Optimistic talk at real estate forum
Posted Oct 26, 2011 2:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Real estate industry experts and analysts, meeting Wednesday for a series of seminars at the Telus Convention Centre, are feeling bullish about prospects for the coming year in Calgary.
That optimism is based on everything from the spinoff benefits of oilsands to the province’s economic future.
“I see a lot of new porches on the street,” Greg Kwong, the Managing Director of Calgary Real Estate Board Group tells 660News. “A lot of additions to houses being done and things like that. Certainly there’s a lot of, you know, caution.”
Kwong says that caution is based on Calgary’s reputation for a boom and bust economy. But for the most part investors are acting with confidence when it comes to 2012.
“We’ve come through a great run,” he adds. “Last year, at the beginning of 2010, everybody thought: ‘Oh, more doom and gloom.’ But the market bounced back tremendously. It was the hottest market I’ve seen in quite some time.”
Kwong credits a surging oil industry for the bounce back, and while we’re not yet at levels the city saw a few years ago, he says it’s important to note that we’re close — citing developments on the commercial level.
“The one or two office developments, being announced here in the next three to six months, if I would have told someone that 12 months ago, they would have laughed at me,” he says. “So, absolutely we could see a bounce back to 2007 quite quickly.”
He adds in talking with international counterparts, many are shocked at how Calgary has developed 5 million square feet of office space and that there are no signs of a slowdown in that area.
