Questions surrounding how Invest Medicine Hat handle the sale of city-owned residential properties seem to have been answered for the local real estate board.--NEWS PHOTO
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Growing controversy about how Invest Medicine Hat may handle residential land sales for city hall may be quelled after the Real Estate Board was told at a meeting late last week there’s essentially no change.
One election candidate however, is calling for greater transparency.
The reorganized economic development agency at city hall has been given a wide mandate by council to sell off excess city property, aggressively seek out new development, work in concert with the utility department and offer a new host of incentives.
This winter, the group’s new “director land development and real estate,” Chris Perre, was also listed as agent with the Medicine Hat Real Estate Board, appearing to be an agent with new brokerage “EXP Reality.”
Board president Frank Devine says after numerous inquiries from his members, he’s been assured the land department isn’t preparing a move into the home resale market, and he’s been told there’s no impropriety and no commissioned sales position at the city.
“From what I can tell there will be no difference (from how it’s previously been handled), but I don’t really understand the rationale,” said Devine, who added a letter explaining the board’s position on the meeting will be sent to brokerages this week.
Devine says officials have assured him the listings agent is only a way to get city properties on listings services, and interested buyers would still deal with city staff, as usual.
The city’s land sales website explicitly states city employees cannot earn a commission on land sales.
One candidate for mayor in this fall’s election, Alan Rose, said he has heard concerns throughout the winter, and wants a more complete explanation of how Invest is operating.
“I’m wondering how arm’s-length it is, because it sounds like self-dealing,” he told the News. “I’d hope there wouldn’t even be a hint of impropriety.”
Devine says from a realtor’s point of view the city’s inventory for resale is likely too little to cause much of a stir, and bare home lot sales have always been handled over the counter at city hall.
It is standard procedure for the city to offer commission to private-sector realtors who bring clients in to purchase commercial land, he says, and he was assured that will continue.
The city rarely has individual homes for sale, and typically only due to tax forfeiture.
In 2020, the land department closed the file on inventory acquired in a buyback program initiated following the 2013 floods when changes to the land-use bylaw that made it easier to get designs approved for narrow 25-foot-wide lots.
