Montreal Real Estate Blog » condo trends

Undivided Co-ownership: Mortgage and Financing

Deya Bautista — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:36:54 +0000

If you are looking to buying into a Co-propriété with a 15% down payment, start looking else where. The minimum down payment is 20%, and depending on the bank financing it, could be even higher than that: 30 – 35%. These types of properties are NOT covered by the CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation).

While talking about financing, it’s important to mention that many major lending institutions do not offer mortgages for undivided Co-ownership types of buildings. The reason for this? We don’t have the foggiest idea. But, we can safely assume that since this is still a fairly new way of ownership, not every bank is ready to just jump into the “undivided co-owership wagon”. The two banks we’ve noticed the most offering financing for undivisions are: TD Canada Trust and Caisse Popular Desjardins.

Shared common costs:
Unlike condo owners, the co-proprietors share the tax bills: property and school. Renovation and maintenance fees are also part of the shared costs, much like the condo fees. The most appealing part about buying into an undivided property, according to recent buyers, is that you get to split the costly annual property tax bill. But is that good enough reason to own shares into a property as opposed to buying your own? The decision is yours, dear buyer.

If you have questions regarding condo purchasing, or require assistance, contact us

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Posted By: Deya Bautista - Real Estate Broker working as part of the McGill Immobilier team. Specializing in high end condos in downtown and Old Montreal. For buying or selling contact Deya at: 514.917.7889 http://montrealrealestateblog.com/

What Undivided Co-ownership means

Deya Bautista — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:00:28 +0000

In your search for condos, you might have come across the term Co-propriété Indivise, or Undivided Co-ownership. In other provinces are referred to Co-op, but not here in Quebec. In this province, co-op means Housing Cooperatives; used for regulating housing fees and expenses, mostly rental properties. Since we are talking about purchasing real estate here, let’s stick with the two terminologies: Undivided co-ownership or Co-propriété Indivise.

What is Undivided Co-ownership?

According to La chambre de Notaires du Quebec:

A property of this type belongs to several individuals, called undivided co-owners. No one owner owns an exclusive portion of the property; rather, they each own a fraction.
For example, you buy a triplex with two of your friends and you all contribute equally to the sale price. After the sale, you decide to move into the second-floor apartment. The apartment does not belong to you exclusively; your two friends share its ownership with you, just as you share the ownership of their dwellings on the first and third floors. You and your friends are undivided co-owners of the whole triplex. In the example above, your shares in the immovable are one third each.

In a nutshell: When you buy into an undivided co-ownership you are acquiring shares into the ownership of the building, as an undivided co-owner.

Condominiums are divided by cadastral numbers, each unit has their own, sort of like a serial number for properties. When buying into a condominium, you are buying real estate property. While with undivided, the building has only one cadastral number (wheather it has 40 units or 2), and the undivided owners share the title of ownership to the whole building, with the exclusive rights to the units dictated on the indivision agreement.

In terms of property prices, we cannot say that condos are more expensive than undivided co-ownerships. The search results of condos sold in Plateau (2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 800-1000 sq ft) in the last six months gives us a median of $250,500. While with the same criteria, the undivided shows a median price of $244,000.

Undivided units are in buildings of different styles, sizes and in every type of neighborhood. We’ve noticed a great number of these properties popping up in Plateau, Downtown, NDG and Côte-des-Neiges. Also Westmount, Villeray and Rosemont are following up in listing numbers.

In a future article, we’ll write about Financing and shared costs of these types of properties. Stay tuned!

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Canadians consider buying a condo purely for investment purposes

Deya Bautista — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:30:27 +0000

Slightly more than one-third of Torontonians (34%) would consider owning a condo solely for investment purposes rather than as their primary residence. 8% have already made this kind of investment.

By comparison, more than half (52%) of Vancouverites say they would buy a condo strictly as an investment, yet only 5% have actually done so. Among Montrealers, only 3% say they already own an investment condo.

Across Canada, condo popularity is steadily increasing. Almost half of urban Canadians (48%) indicate they would consider buying a condo as their primary residence, up from 39% in 2007.

These findings are part of the 2008 TD Canada Trust Condo Poll. Conducted by Angus Reid Strategies between March 20 and 25, the poll looks at the attitudes of urban Canadians towards condo ownership. A total of 1200 online interviews were conducted with Angus Reid Forum panelists who indicated they
are likely to consider purchasing a condominium as a primary residence. The sample consisted of 200 interviews in each of Greater Vancouver, Calgary, the Greater Toronto Area, the Montreal Metropolitan Community, Halifax and Ottawa.

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