Updated 15 December 2024 Well sure, at the right price, I’d still buy the remaining years (ending 31 December 2073) of a suite lease assignment at Orchard House tower, which offers a great location, views and amenities. Leasehold suite prices currently being roughly half of condominium permanent ownership, these suites could make a good choice even with the issues and expenses that lessees here have faced in recent years. Be aware that financing to buy a leasehold suite assignment may not be possible, and will require 20% downpayment if it is; try Coast Capital Savings credit union.
Leasehold is NOT ownership, even though the lessee’s right to occupy a suite for the remaining years is registered at Land Titles and resident lessees qualify for the provincial home-owner grant to partly offset municipal property tax. Rolled into each suite’s monthly fee, the property tax is relatively low, as the building has a single title, not 211 suite titles. Lease assignment buyers pay B.C.’s property-transfer tax on their purchase price. Lessees do not qualify for the $400 B.C. Renter’s Tax Credit, although if you have a tenant in your suite, that person will. Orchard House is not operated to condominium standards and at this time lessees have no say about anything nor tenant rights under any statute.
Orchard House lessees (other than those who refused in 2018 and are sued) have paid millions of dollars in the landlord’s litigation and vast further new legal expenses, but litigation regarding whether the landlord or tenants pay for new windows has ended. Those of us who are sued believe that the courts will in an eventual ruling prohibit or limit future landlord litigation-cost billings to lessees. We also still hope and expect that the provincial government will legislate to regulate long-term residential leaseholds to require financial disclosures and to assign a dispute-resolution mechanism other than the courts, among other measures.
If you have no concern that each suite’s lease assignment expires at the end of 2073, and that resale values will at some point begin to decline, then plummet as the clock runs down, a leased suite at Orchard House could be a modest but affordable home in a great location. Numerous realtors display Orchard House listings, which can also be found using the map on www.Realtor.ca Here’s one realtor’s page with current MLS-listed suites: https://www.marketvictoria.com/orchardhouse
OrchardHouseLeaseholder.ca 