Yukon Updates

Graham Frey

Graham: After seeing all that Mitch has got going on, it's pretty boring up here.

Daniel: The first question I was going to ask you is I realize it's a distance to Fort St. John, but it's still on the Alaska highway. Are people talking about that? Are they excited about that? Are some people going to leave Whitehorse?

Graham: Honestly that's the first I've heard of those projects. I know that people are going to be excited about that OSB plant opening up and potentially creating more materials because that's a huge problem for our builders here is that materials like you just can't get them. That's a challenge for all our new builds. In just hearing about the inventory that he has compared to what we have.

Daniel: The theme for this evening is maximizing your footprint. How was it in Whitehorse? What's happening with legal suites, with granny suites, with tiny homes or anything like that? Is this something that's fashionable up there or people don't even discuss that or talk about that?

Graham: No, certainly legal suites are. Are a big hit. We're seeing a little bit more new construction coming in with that sort of design with the legal suite. Over the years there's been a number of unapproved suites and houses. And then they've done suites because housing's always been short there's always been a shortage of housing in Whitehorse. Over time they've done sweeps where they've allowed certain exemptions on suites to get them approved. But it's definitely a market that is desired for sure.

We have similar to, I remember, I think Adrian touched on it last week was in our market to another sector, as we would have, like mobile homes would be our affordable housing or possibly a lot of entry housing market for a lot of folks. That would be another sector aside from the legal suites section.

Daniel: I want to jump into a conversation. You and I had a few months, a few weeks ago, when you were talking about the fact that you do have some projects that you are representing or that you're working with, where people can actually cash flow in Whitehorse, you want to tell me about those?

Graham: Sure. Actually there's necessarily projects. There are opportunities that do come up. For example, I do have a house on the property on the market right now. That's listed with a legal suite and in a non-conforming bachelor suite. It's a three rental opportunity. The list price on that is 759 and potentially generating up to $5,200. In rental income tenants paying their own utilities, whatnot. That would be a good, unique property that would come up. We don't see a lot of those, but a lot of them. A lot of suite options do come up.

Another strategy is our new construction. I see when there's phases, three, four phases of a townhouse development investors buying it in that first phase because typically what we're seeing as every phase goes on, each one is increasing in value as they go. There, if you can get in that first block, by the time the development's done, you've already agreed, and can have substantial equity in the appreciation of the property.

That's a segment that looks good. Rents are good too. They cover costs and a lot don't necessarily have cash flow. You need the multi doors, the multi units to have a good cash flow. But you can still cash flow a little bit on townhouse options. And then the other option is what I've seen in the last development that came up as a condo project in downtown Whitehorse.

We have another one coming in a couple of weeks, we got 31 unit development coming in downtown Whitehorse. Pre-construction. You can purchase with a 5% down where typically pre-construction was a 15% deposit or that's a small investment and the way the market's been projecting, by the time you close on that in 14, 16 months, again, there's, you've seen, some substantial appreciation. That's another opportunity that could be coming. So three different, there's a number of different sectors. That you could invest wisely and in Whitehorse, for sure.

Daniel: The idea of the selling prices for those 21 units to talk to you.

Graham: It's a neat project. We're going to try for the first time in our market. I think it's done in some of the bigger cities, but it's micro units, so smaller units. The smallest units are going to be like a bachelor just under 400 square feet. They're going to be 289. GSD in and then our largest unit in this building, they're going to be just over 900 square feet.

And they're probably going to be about 599 all in for those ones. We're going to have a range. And so of the 32 units we have about eight different layouts. It's going to be a unique building. That's just it's on front street, which is a block from the Yukon river. They're going to have a nice location. Location is going to be key.

Daniel: One thing I like about that project is because we bought, which is about five units on a pre-construction building here in Niagara falls. And so 3.2 million after five units, but we have to come up with 20%, so 650,000. So I liked your 5%. That would make a huge difference.

Graham: We had a project that came through our office that I wasn't involved with on the listing end, but it was roughly at the end of the day, it's going to be about 56 units. And they sold out the whole building in about a month. Everything because of this 5% and everyone's appetite for real estate right now we saw, 20 year old, 22 year old kids seeing their opportunity to get into the market and on $400,000, like they can come up with 10 and they got mom or dad that matches them with another 10 and they got a place in 18 months.

They just, they went super quick. I'm optimistic, we'll have the same response with the next round in our building. But yeah, that is huge, that's a game changer. All other developments I've done here in white horse have been 15%, which is a substantial difference.

Daniel: Thank you very much for your time Graham. We are going to be putting, or we have already, or we are done, or we will be doing, putting your information. Anybody who was interested in investing in Whitehorse Yukon Graham is our person up there? Give them a call, ask him, contact him because I have a feeling, not last very long. Thank you very much for the time, Graham. I just have it right there. Your information is right there.