Amid headlines about low rental vacancy rates in Canada\u2019s three largest cities prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was perhaps rightly presumed that amenity packages had little to do with where renters chose to live.<\/p>\n
However, with rising vacancy rates, a well-curated amenity package could be the difference between filling a vacancy and having to carry a unit for at least another month. And in a buyer-empowered market, investors should begin looking at how purpose-built rental developers are building upon condominium developers\u2019 earlier successes.<\/p>\n
Todd Nishimura, senior director of marketing, leasing and communications at GWL Realty Advisors, which develops purpose-built rentals across Canada, says that curating superlative amenity packages in the purpose-built segment is imperative because, unlike in the condo market where developers exit upon occupancy, rental operators will always have to fill vacancies themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the product offerings, from amenities to suite layouts to the finishes, we\u2019re looking to match or exceed condos. It benefits us as owner-developers because purpose-built rental is a long-term play,\u201d Nishimura told CREW. \u201cIt\u2019s in our best interest to make the design as functional as possible because we keep having to sell it year after year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every year, GWL Realty Advisors visits major U.S. markets, from Manhattan and Chicago to Seattle and Southern California, and receives private guided tours from property management companies that show their latest and greatest amenity packages in the multi-family residential sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe chose those cities because they\u2019re on the cutting edge of property management, design and technology,\u201d said Nishimura. \u201cWe want to stay up to speed on what they\u2019re doing because the U.S. is two to four years ahead of us, in terms of innovation and sophistication. It shapes our design and delivery service across Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those trips set the stage for what GWL did at The Livmore at the corner of Bay and Gerrard Sts. in downtown Toronto, where it designed an outdoor dog run and spa on the fifth floor. Nishimura noted Canada\u2019s elevated pet ownership rates and says amenities like these, where dogs can be taken a couple of times a day to do their business, are especially useful during the city\u2019s long, bitter winters.<\/p>\n
GWL Realty Advisors has a new project in downtown Montreal in which it\u2019s incorporating secret rooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw a project in Seattle that had party space and amenities that you could access by pushing against a wall and the room opens up like a speakeasy that\u2019s set up with a bar and TV,\u201d said Nishimura. \u201cWhen you close the door behind you, it says \u2018Janitor\u2019s closet.\u2019 They created this cool secret amenity and we imagined the cachet it would have. You could stage events there, or just watch TV and have a drink, etc.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our new project in downtown Montreal, set for occupancy in 2022, we\u2019re building one ourselves. What we liked about it is that it’s not just something you can decide on the fly to do, and what it helped us recognize with this company is they had the vision and foresight at the very beginning of planning to include that kind of amenity. You have to think they were on top of everything else and got it all right otherwise they wouldn\u2019t have had the time to think of that kind of amenity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Montreal project will also feature a wine cellar behind a giant window, like those in tony restaurants. The amenity, which Nishimura says was inspired by a visit to a development in Washington D.C., is for residents to store and enjoy their wines.<\/p>\n
Just as purpose-built rental developers do extensive research, so do condo developers. In addition to figuring out who their buyer demographics will be, they put a lot of effort into determining which amenities they will enjoy. Plaza Corp. has projects launching soon in downtown and midtown Toronto, as well as the Bloor West and Yonge and Finch neighbourhoods, each of which will offer vastly different amenities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that a number of people downtown probably have gym memberships, but more than half the people who live in buildings don\u2019t, so we make sure we have things you\u2019d see a 30-something doing at the gym. We design the gyms for that demographic,\u201d said Scott McLellan, Plaza\u2019s senior vice president, who added that a 905-area gym will contain more workout apparatus. \u201cThe number of pet owners downtown is incredible, so we make our amenities pet-friendly and include things like doggy spas. Most downtown projects will have outdoor pools or plunge pools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we previously went out to Jane and Bloor where we had 1,200-1,400 sq ft buyers, they actually used the pool 365 days a year. Another amenity that\u2019s important to them is a dining area with enough room for a caterer and four other couples on a Saturday night. It will have a chef\u2019s oven and place to store wine. Those are the subtle differences of an area like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mississauga-based In2ition Realty offers market research and consultancy for developers and has its proverbial finger on the pulse. According to Debbie Cosic, In2ition\u2019s president and CEO, the pandemic has influenced amenity packages in a big way because people\u2019s homes have become their offices.<\/p>\n
\u201cCondos are smaller and smaller, so co-work amenity spaces are important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, elaborate package delivery rooms because e-commerce is massive now,\u201d Cosic added, noting that the pandemic has played an outsized role.<\/p>\n
On multi-phase developments, In2ition administers exit surveys to occupants and asks for their suggestions about what kinds of amenities they\u2019d like to see, and those suggestions are often incorporated into the project\u2019s subsequent phases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do a combination of pre-market research and exit surveys,\u201d said Cosic. \u201cRooftop terraces with amenity spaces people can sit in are always popular, as are outdoor gardens, walking tracks, dog runs, and a lot of communal space because people don\u2019t have space in their units to entertain. So we see party rooms divided into three or four smaller spaces where you can play cards or entertain 10, 12 people. It\u2019s about helping residents expand their space.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amid headlines about low rental vacancy rates in Canada\u2019s three largest cities prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was perhaps rightly presumed that amenity packages had little to do with where renters chose to live. However, with rising vacancy rates, a well-curated amenity package could be the difference between filling a vacancy and having to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23008,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890\/revisions\/23008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}