bob rennie

Any discussion of real estate in Vancouver would be incomplete without a mention of Bob Rennie, creator of Rennie Marketing Systems, "pre-eminent marketer of residential condominiums in the Greater Vancouver Area." Beginning his real estate career when he was only 19 years old, Rennie's firm is now the leading marketer and provider of "unique and effective risk management plans to residential condominium marketing" in the Vancouver area, and increasingly across North America.

Rennie's 'sample' of past projects reads like a summary of Vancouver's residential redevelopment of its downtown. Clearly, his firm has spearheaded the marketing of almost every high-valued condo development in recent memory. It seems to go without saying that the vision of urban life marketed by Rennie has had a major influence on Vancouver's vision of itself as a cosmopolitan, global city in which it is possible to enjoy all the amenities of downtown living within view of the mountains and the ocean. As a major player in the local real estate market, and the person whose advice is most often sought by developers on everything from the most desirable interior finishes to the most profitable asking price for high-rise condos, Rennie is also frequently consulted by the media (as in this Vancouver Province article) for his predictions on the future of the market; his opinion - that it is "all systems go with every-rising prices" - has helped to create the popular perception that Vancouver's growth potential is nearly limitless, at least in the lead-up to the Olympics. In the same article, he cites Vancouver's limited land area and the fact that there is "virtually no inventory" of housing as a reason that prices will continue to grow. Surely, however, there is some limit to the market's potential growth; if this limit has not yet been reached at 70% of pre-tax income for a single family home, how much higher can it be?