Commercial Real Estate Redefined
We empower our clients with specialized high-level real estate services and creative real estate solutions.
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We choose to be great instead of big, so we put our clients and our people first.  We focus on high quality work, deep local connections, and tailored personal customer service. Powered by creative ideas, deep expertise, hard work, and dedication, we produce real estate solutions to confidently place your business ahead of your competitors.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR FOCUS AREAS
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Land Assembly

What is Land Assembly?

Maximizing the value potential of your land.

Land assembly is where you combine multiple adjacent parcels of land to form a single site that can be used to build a larger property. Under certain government plans and regulations, we are able to increase the buildable potential, which will not only provide more housing for everyone, but also reward you handsomely.

The higher buildable density will increase the value of your property.

Common uses include townhouses, low-and-mid-rise buildings, high-rise condos, retail complexes, industrial complexes, schools, hospitals, and airports.

With a constant decline in the availability of developable land in Greater Vancouver, many municipalities and developers are now looking to redevelop and increase density in what were historically low density single-family home neighbourhoods.

Land assemblies generally occur along major transportation corridors. They are often initiated by adjacent property owners deciding to market their properties for sale altogether. However, sometimes a developer may approach a group of property owners directly and offer to buy all the properties. 

By selling a property as part of a land assembly, owners are able to demand a higher purchase price since their individual property is worth more to a developer when combined with adjacent properties rather than by itself.
How does land assembly work?
Usually, one of two scenarios occur. A developer will approach homeowners in a particular block they are interested in and make each owner an offer for their property, usually for above-value. A group of property owners an also agree to approach a developer and market all their properties together as a single investment opportunity. Homeowners who are grouped together can negotiate for higher prices than they could by selling individually.

Properties involved in a land assembly transaction aren't always treated equally, depending on the situation and parties involved. The sale price could be an equal share based on buildable potential, or per square foot, or even where the property is located within the assembly itself. 
Is it possible to be left out of a land assembly deal?
Yes, this is possible. You as a homeowner have high selling power in the beginning stage, as the developers only have a land assembly project if they buy several adjacent properties, but there are limits to your power. 

When the developer is successful in assembling a few adjacent properties, pressure from the investors to begin construction will start settling in because of the enormous upfront investment and ongoing carrying costs. Delays and rising costs for the developer could cause them to build around the holdout properties by changing their plans about the entire site, and moving the timeline up by building a smaller-scale project.
What complications can assembled properties face?
A land assembly is not your ordinary residential home transaction. Not only will many of the same potential issues as any property purchase arise, but there will be a lot of additional challenges that will come when dealing with multiple vendors. 

Some problems that can arise include:
  • Errors in the legal descriptions,
  • ​Old undischarged mortgages or leases,
  • ​Old easements or rights of way,
  • ​Encroachment from lots not being purchased,
  • Gaps between the lots being assembled,
  • ​Orphaned laneways.
Land assembly are very complex deals, involving the amalgamation of several different titles. Each of the property titles could have title or off-title risks that the developer will need to account for. Timing is often a very important factor in getting the best deal for your property. When your land assembly sits on the market for too long or gets footballed around by inexperienced representation, this could be detrimental to your negotiating position. Proper research, planning, product positioning, and packaging will be the key to creating the best first reactions that developers will give your land assembly opportunity. 

We offer more value for your property through high-level custom underwriting, playing the numbers in your favour, and more protection from spoiled deals due to our extensive and exclusive first-hand network of investors and developers. 
Are you planning to sell your development land soon?
If you plan on selling your development property soon, here are some tips:
  • Review your neighbourhood's land use map to confirm if your property is included within the municipal planning. Identify potential land assembly scenarios with your neighbouring properties.
  • ​Talk to your neighbours to identify their interest in selling their property alongside yours as a combined land assembly package.
  • ​Contact a Realtor that specializes in selling development land so they can help you further understand your property's land assembly potential.
Are you not planning on selling your development land anytime soon?
If you plan on selling your development property in the future but not anytime soon, here are some tips:
  • Maintain a dialogue with your neighbours so that if one was to sell in the future you will be in the loop and you could sell together; maximizing the sale price of all properties involved.
  • ​Stay informed about development activity in your neighbourhood, and pay special attention to any development application notices you receive in the mail to avoid getting left out of a neighbouring land assembly.
Caution: The main risk for a land owner is holding out too long. In the same way that assemblies create efficiencies, holding out so long that your neighbouring properties assemble and develop without you can leave you stuck with an inefficient development site or a property that is just too small to develop on its own. This can result in a significant loss of property value.

Rental Investment

What is a Rental Investment?

We provide both investor and seller representation services.

