February 16, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur /Insights, News
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced changes to the way mortgages are given out in this country today that are said to help prevent a housing bubble from forming. The keyword being prevent, meaning the government is very clear that they do not believe a housing bubble exists. I would have to agree with the […]
Greed is bad. Greed distorts reality and greed in the condo market hurts both buyers and sellers, consumers and developers. Recently I’ve noticed some signs of greed finding its way into the downtown condo market. To me, this is a sign the market is about to change as an impending inventory surge in the resale […]
Building a sales centre on the site of a future new condo development used to be the first thing that developers would do when launching a new project. Developers of Toronto condos typically would spend hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions in the construction of these temporary structures that were built to be torn down. Inherently […]
April 26, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur /Insights, News
Some of my colleagues may not want to believe it, but we are now in a new market reality. The extremely bullish market we have been experiencing for the past 12 months, at times accelerating at a break neck pace, has ended. Top-10 anecdotal signs that the market has already peaked: ‘Fake’ developer websites for […]
So the market has peaked (probably). Now what do you do? Well, first thing to remember is that most people won’t realize the market has peaked for about 3 months so if you are reading this you are way ahead of the curve. Secondly we are not talking about a market crash, and quite possibly […]
Whenever a development launches in a prime A1 location like The Berczy, it is sure to garner a lot of attention. This is true no matter what the economic climate or how hot the real estate market is. The Berczy had many investors and first time buyers salivating at the prospects of owning in a […]
Investing in Toronto condos used to be a pretty straightforward proposition: buy a property with as little down as possible then rent it out with the income from the rent covering your mortgage, taxes, maintenance on the property etc. For much of 90s and the first half of the 2000s, this was the way it […]
I love my overseas clients. They have such a different perspective on the Toronto condo market than we locals do. In general, they are far more optimistic and excited about the future potential of our city than we ourselves often are. They understand that the Toronto condo market is special. I was meeting a new […]
You know the resale condo market is slowing down when the mainstream media starts writing articles telling us that it is. By the time the MSM gets on the train, it has already left the station and is well on its way to its destination. Reader of this blog and clients of mine have already […]
New Mortgage Rules Aimed at Cooling the Condo Market
February 16, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights, News
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced changes to the way mortgages are given out in this country today that are said to help prevent a housing bubble from forming. The keyword being prevent, meaning the government is very clear that they do not believe a housing bubble exists. I would have to agree with the […]
Read more
Greed
March 4, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights
Greed is bad. Greed distorts reality and greed in the condo market hurts both buyers and sellers, consumers and developers. Recently I’ve noticed some signs of greed finding its way into the downtown condo market. To me, this is a sign the market is about to change as an impending inventory surge in the resale […]
Read more
Death of the Sales Centre?
February 12, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights
Building a sales centre on the site of a future new condo development used to be the first thing that developers would do when launching a new project. Developers of Toronto condos typically would spend hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions in the construction of these temporary structures that were built to be torn down. Inherently […]
Read more
The Market Has Peaked
April 26, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights, News
Some of my colleagues may not want to believe it, but we are now in a new market reality. The extremely bullish market we have been experiencing for the past 12 months, at times accelerating at a break neck pace, has ended. Top-10 anecdotal signs that the market has already peaked: ‘Fake’ developer websites for […]
Read more
The Market Has Peaked, So Now What?
April 28, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights
So the market has peaked (probably). Now what do you do? Well, first thing to remember is that most people won’t realize the market has peaked for about 3 months so if you are reading this you are way ahead of the curve. Secondly we are not talking about a market crash, and quite possibly […]
Read more
Berczy: Post Mortem
May 18, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights
Whenever a development launches in a prime A1 location like The Berczy, it is sure to garner a lot of attention. This is true no matter what the economic climate or how hot the real estate market is. The Berczy had many investors and first time buyers salivating at the prospects of owning in a […]
Read more
What Ever Happened to Cash Flow?
June 1, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights
Investing in Toronto condos used to be a pretty straightforward proposition: buy a property with as little down as possible then rent it out with the income from the rent covering your mortgage, taxes, maintenance on the property etc. For much of 90s and the first half of the 2000s, this was the way it […]
Read more
Is Toronto Special?
February 18, 2011 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights
I love my overseas clients. They have such a different perspective on the Toronto condo market than we locals do. In general, they are far more optimistic and excited about the future potential of our city than we ourselves often are. They understand that the Toronto condo market is special. I was meeting a new […]
Read more
What Happened The Last Time
June 14, 2010 / by Andrew la Fleur / Insights
You know the resale condo market is slowing down when the mainstream media starts writing articles telling us that it is. By the time the MSM gets on the train, it has already left the station and is well on its way to its destination. Reader of this blog and clients of mine have already […]
Read more