I’ve been blogging about the downtown condo market for a little over 5 years now. In that time I’ve seen tremendous shifts in the market as well as in how condos are marketed. I’ve met many great people through this blog and my twitter account, including many amazing clients who have bought and sold properties with me. A comment that I consistently hear from people, and what keeps me going, is that they really appreciate the knowledge, insights, and opinions I share on this blog. Unlike 98% of all real estate websites which are nothing more than online billboards full of regurgitated information, I like to think that I offer some added value with the original content I put up each week. I know that many Realtors and condo industry people read my blog and that’s cool, but ultimately I’ve created this website for the regular people who are interested in buying and selling real estate in Toronto.

With that in mind I’m happy to announce that I’m going to be expanding my blog very soon by adding videos. It’s something I’ve been considering doing for about 3 years, but never felt like I had the right ‘formula’ for doing so. Well, I’m still not sure if I have the right formula, but I’m about to find out!  It may surprise you but the videos are not going to be about what I typically write about on this blog: pre-construction condos. I’m going to shift gears a little bit as I’m finding that my client’s needs are changing and I am expanding my game to adapt along with them.

Some time in the next few days I’ll be rolling out an entirely new blog design, one that I hope you like, and with it, the addition of videos.  Thank you for your ongoing support and I look forward to your feedback once the new site and videos are up and running.

The Modern on Richmond started selling units back in November 2007. I remember this project launch clearly because it happened right at the same time as the original 1 Bloor project and it seemed everyone in Toronto was talking about pre-construction condos at the time. Oh wait, not much has changed in the last 4+ years!

The Modern is nearing completion now and owners are starting to get occupancy of their suites which means that many units are now coming up for sale as assignments. For investors who bought at The Modern circa 2007-2010, values have gone up significantly and now is a great time to sell and cash in on the gains. If you own a unit at The Modern and you are interested in selling by assignment, please contact me to discuss.

If you are a buyer and looking for a brand new condo in a great downtown location that offers excellent value, consider The Modern. With average prices in most new downtown buildings hovering around $600 per square foot and up, many suites at The Modern can be had for around $500 per square foot – including parking! For example, at the moment we have a 920 square foot suite available for $449,900 including parking and locker, which works out to $489 per square foot!

The resale and pre-construction market are red hot right now, and getting what you want at a good price can be challenging if you are a buyer. The assignment market represents a sort of ‘third way’ of getting into the condo market without having to face as much competition. But it’s important to understand the details of how assignment sales work. Not all agents are experienced or trained in this specialty area! Contact me for more details or check out some of the articles on this website that I have written about assignment sales.

The lobby is going to be really nice in this building with a dropped floor and see-through fire place.

Karma condos by Lifetime Developments and Centrecourt Developments is going to be 51-storeys. The first 46 storeys sold out in record time in the fall of 2011. In fact, they basically sold an entire 46-storey building at the time with out any model suite of any kind (possibly never been done before in Toronto?!). There are only a handful of existing buildings that can boast breaking the 50-storey mark, but in 5 years there will be a lot more downtown.

If you missed out on this project, now is your chance to still get a unit here, and not just any unit but one of the highest units in the entire city that will have spectacular views. Please contact me for floor plans and pricing for the top-5 floors at Karma and your chance to secure a unit before the upcoming .

UPDATE: I corrected the map above after I received some great info from a Jimmy Jax (see the comments section), and I added a rendering of the RBC office tower.

No, Toronto is not getting a 200 storey condo building, but a couple of developers are planning some massive projects in the heart of the York Centre neighbourhood.

Menkes is planning not one but two 70-storey towers on their site at 90 Harbour street, directly south of Maple Leaf Square on the other side of the Gardiner. Tridel is also planning a 75-storey tower just west of there on a triangular shaped lot directly south of where the ICE towers will be located. Three 70+ storey towers = more than 200 storeys of condos and over 2000 units coming soon to this location. Wow. To put that in perspective, the two towers of Maple Leaf Square have around 872 units combined.

I put together the graphic above to try to illustrate what’s happening in the area. Infinity 3 and ICE 1&2 are under construction. Tridel and Menkes are in the proposal stage, and RBC is going to be the lead tenant in a new office tower to be built on Queen’s Quay just east of York. I am not sure what the future of the site with the question mark on it is (if anyone knows please let me know). The one above the ICE site will be a commercial building. The one east of the Menkes site is currently the famous Harbour Sixty steak house.

Below is a cool rendering which gives you an idea of how the proposed Tridel building will interact with the ICE towers. For more information on any of these condo projects, please contact me.

Now a rendering of the RBC office tower:

Rogers-owned real estate  portal Zoocasa launched a new service this week called “Zoopraisals“. CTV News quoted me in a story they posted on their website which you can read here if you like. They offer anyone a free home appraisal instantly over the internet without any strings attached. This brings Zoocasa one step closer to becoming Canada’s version of Zillow.com which is an extremely powerful real estate search engine in the U.S. and they have been providing property owners “Zestimates” for several years now.

The big question always is, do services and innovations like this mean the end of Realtors as we know it? Will technology and the internet ultimately replace the traditional real estate agent model of buying and selling real estate? Will commissions soon be a thing of the past?

My answer to all these questions is obviously ‘no’. While I give kudos to Zoocasa for creating great tools for the consumer, these tools only serve to highlight the fact that any service professional who can’t prove themselves more useful than a computer model or add any more value to a transaction than an online classified ad will soon be out of business. However, those professionals who are experts in their market niches and understand the many complex variables to go into every single real estate transaction will continue to thrive for many many years. I think you know which group I plan on being a part of!

