From 10,000 feet, the Fort York neighbourhood is booming. Hard to believe that 10 years ago if you went to the corner of Bathurst and Lakeshore, you wouldn’t see a single condo abutting that intersection. Now there are several completed buildings like 219 and 231 Fort York, 600 Fleet Street, and the nearby 38 Dan Leckie Way (Panorama), and Tip Top Lofts (637 Lake Shore). Under construction and nearly complete are phase 1 and 2 of West Harbour City (628 and 630 Fleet Street), Neptune (640 Fleet), and Quay West at Tip Top. Construction is underway for LTD, and construction will be starting probably late this year on Library District and Garrison at the Yards. If you are counting that is at least 12 major buildings either built or underway.

Obviously the area is very attractive to many people and investors who bought years ago for under $300 per square foot in some cases are doing the “I told you so dance” to those who were skeptical about this area. However, the area has been criticized for having a dearth of amenities and lacking a neighbourhood ‘feel’. What does the future hold for Fort York?

The area has long been one that I’ve proposed to clients and investors who want to own downtown but were squeamish at the thought of paying prime downtown prices for areas like Bay Street, King West or the St Lawrence Market. Fort York is ‘off centre’ in the sense that is downtown, but the Gardiner expressway and the Rail Lands to the north can make the area feel cut off from the action of the city. Retail shops, restaurants, dry cleaners etc. are very scarce. You have to have a car to live in this neighbourhood, or you need be comfortable with long walks or spending a lot of time on the streetcar to get to where you are going.

My opinion is that this area will never be seen as one of the best downtown neighbourhoods, but it will improve as more amenities are added. It will continue to be a good alternative for those wanting to be in the core without paying premium prices. Also it’s great for people commuting to Mississauga. A game changer for the area would be if Loblaw does something exciting or ground-breaking with their building on the north east corner of Bathurst and Lake Shore.

Interested in buying or selling in the Fort York Neighbourhood? Contact me today.

1. Bisha. This one could be special, but it certainly won’t be cheap. I’m hearing pricing will start in the high $600s and go up from there. I’ve also heard that the lifestyle component of the building will be something unique in Toronto.
2. One Park West. I’ve already seen some of the plans for this newest release in the Regent Park redevelopment by Daniels coming up in September and it looks very interesting. One unique aspect are the stacked townhomes that are probably the best floor plans for stacked towns I’ve ever seen.
3. River City Phase 2. Phase 1 launched late November of last year. At last check they were well over 70% sold. Those who doubted this development because of its location will likely have to strongly consider investing in phase 2 after the success of phase 1.
4. Studio on Richmond. Not many details available yet on this project but great location in the heart of the Entertainment district and the developer (Aspen Ridge) has offered good value to investors in the past with projects like VU on Adelaide Street East.
5. Post House. Right next to the VU site will be Post House by Alterra. The proximity to the booming St Lawrence Market ‘hood has many of my clients drooling with anticipation. This one has just released floor plans and pricing for the VIP event. Contact me for details!

Other projects on my radar screen for the next 3-6 months include:

• Plazacorp’s site at Yonge and Wellesley (project name TBA, location very intriguing)
• Imperial Plaza (office building conversion at Avenue and St Clair by Camfrost Felcorp)
• Cityzen’s “Name this condo” site at Yonge and Esplanade
• Brad Lamb’s Theatre Park site (what height/form will be approved?)
• Daniels Cinema Tower (follow up to Festival Tower)

Wondering how to keep track of the latest and greatest condo projects downtown? Hire me as your downtown condo expert today.

Readers of this blog will know that the resale market peaked back in late March/early April. And they will also know that I’ve been preaching that the new development market would do the same, but it would just take a few more months to do so. So things are playing out in a predictable fashion so far this year but we need to know how to understand this changing market and where it is going next.

There are basically two ways of interpreting this data. One is that sales were so incredibly (and unusually) high in the first quarter of this year that we had no where to go but down. The other is that this has never happened once in the last 15 years in our market – 15 years of a nearly continuous bull market – and so this must represent a fundamental change in our market. The truth is probably somewhere in between these two extremes.

I don’t see any cause for concern that the pre-build market is about to ‘crash’ or face any significant price reductions, however, I do see and hear more caution and less optimism in developer’s voices when I speak to them and they are no longer assuming anything they throw at the market will be absorbed. My personal opinion is that given the ongoing fluctuations in the global economy and the Bank of Canada’s bi-monthly statements which assure us they have no idea what is going on either, we are entering into what could be a prolonged season of uncertainty in our real estate market. Continue to invest smart and with a long-term outlook. Buying to flip is sooo 2007.

Want to discuss your investment options in this market? Contact me today.

Last year a client of mine – Kenneth Friesen – purchased a great 1 bedroom and den unit at Tip Top Lofts. He hired designer Jewel Weeks to furnish and decorate it for him.  Kenneth is a very interesting guy and he gave her full creative freedom to do with it as she wanted. The results speak for themselves and the loft is currently featured in a 6-page spread in the September issue of Style at Home magazine.

Check it out in the September issue due out any day now and congrats to Jewel and Kenneth for the feature. I have posted a few more pics after the jump.

In a seller’s market, where a monkey could sell a condo, agents and sellers will quite often pull a price out of the air without giving it any thought. In a buyer’s market, it’s back to the fundamentals of marketing: Product, Place, Promotion, and PRICE! Yes, choosing the correct asking price is a very important piece of the marketing mix for selling your property.

If you over-price your property, you are shooting yourself in the foot. You will get less potential buyers through your property, less offers, and potentially no offers at all. Inevitably you will have to reduce your price but by then your listing will be ’stale’ and most potential buyers will have moved on.

