Downtown Kelowna has the most active condo development pipeline in the city, which means a meaningful share of downtown buyers are looking at presale units — buying off a floor plan, months or years before a building is complete — rather than a finished resale condo. It's a fundamentally different kind of purchase, with mechanics that don't exist in a resale transaction. Here's what actually changes.
Interim Occupancy Isn't the Same as Closing
This is the single biggest thing resale buyers don't expect. In many BC presale condo purchases, there's a period — sometimes several months — between when you can move into the unit and when the strata is legally registered and your purchase actually completes. During that interim occupancy period, you pay an occupancy fee (roughly comparable to what your mortgage and strata fees would be) but you don't yet hold legal title, and your mortgage hasn't funded. Budget for this period specifically — it's a real, sometimes lengthy phase that a resale purchase simply doesn't have.
Deposits Are Staged and Larger
Presale deposits are typically collected in stages — on signing, and at further intervals as construction progresses — and commonly total more than a typical resale deposit as a percentage of price. These funds are usually held in trust, but the schedule and total commitment should be clearly understood and budgeted for well before your first deposit is due.
Assignment Clauses Matter If Your Plans Might Change
An assignment is selling your presale contract to someone else before the building completes — effectively selling your right to buy, rather than the unit itself, since you don't hold title yet. Not every presale contract allows this, and where it's allowed, the developer often charges an assignment fee and retains approval rights over the buyer. If there's any real chance your plans change over a multi-year construction timeline — job relocation, family changes — understanding your specific contract's assignment terms before you sign matters.
You're Buying From Renderings and Finishing Samples
Presale purchases are made from floor plans, renderings, and a finishing sample package rather than a walkable unit. What's included as standard versus what's an upgrade should be spelled out clearly — corner units, specific floors, and view exposure can vary significantly in actual livability from what a rendering suggests, so ask specifically about sightlines and orientation rather than relying on marketing material alone.
Completion Timelines Are Estimates
A resale closing date is fixed. A presale completion date moves — construction timelines shift with permitting, material availability, and trades scheduling, and multi-year builds have more opportunity for delay than a single-family new build. Most presale contracts include an outside completion date and reasonable builder flexibility within a defined range. If you have a hard deadline of your own, that's worth an honest conversation before committing to a presale purchase specifically.
The upside is real: presale buyers typically lock in today's price for a unit that completes years later, and get to select finishes and floor plan before a resale buyer ever sees the building. It's a genuinely good way into downtown Kelowna's newest towers — just a different transaction than resale, with its own timeline and its own risks to understand before you sign.
Send it our way before you sign. We'll walk through the deposit schedule, occupancy terms, and assignment clauses with you — no cost, no obligation.