Old-Presale Q&A

The term pre-sale or presale means a home that is available for purchase by a buyer before the home is ready to move in.   The home can be any type of properties such as high rise concrete condo, low rise woodframe apartment, and townhouse.  Most often, it’s available to buy even before construction has started, and sometimes it’s already under construction.   The buyer cannot move to the new homeat the time of purchase. In general,  when the building is built and ready for the buyers to move in,   the same “home” will be considered as “New Home” instead of “Pre-sale”.

In the early 1990s,  this concept of presale was introduced to Vancouver.  This new process to buy real estate has reduced potential risk and capital requirements for building developers.  From buyer prespective,  the buyers can have  opportunity to get in early, and may have better selection (at the earliest stage or VIP Access).  In addition, the buyers may invest in the potential capital appreciation prior to the completion of building.   The building completion can be ranging from 1 year to up to 3 years later depends on the stages of pre-sales and type of building (Concrete or woodframe).  Since then,  there are more and more major property developers in Greater Vancouver area offer pre-sales on various type of new residential developments.