Rental investment is where you prioritize your investment decision based on the analytics yielding higher cash-flow margins, instead of capital gains. Commercial rentals tend to be favoured by experienced investors over residential rentals, as most of the commercial lease agreements are triple-net based, or operate on economies of scale.

Triple-net leases (NNN) will help you as an investor increase your return on investment. Not only will you be receiving basic rent, your tenant will also be paying for all the expenses of the property, which will include real estate taxes, building insurance, and maintenance. These are commonly seen with retail units and office space.

Multifamily buildings are also considered commercial investments due to the complex nature of its operations. Investors with enough capital will prefer multifamily rentals over single-unit properties, as you are able to cut down on per square footage costs for renovations and maintenance. With more units, you can also improve individually selected units without significantly impacting your rental income. Once the upgrades are in place, you will then be able to increase your rental rate.
How does commercial rental investing work?
Usually, one of two scenarios occur. An investor will approach a seller of a particular rental property they are interested in and make an offer based on the property's condition and rental income. The investor could keep all the existing agreements such as property management, leases, maintenance, etc. in place and simply take over ownership, which is usually what occurs.

An experienced investor could also revoke existing agreements, remodel or reposition the asset with new parties in place that have previous working relationships with the investor. The investor could try to optimize the operations and cut down costs, or could renovate or repurpose certain areas of the property. In this scenario, the investor would then seek out new tenants or renegotiate with existing tenants to increase the rental income. This is less likely to occur because of the disruption to existing rental revenues and risk of prolonged vacancies when searching for new replacement tenants.
What kind of timeline should I expect with a rental investment?
Some companies, consortiums, or investors who specialize only in rental investments tend to have a longer outlook with a minimum holding period of 5+ years, with some starting at 10+ years. If you have a diversified portfolio, you might be better off with a shorter timeline. Most of the investors tend to have holding periods between 3 to 5 years before they either renovate the property, refinance or obtain an equity take-out for the next purchase, or sell the property to another investor. We will analyze your situation to create investment strategies that best align with your real estate goals.
What if the property has bigger future development potential?
Are you acting as the buyer or seller?

If you are buying the property, you need to be careful. Do you have plans on pursuing a development project in the near-future, and more importantly, do you have any experience with local development? Having enough capital to purchase the property does not mean you might have the capacity to get funding for building out the whole project, especially if you don't have any development experience. The holding cost of the property will stack up, and you need to make sure you have enough financial power to hold through to avoid potential foreclosure.

If you are selling the property, you will need to find contact a Realtor that specializes in development land to maximize the value of your sale. You will also need to consider if you are completely cashing out from the property, or if you are looking to seek a joint-venture with a builder, which could potentially grow into a long-lasting partnership or friendship. Your property could also have strong rental revenues on top of the development potential. You may need advisors with high-level expertise in analytical strategies and negotiation abilities to package your asset as a hybrid opportunity, further increasing your value position.
Caution: The main risk for a rental investor is becoming married to your property. With the local policies and regulations in full support of tenants, owners of income-producing properties may become limited in their options for value growth. If there are rent-increase limits, there is not much you are able to do without facing potential tenant backlash and legal problems (which could become costly). That is why most investors keep their holding periods between 3 to 5 years. They will optimize operations, maximize revenues, and reap the rewards for their efforts in adding value to the property, then move onto the next investment opportunity.

Hospitality

What About Hospitality?

Sophisticated and delicate operations changing hands smoothly.

The services we offer for hospitality properties cover hotels, motels, inns, and lodges. These unique businesses require a unique solution when it comes time to sell. Our sales consulting services provides you with all the tools and networks you need to professionally sell a hotel, motel, inn, or lodge business in the most efficient and cost effective way.

In-depth valuation and proper positioning will help you get the most value out of your property. We have seen too many people sell their hospitality businesses for under-valued prices, or over-pay for their purchases. This is often simply because the clients didn't reach out to the proper, high-level Realtors that are qualified to protect your best interests in this specific niche of real estate.
What areas do you cover?
For the hospitality industry, we cover southern British Columbia all the way west to Vancouver Island, and all the way east to Revelstoke, and as north as Kamloops. As long as there is an existing hotel operation in place, we will be able to assist you. If there is potential to build a hotel, that would be sold as development land instead of a hospitality product. 
What is taken into consideration for valuation?
There are many factors to take into consideration. Not only will be need to look at your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) such as ADR (Average Daily Rate), RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room), CPOR (Cost per Occupied Room), ARPAR (Adjusted Revenue per Average Room), but we will also need to look at the quality of construction, status of FF&E (Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment). Intangible things such as reputation, service quality, location desirability, and overall charm are also important in finalizing the property value. 

