Saskatoon builder looking to flip abandoned homes to first time buyers

A Saskatoon man wants to play matchmaker for the unloved homes in the city.

Andrew Hunter, the owner of Homes by Hunter is looking for boarded up homes to refurbish and flip.

“Every time I drove down this area (Caswell Hill) I realized that there were a bunch of boarded-up homes and nobody knew what to do with them. Maybe it was out of their control, out of their expertise, but it was something I knew I could tackle,” said Hunter.

Hunter works with Triple H Ventures looking for properties, mostly on the west side of Saskatoon, that are boarded up and abandoned.

“It is our mission to the community to purchase and restore each boarded up home,” said Hunter.

Hunter’s hope is that the homes become economically viable for people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them. To help make it even more viable, the builders are adding basements suites to offset mortgage payments.

“We’re building in these basements suites. Some can’t even afford the bare minimum, if we add in the legal basements suites, they are able to subsidize that with the income that they get to afford the home,” said Paul Hampson CFO of Triple H Ventures.

Hampson uses a home selling for $280,000 in Caswell Hill as an example. He says the basement suite could get anywhere from $1100-$1300 and if someone was also renting the upstairs it could net almost $1400 more.

Hunter hopes this opens up opportunities for homebuyers who might not be able to afford them otherwise.

“Everything is going up and it’s hard for millennials. They are stuck in this cycle that they just can’t afford to by a home,” said Hunter.

According to the City of Saskatoon’s former director of planning Alan Wallace, there are several positives to fixing up boarded homes. For him, he says it provides housing to the market while resolving issues a boarded up home brings to a community in terms of crime and safety.

“This will be good for the supply, good for the street, good overall and so far I would applaud their efforts,” said Wallace.

Hunter and Hampson are currently working on flipping their first abandoned home while keeping their eyes on several others.