Calgarians scoop B.C. condos at auction

Calgarians bought 38 of 40 unsold condominiums in B.C.'s Columbia Valley at an American-style auction in Calgary Saturday.

Developers are calling the real estate auction, for properties in southeastern B.C. near the Alberta border, a Canadian first.

Developers held the auction in Calgary since it is mostly Albertans who have vacations homes at Lake Windermere in Invermere, B.C.

Calgary accountant Fern O'Neil, one of the buyers at the Windermere Pointe development, said she has been on the hunt for a vacation home for the past year.

Completed just as the recession hit in 2008, sales at the luxury condo development didn't meet expectations, so the developers decided to auction off the unsold condos.

O'Neil said with the economy strengthening, it's a good time to buy, and the auction was the perfect venue.

"It's just the time and the opportunity is there, and it's going to help builders and sellers, too. If we buy, other people are going to be employed by it, so it's a good thing."

O'Neil called her $285,000 condo a good deal, but not everyone agreed.

Nathan Pleau walked out of the packed auction room.

"Well, the prices are ridiculous. You're paying $300 a square foot. In the end, it's way overpriced. It's double what I was expecting to pay," he said.

Nevertheless, 38 of 40 condos up for auction were sold in less than two hours.

Developer Dough McIntosh called the auction a success.

Mike Percy, the dean at the University of Alberta's school of business, said the auction is an innovative way for businesses to cash in as consumer confidence rises.

"I suspect that there are a lot of developments that were started two or three years ago, when the expectation was that the expansion that would continue to grow ... [that have] come on-market. Sales might have been a bit slow, so firms are just trying to be innovative in the way that they reduce their inventories."

Percy said this first American-style auction is likely just a taste of things to come.