There are many hotel valuation techniques and numerous factors to take into consideration. With our experts, we are able to maximize the potential of your asset and justify a higher valuation to make sure you are getting what you deserve for the business.
What should I do before I sell my hotel?
If you plan on selling your hotel soon, here are some tips:
  • Accentuate the Positive: For any items which helps your hotel appear superior to others around you, this is the time to confirm that position by putting systems and procedures in place to ensure your entire staff is aware of (and actively maintains) those features. It would be helpful to incorporate them into your ongoing marketing efforts as well.
  • Eliminate the Negative: To the farthest corner and smallest speck of possibility, attack every item for improvement in priority order with an emphasis on low-hanging fruit (the improvements that are quick and more affordable to accomplish, but which have a notable impact on the perceived value of your hotel) first. An example of low-hanging fruit is making cosmetic improvements, especially in and around the entranceway and lobby areas where curbside appeal will portray first impressions. 
  • Get Records and Paperwork In Order: One of the first and most important things a serious buyer is going to want to see is your hotel’s business, legal, and financial records. With the help of your attorney and accountant, make sure all records are neat, legible, easily accessible, updated, and error-free. Be sure they reflect the very latest versions of recurring inspections and licensing so the buyer knows the property is currently usable as intended. A smart buyer will likely have their own lawyer and accountant review the paperwork as well, so don’t rely on ignorance to cover up gaps in the records.
  • ​Approach the Sale of Your Hotel Strategically: Having done a great deal of preliminary research and preparation is critical for a successful sale at a good price. The point where you actually list your hotel for sale and we start meeting with prospective buyers is not where you want to start shooting from the hip. Instead, just like every other business decision that’s grown your company to this point, with a successful hotel in peak salable condition, you’ll want to approach the listing and marketing of your hotel for sale in a very strategic way.

Project Marketing

What About Project Marketing?

Strategize your next project.

We understand that you as a developer, need presales to remove risk for your company. Pre-sales help both you and your lender to confirm an exit strategy on completion. We provide assurance to you that when the development is complete, you will have a flow of funds to repay the lender's debt. Faster recuperation of your investment allows you to recycle your capital for the next project, increasing your return on costs.

Having a strong team who knows what they are doing is very important. Most groups out there today actually subcontract a lot of the critical work involved in the project marketing cycle, which takes away from effective and efficient performance. We actually have in-house experts in lead generation, digital marketing, paid advertisements, project management, and event planning.

We will provide you with a group of geniuses to help you maximize your development's sales and marketing performance by staffing your sales centre with high-performance sales experts, maximizing ad performance with highly analytical marketing specialists, and improving efficiency of operations with a highly detailed support team.
What kind of properties do you have experience with presales in?
From residential through to commercial, we have most of what you need covered. Our experts have presale experience with:
  • Low-rise Condos
  • Mid-rise Condos
  • ​High-rise Condos
  • ​Stacked Townhouses
  • ​Row Townhouses
  • ​Offices
  • ​Industrial
  • ​Retail
What do you offer in your service package for developers?
We offer a wide variety of different customized packages for our developer clients. The decision is entirely up to you on how you want to structure our partnership. We can help you start your project from 1) land acquisition, 2) rezoning, 3) market consulting in analytics and planning, 4) product positioning and design, 5) marketing, or 6) sales.

We will also help you set-up and operate your sales centre, and organize memorable events that will carve its presence into the minds of prospective buyers and industry professionals. 

If you only need help with certain aspects of the development cycle, we can also help, but will need to learn more about your goals first.
How do you generate leads for my project?
We operate with various marketing channels, but will only focus on those that yield you the best results based on your product offering.

Living in a rapidly changing business environment filled with constant technological innovations, rapid cultural evolution,  and COVID-19, we have seen that the most effective marketing solutions are no longer what they used to be. Newspapers, radio, and most of your traditional marketing channels are not only expensive with very high cost-per-leads, but are now also considered out-dated. 

We focus on using your marketing budget effectively to maximize the production of quality results. Instead of leveraging your project costs to promote ourselves, we aim to place an emphasis on the branding of the project itself, and your company. We have mastered Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Google AdWords, and more. Let us help you generate more interest per dollar spent on advertising.

Book a free consultation today and let's start discussing your goals.

When it comes to commercial real estate, there are no two identical cases.
Due to a handful of ever-changing variables, every property and situation is uniquely different.
We will help you craft the perfect plan that aligns with your goals, whether it may be for buying, selling, or project marketing.

With over 8 years of experience, one-of-a-kind Vancouver Realtor®, Austin Yu and his vast network of high-performing professionals are available 7 days a week to help achieve your real estate goals. Contact us today!

Parallel 49 Realty

"Where Canadian Real Estate Starts!"
Unit 828 - 1200 West 73rd Avenue
Vancouver, BC, V6P 6G5

Contact Us 7 Days a Week

Mobile: 778-707-9937
Office: 604-566-7776
austinyu.ca@gmail.com
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