At $275,000 and Up, East Bay Condo Complex is Nearly Sold Out.
A Richmond condo development with some of the lowest prices in the Bay Area has nearly sold out.
About 300 of 330 units have been sold at the Shores condo project at 1 Shoreline Court, where prices range from around $275,000 to the mid-$500,000s. Sales began about eighteen months ago. Units sizes range from about 700 square feet for a one-bedroom to 1,000 square feet for a two-bedroom unit.
Very few new housing projects in the region have such low prices, mainly because land and construction costs are so high. Richmond’s median listed sales price was $424,800 at the end of October, up from $399,000 in the year before, according to Zillow. In San Francisco, the median home listing was over $1.1 million.
The low prices at the Shores was possible because the project has renovated units of existing 1980s buildings, rather than ground-up construction. The project budget was about $20 million, or about $60,000 per unit. The Emerald Fund is the project’s developer, along with partner Kennedy Wilson.
Work included modern kitchens, appliances and lobby areas, said Paul Zeger, partner at brokerage Polaris Pacific, who is marketing the property. He compared the project to a “pre-owned BMW.” The project “looks like new, feels new, only you’re saving 30 percent,” he said.
Zeger said buyers include professionals and some families. Most of them are San Franciscans or people who commute from the East Bay into the city.
“Because of the price level, you really can have two moderate incomes and qualify for this,” he said. “We’re attracting a wide array of people.”
Zeger said there are other opportunities to renovate existing homes around the region, but there few at waterfront properties like the Shores, which is in the Marina Bay neighborhood.
The project is also near new water taxi service to San Francisco from Tideline Marine Group that began last month, which helped attracted buyers with jobs in San Francisco. A new Richmond ferry terminal operated by the Water Emergency Transportation Authority will also open in 2018.
Zeger said that the housing market remains strong, with some buyers completing deals in the last few months in anticipation of interest rates jumping higher. The trend is a “wake up call for buyers” that interest rates won’t remain low indefinitely, he said.