also seem kind of flaky at this time because we don’t know whether or not the trusted Fed will tighten its monetary policy next year or open the gates to even more quantitative easing. 😕 So it’s hard to find under valued assets these days.
However, I was recently browsing the MLS database on realtor.ca, which of course is accessible to the general public. And I came across several listing on the outskirts of Regina, Saskatchewan that caught my attention. These listings are for undeveloped plots of land, near the Regina International Airport (Code: YQR.) The size of each lot for sale varies from 2,000 ft2 (185 m2) to 10,000 ft2 (929 m2) or more, so they’re large enough to build an apartment or restaurant on. Here’s an example of one of those properties I might be interested to buy.
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I like how it says right in the listing description, “Investment opportunity only.” haha. As an investor, how can I pass up this incredible offer? 🙂 For simplicity sake we’ll label these listings as “commercial” properties for now because they’re not really residential. What I also like about this opportunity is that the property tax is very low because these are simply flat, empty land waiting to be developed on. And many of these commercial plots are not even within the city of Regina.
Regina residential real estate is really heating up, but these vacant commercial properties outside the city boarders are selling for $20,000 for a small lot, to $100,000 for a large lot, which is pretty darn affordable. 😀 With an unemployment rate of just 3.5%, which is literally the lowest in the country, Saskatchewan has been, and will continue to be the driving engine of economic growth in North America. I won’t be able to rent this land to anyone if I buy it. But if I make this investment right now and just hold onto it, I don’t see how I can possibly lose money 5 or 10 years down the road. 😉 Except of course I can’t invest right now because I don’t have any money. 😡
Regina Can Wait.
I only have about $2,000 in my bank account, but I need at least $20,000 to purchase a plot of vacant land. Normally I would just borrow money from the bank (leverage) and go ahead with the investment. But since I blogged about abstaining from using new debt for the rest of this year, I’m actually not able to invest in this opportunity right now. But that’s alright. There’s always next year. 🙂
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Random Useless Fact:
Hunger kills way more people than Ebola, but it’s not considered a significant problem because rich people can’t die from it.
If that land belongs to who I think it does, he’s been selling his pieces for several years now. That land your looking at is slated to be apart of the Harbour Landing West expansion (residential development). That land will be expropriated by big developers when the time is right.
From his perspective, he is getting the surrounding market value up so that when his land gets expropriated he will be better compensated. I would not be so quick to pay those prices for empty lots you will never own anyways. IdK. Maybe you know something more that the rest of us? Please do tell.
I don’t know any more than what I’ve read online, but it looks like you understand this area more than anyone else 😀 Wow I didn’t you you are so well connected in the real estate business man. 🙂 I will need to do some more research into it for sure. I assume if a developer eventually expropriates the land in this area then it may be willing to pay more than what the current owner is listing it for, but it depends on the time table. I’ll try to contact the listing agent and Regina city counsellors next week to get a better sense of what the land will be used for. Hope they don’t mind me poking around with some questions.
You will find more detail in here my friend. Even shows a picture what the city of Regina is planning for SE10-17-20-W2 on page 8.
https://www.regina.ca/opencms/export/sites/regina.ca/residents/urban-planning/.media/pdf/reduced—2014-10-14-whl-neighbourhood-plan—october-2014.pdf
Oh neat. This will save me a lot of time on my research. Thanks 🙂
Hey Buddy! Just a word of caution here in more general terms. I don’t know much about parcels of land in the larger cities in SK, but be very wary if ever considering buying land or property that will be built on unless you just flip it! Trades are a b**ch to find here in SK and a project can bleed you dry financially and quickly void any gains you made on the land! Trades are few and far between and you might as well hand them your wallet and check-book! Just a word of caution. Lived in BC for a long time and have never seen rip-off’s so severe and brazen as they practice in SK. You can get filthy rich by being a carpenter, framer, drywaller! Not enough if those to go around.
Thanks for the warning, Elke 🙂 It sounds like it’s buyers beware. If I didn’t have a job already I’d probably go into trades lol. It appears there is a lot of demand but not much supply.
Hey Liquid,
Long time since we’ve chatted. I am still a reader. Did you land up contacting anyone in Regina about this investment? I always figured that this quarter section was going to be expropriated; but my last review of the neighborhood plans shows that about 1/4 of the lots were bought by Dream.
Harbour Landing is nearly full, and once the Regina Bypass is built, this area will be targeted for development. I’m thinking maybe 10 years. Trying to determine what will happen with this area. I know that the land owner will have to foot the bill for all infrastructure. Could be expensive.
You have any news on this?
Thanks
JR
http://www.regina.ca/opencms/export/sites/regina.ca/residents/city-planning/.media/pdf/reduced—2014-10-14-whl-neighbourhood-plan—october-2014.pdf
Hey JR. It’s nice to hear from you again. I did not end up contacting anyone about this property on the outskirts of Regina. I don’t know what’s going to happen to these properties. Maybe the land has been annexed into the city and Dream will try to obtain as much West Harbour Landing as possible before it starts developing the area.