This is also a great time to plug my own condo evaluation service, which like Zoocasa’s is also free, however unlike Zoocasa it actually contains more than just a single number on a screen as it takes into account my extensive knowledge and experience working in the downtown condo market! If you’d like to know what your condo is worth, please contact me.

Post House condos located at George and Adelaide is having a sale (sort of). The prices are not on sale, but the deposit structure they are offering is. Check it out:

• $3K with offer
• balance of 5% in 30 days
• 5% in 120 days
• 5% in June 2013
• 5% at occupancy

Only 10% is required up front, with nothing more for over 2 years until June 2013, then another 5% at occupancy (estimated to begin August 2013). Buyers and investors are always looking for an edge on the deposits, and while the days of 5% down are behind us for now, this offer is excellent for the buyer who is looking to really stretch their dollar on a pre-construction purchase.

1 bedrooms are still available starting from $278,990, 1+dens from $318,990, 2 bedrooms from $365,990. Average price per square foot is around the mid to high $500s. Parking is $39,500. Penthouses are also available with this promotional deposit structure.

This offer is on for a limited time only. Contact me for details.

Happy Easter everyone!

The Ritz Carlton is having a One Day Sale to celebrate their grand opening and imminent completion of the building. On Saturday April 30, buyers are invited to purchase one of the last remaining suites at specially discounted prices. Contact me for more details.

The Residences of The Ritz-Carlton is almost complete. The hotel opened up a few weeks ago and already it is becoming a major hot spot. The multiple restaurants and bars at the hotel are receiving rave reviews and you’ll have to book a week or two in advance if you want to dine at TOCA by Tom Brodie.

On a tour of the building recently, I encountered a resident who had only just moved into his suite about 3 days before. His description of what it is like living at The Ritz Carlton I think was perfect. He said, “It’s like living in a fantasy land”. And that’s exactly what life is like when you are living in not just one of the top condos in Toronto, in one of the best locations in Toronto, but also living atop a global icon of a five-star hotel.

There are 19 suites still available, all with occupancies slated for this year. Sizes range from just under 1400 sq ft up to the sub-penthouse, half-floor Valencia model at just over 6000 sq ft. Prices start at $1.5M-$9.65M. Cash discounts for this one day only sale amount to $155K-$300K off the list prices and prices will be increased starting May 2.

For more details including floor plans and pricing, please contact me.

We are the envy of the world. We have a stable government, solid economy, peaceful culture, and the Toronto condo market is the biggest and best in North America. Unfortunately the US is still a total gong show and continues to threaten to drag us and the rest of the free world down. The government is trying their best to preserve our little ‘Real Estate Utopia’ by cooling down our market using artificial means-anything other than raising interest rates (the easiest, and most obvious solution).

The news out this morning is that 3 changes to mortgage rules are going to take place:

1. Reduce the maximum amortization period from 35 to 30 years for government insured mortgages (mortgages with loan to value ratios higher than 80%/mortgages where clients are putting less than 20% down). This new rule goes into effect on March 18th.
2. Reduce the loan to value ratio for refinances from a max 90% to 85%. This new rule goes into effect on March 18th.
3. Withdraw government insurance backing on lines of credit secured by homes. This new rule goes into effect April 18th

These changes will not impact the overall market very much but they are aimed at shaving off some of the ‘froth’ from the market – borderline buyers will be shut out, and all buyers who were thinking about a 35 yr amortization will have to scale back their purchasing plans based on the new 30 year max. The new rule does not apply to buyers who put down 20% or more, so investors can still buy and amortize their mortgages over 35 years (which many choose to do to get positive cash flow on their properties).

Questions or comments? Please contact me.

Side note: I’m glad they did not go with the idea that was being thrown around last week to put 100% of the condo fees in the mortgage calculations for condo buyers. On the surface, the 100% condo fee idea seems sound, but it’s flawed. Condo fees include the built-in costs of building maintenance and upkeep as well as utility costs (for the building and usually for the suite itself) and insurance. Houses also have maintenance, upkeep, utility costs and insurance, but these are NOT included in the mortgage qualification calculations. There is a myth that owning a house is cheaper than owning a condo. That’s BS! One single repair to a house can amount to a year’s worth of condo maintenance fees or more-especially in the core of the city where most houses are 60+ years old. Owning a condo is expensive, owning a house is very expensive!

• The Australian method of selling houses by live auction makes our Toronto practice of ‘bidding wars’ seem pretty tame and civilized.
• Australia has a population of 22 Million with the largest city being Sydney with 4.5 million in the metro area. Sounds very similar to Toronto’s relationship to Canada. The average home price in Sydney is $580K. The average home price in Toronto is about $450K.
• 5-year mortgage rates are at around 8% in Australia while this boom has been happening. Gives pause to those who say that the only thing driving our market here are the ultra low interest rates.
• Property values have increased by 18% in Melbourne over the past year. Prices in Toronto are up around 5% over the past year.

What is driving this real estate boom in Australia? Sounds like the same things as here: cheap pricing by global standards, immigration booming to the urban centres, shortage of new housing supply, strong overall economy with good jobs, and relatively low interest rates. The key difference is that a crash is a stronger possibility in Australia because values have increased so much, so fast, whereas in Toronto we are slowly and steadily rising as we have been for the better part of the last 15 years.

Questions or comments about the Downtown Toronto real estate market? Please contact me.