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.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.