Car Condo
A local developer is building new luxury condos to house, not people, but fancy autos in the comfort of air conditioning, panoramic mountain views, and private gated security. Its bilingual Chinese-English website says 80 percent of the units are booked. Last year, the troubled government-run auto insurer doubled the premium on high-end vehicles to help offset the repair and replacement costs of fancy cars coursing the streets.
All the money flowing into luxury vehicles has caught the attention of provincial officials who are pledging to more closely scrutinize such transactions. British Columbia Attorney General David Eby says that Canada’s money-laundering watchdog -- the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre -- needs to start requiring car dealerships to report suspicious transactions, such as large cash payments.
“They need to include luxury car dealers in their reporting entities,” Eby said in an interview Thursday in Vancouver. “They need to collect that data.”
Opera, School
More than 70 percent of Rolls-Royce’s customers in the city are Asian, and the biggest buyers of the hipper Wraith coupe and Dawn convertible models are yet to turn 30 -- “quite remarkable,” as Aly Jiwani, general manager of the Vancouver dealership, puts it. He says one of his customers owns a fleet of 14 Rolls-Royces.
Moreover, women are pouring into the showroom. Female drivers already account for 40 percent of Jiwani’s clientele -- compared with 15 percent on average worldwide for Rolls-Royce -- and will soon probably account for half of his buyers, he says.
Expect more of that, fueled by the Cullinan, says Muller-Otvos. The new SUV, named after the largest diamond ever found, was designed with a market like Canada in mind -- for harsher climates, rougher terrains, more adventurous drivers, and of course, well-heeled soccer moms.
“It’s flexible -- you can bring your kids to school, you can go out for the evening at the opera. It’s fully suitable for all occasions,” he said.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.