[URBAN NOTE] "Condo buying frenzy in Waterloo as Google moves in"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star hosts Katia Dmitrieva's Bloomberg article noting how Waterloo's tech sector is making its real estate attractive to investors.

In a banquet hall in north Toronto, a condominium-sales event is generating the kind of frenzy more often seen on a trading-room floor.

Michael Wekerle, former Bay Street trader, technology investor, Dragons’ Den judge and now real-estate mogul, steps up to a podium in front of about 1,600 people to make his pitch. Waterloo, with its two universities and a burgeoning technology sector that’s attracted companies such as Google Inc. and dozens of startups, is booming, he says.

“It’s a land grab,” Wekerle, 52, dressed in a light grey three-piece suit and trademark sunglasses, tells the rapt crowd last weekend. “There were zero cranes when I first showed up there and there are 15 cranes in the sky now.”

He finishes his speech. Then all hell breaks loose. Prospective real-estate investors surge to the back of the room, submitting paperwork for offers on one or more units as agents in suits shout and gesture to clients, who anxiously pace the aisles. Three hours later, the 250-unit, $85 million District Condos project is sold out and 170 people are added to a waiting list.

The fervent demand for property in Waterloo highlights the city’s coming-of-age as an investment destination: first by technology companies and now real estate firms looking to gain from the city’s metamorphosis. Real estate investors at the event, including families, seasoned individuals and couples, were looking for higher returns than in Toronto, where homes are sold for almost double what they are in Waterloo.