2010 promises  to bring change. Several high-profile condo projects downtown are coming to completion this year and whenever this happens, huge numbers of units are put on the market by investors looking to cash-out their investments.

Specifically over the next few months, buildings that will likely be registering include London on the Esplanade (just registered), Murano (North Tower to be registered this month), VU (Jarvis and Adelaide), 550 Wellington, West Harbour City, Boutique, Glass House, CASA, Bloor Street Neighbourhood, and the list goes on…

Most of these are buildings that were selling during the heady days of 2005-2007 and 2010-2011 will see all of these projects come ‘online’ and they will be added to the inventory for the downtown market.

Buyers should soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief as all this product coming on to the market in time for the spring should make things a little easier on them, however, prices will likely continue to rise as demand will remaind strong for at least the next 2 quarters.

In about six months two key events will take place that will likely shape the real estate market for the following 6-12 months – the Bank of Canada will be raising interest rates, the HST will kick in.  There is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding these two events, however, many are predicting that they will have a negative impact on prices heading into the final half of 2010. Personally I believe there are too many variables at play to make any accurate predictions of what the market will do beyond the next 6 months.

Thoughts or comments? Leave them below or email me directly.

Resale prices have dropped, sales figures are a fraction of what they were a year ago, and buyers are out there but reluctant to pull the trigger. What’s a Toronto condo developer to do?

In a slow market, developers are loathe to actually lower their prices as it devalues the entire project, pisses off previous purchasers and investors, and is generally considered to be a major sign of weakness. So how does one sell condos en masse in this market? More and more developers are getting creative with buyer incentive programs.

The Ritz-Carlton just started a promotion where, for the next 10 units sold, buyers will receive $250,000 in travel vouchers, redeemable in $25,000 increments every year for the next 10 years at for visits to any Ritz-Carlton hotel in the world. Wow. Even I am impressed by that. There are 29 units still available, ranging from $1.3-million to $9-million for 1,400 to 6,000 square feet. One of two lower penthouses is still available.

Bloor Street Neighbourhood and Casa – both projects by Cresford near Yonge and Bloor under construction and occupying in about 12 months – are offering purchasers of 2 bedroom units to ‘live free for a year’. How this works out is a credit upon closing that is equivalent to 1 years worth of mortgage payments on your condo. Doing the math on the purchase of a $660,000 unit, this promotion amounts to roughly $31,000 or 4.7% of the purchase price. Not too shabby and certainly much better than anything that was available to purchasers in the fall of ’08.

Expect to see more and more of these incentives popping up at new developments as developers and marketers attempt to lure would-be buyers off the fence and into a new condo.

Photo from Urban Toronto member Solaris