CONDOMINIUM suites in a Canadian development in which a number of Irish buyers invested are being offered at nearly half-price in a court-approved one-day receiver’s sale on Saturday.
Over the past two years, up to 30 Irish investors are thought to have bought units in Red Leaves, a 221-room Marriott-operated luxury resort hotel two hours’ north of Toronto at prices ranging from €195,000 ($294,000Cdn) to over €447,000 (€700,000Cdn).
The last 84 units are now being offered for sale from €106,000 ($166,000Cdn). Thousands of buyers have registered their interest in buying one of the units in the past few weeks according to Barbara Lawlor of Toronto agency Baker Real Estate, which is handling sales for the receiver.
The average price cut is about 35 per cent according to Lawlor; the studio units for €106,000 ($166,000Cdn) would “have a challenged view” she said.
Most interest has come from people in the province of Ontario: Red Leaves is located there in Muskoka, a cottage country area where people like Stephen Spielberg and Goldie Hawn own holiday homes.
But American and a handful of European buyers have also registered their interest online.
The sale will be conducted not by auction but on a first-come, first-served basis, and it will only be possible to buy in person (or though someone with power of attorney.) First definite offers at set prices will close a deal.
Red Leaves developer Ken Fowler’s company went into receivership due to cash overruns a few months ago, but the hotel, which opened in January, had a successful summer according to selling agent Barbara Lawlor of Baker Real Estate.
Mr Fowler’s company still owns parts of the Red Leaves resort, but not the Marriott-operated hotel, said Lawlor. Richard Morawetz, managing director of receiver Alvarez Marcel Canada, told a Canadian newspaper that buyers would be given clear title to units.
Buyers leave their hotel condominium suites in the hotel rental pool but can use them for up to nine weeks a year. Irish buyers were offered guaranteed rental returns equivalent to seven per cent for four years when they were being sold here by Galway agent David McCarthy. But agency Baker is “definitely not offering guarantees” said Lawlor.
David McCarthy said yesterday that he had not been involved in selling the properties for two years.
