16 Dec What are hotel condos and how are they different than regular condos?

Condo-hotels are often developed by hotel and resort companies, such as Hilton Hotels Corp, Four Seasons, Shangri-la and Ritz Carlton. Unlike typical condos built by housing developers, such as Mintos or Tridel. Because of the luxury angle, they offer additional services similar to five start hotels like 24-hour café, theme restaurants, night club, rooftop pool, room service or weight room amenities. When you’re not using your unit, you have access to the hotel’s in-house management company, which will market and rent your unit out for long or short periods of time.

Prices of the luxury condo units can be substantially higher than for a “regular” condo. Condo-hotels are attractive to developers because of high unit prices, they are not as attractive to investers because of higher unit cost, high maintainence as well as high on taxes compared to regular condos. Toronto’s double land transfer tax that makes it even less attractive. Banks are generally more reluctant to lend money for such units.

These days we have also seen the trend mixed use condo buildings. For example building few floors are alloted to residential dwelling units and other are for hotels and amenities. Bisha Condos will be one of those mixed-use building. The residential dwelling units will be on floors 12 to 39, amenity space on floor 11, hotel guest rooms on floors 4 to 10, a hotel ballroom on the 3rd floor, hotel lobby functions on the 2nd Floor, and restaurant uses and the residential lobby on the ground floor.