You might think there are no risks associated with under-pricing, but there are. Underpricing a listing in a seller’s market results in multiple offers and potentially an artificially inflated selling price. Underpricing in a buyer’s market when there are less active buyers and more listings means you could end up selling your property for less than it is actually worth, but you would never even know it because there just isn’t the same critical mass of buyers out there.

Bottom line, you (and more importantly your agent) need to be able to defend your asking price when a buyer’s agent comes a calling and says, “How flexible is the seller on the price? It is a buyer’s market after all…”. Questions or comments? Thinking of selling? Contact me.

Are we different? This recent piece from MSNBC on the differences between the U.S. and Canadian housing markets once again hits on the big question of why did we not experience the housing market crash that the rest of the world (especially the U.S.) did. Are we fundamentally different and insulated from the U.S. housing market? Even more important – moving forward is the Toronto Condo Market at risk of collapse?

Doomsayers like Garth Turner would say that we are exactly the same as the U.S. in that we have lax lending requirements and our own versions of sub prime lenders, and that we are living way beyond our means. Of course, Garth has been saying this for about 3 years now, and written two books about it, and still we are awaiting the big crash that he says is imminent.

Most bankers and economists would tell you that Canada is different because we are more conservative or something like that.

Both sides of the argument to me sound like a whole lot of cliché and not much analysis of the numbers or reasoning behind their statements. Predicting the real estate market beyond the next quarter or so is always a fools’ game. Look at every long-term prediction that has been made by bankers, Realtor associations (like TREB or CREA), economists, and pundits over the past 5 years. One thing they all have in common is that they were all wrong! The best these so called ‘experts’ can do it seems, is tell you that things will be slightly different next year than they were this year.

There is no debate now that the Toronto condo market is losing steam. Listings are up, sales are slowing, prices are weakening. The inevitable questions are now are will it crash? How long will this ‘down market’ last? Isn’t it our inalienable right as Torontonians to always have an upward moving condo market?? But the biggest question is, where do I put my money as an investor? There are good opportunities in every market, including down markets, in which to invest. I’m investing now, and you should too. Contact me if you’d like to discuss.

Quite routinely I get emails from buyers who have elected to ‘go it alone’ and buy condos directly from developer. They usually go something like this:

Hi! I really like your blog and what you have to say about the condo market. I just bought a condo at “XX” development but I don’t know if I made the right decision. Did I pay too much? Is this a good area? Are other projects better? Help!

So essentially they don’t want to hire me as their agent (at zero cost to them), but they want my expert advice and opinion on whether they made the right decision! Even better is when the buyer tells me they have their own agent, but yet they don’t care what they say, they want to know what I think!

I’ve been writing this blog about downtown condos for over 3 years now. I’m flattered that many people value what I have to say, but my client services including my advice, opinions, analysis, and access to the best developments in the city are for my clients only. Hiring me as your buyer’s agent will cost you nothing. Not hiring me as your buyer’s agent could cost you thousands.

Questions or comments? Think I’m being an arrogant jerk? Contact me or leave your feedback in the comments section.

The last week of June is traditionally the busiest of the year for closings as this marks the official start to summer as well as the end of the school year. People want to be in their new homes for the summer months and parents don’t want to move until their kids are finished school. Over the past several months, a huge percentage of the resale transactions that have taken place have been set to close this week, and in particular this day – June 30th.

There is still a great deal of misinformation about the HST. I had a client ask me just this week who purchased a resale home that is closing in September if they would have to pay HST in addition to the sale price! Can you imagine-adding a surprise 13% to the purchase price of a home! Of course HST does not apply to the sale price of a resale home whatsoever, I reassured my client but it goes to show that the general public does not know how this HST will be affecting them. I suppose like anything, you have to live with it for a while before you can tell what it feels like.

We’ve been hearing about it for months, that there would be a rush to get in before the HST, and it has definitely played out this way. I suspect many lawyers will be taking next week off as just about no one will be doing any closings this week.Now the question is, what happens next? Will the market drop off in July? Probably not. Buyers will keep buying and sellers will keep selling. Questions or comments? Contact me.

ART condos in Queen West is very close to hitting their sales targets for starting construction. They only need about 17 more units sold. In order to expedite the last few sales, they are offering an exclusive to my clients and other clients of Remax Condos Plus. On Wednesday June 23 they are having an exclusive sales event.

Special incentives for buyers at this event

• Zero assignment fee
• $2500 cashback on closing for studios, one bedroom and one bedrooms and den
• $5000 cashback for 2 bedrooms, 2 bedrooms and den and 2 storey 2 bedrooms
• Deposit Structure for select units has been reduced to only 10% in 90 days + 5% at occupancy!

If you are interested in purchasing a unit at ART condos, this is a great opportunity to get in before construction begins. Contact me for more information.

I polled some of my colleagues who work rentals at Remax Condos Plus because I rarely get involved with rentals so I am not on top of this market. Unfortunately there wasn’t much consensus. Some agents disagreed with the article completely – they said that supply is higher than ever in the rental market.  When there are over 100 rental units in a single building like Maple Leaf Square, and plenty of other new condos set to come online this year, it’s hard to call it a landlord’s market. However, some agents had stories of bidding wars such as one agent who mentioned they had a few rental listings at CASA (33 Charles) recently and all fetched multiple offers within days of listing for rent.

The fear for investors who are buying units in new developments is will rents continue to rise to catch up with rising property prices downtown? I had one person email me and lament about how Toronto is a lousy place to be a landlord essentially because rents are so ridiculously low compared to other major world cities.

The rental market is one that investors and buyers should keep an eye on as it does affect the condo (sales) market. So I’d like to hear from you: agents who read this blog and also those of you who are looking for rental properties or investors who are trying to rent out their properties at the moment. Would you characterize this market as a tenant’s market or a landlord’s market? What is happening on the street?