Why I Love Toronto.

Eight reasons to love Toronto: Hume

Toronto isn’t always an easy city to love, but there are reasons for optimism.

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VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

The profusion of neighbourhood festivals, such as the colourful Khalsa Day parade, which winds its way through the city every spring, helps make Toronto an easy city to love.

By: Christopher Hume Urban Issues, Published on Mon Sep 08 2014

Toronto isn’t always an easy city to love. Like any metropolis, it has its problems. We all know what they are. But there are reasons for optimism. Here are a few:

The festivalization of Toronto. The profusion of neighbourhood festivals, street closures and other pedestrian-empowering events has given Torontonians new ways to inhabit and experience the city. Despite the backlash, this move towards more intense forms of urban engagement will only grow. As the population increases, so will the pressure for an enhanced public realm.

Congestion. Like the weather, traffic jams are the stuff of daily conversation, extensive media coverage and popular outrage. We’re quick to blame construction, road work and the like, but congestion is a sure sign of a healthy city. Though we could make much better use of our roads, gridlock will never go away. However irritating, it is the price of success. And Toronto is a very successful city, the envy of the world. Besides, for people happy to line up for Tim Hortons and Starbucks, how bad can it be?

West Don Lands. Mention the words “new neighbourhood” and visions of yet another slapped-up subdivision come to mind. The West Don Lands is something quite different. Organized around Corktown Common, this enlightened mid-rise precinct includes the city’s first woonerfs, streets designed for bikes and pedestrians as well as cars. Wide sidewalks, striking architecture and a mix of housing and uses speak of the enormous powers of planning.

The rash of great buildings nearing completion. The University of Toronto’s Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport, Ryerson University’s Student Learning Centre on Yonge St. and the Ismaili Centre/Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Art at Eglinton and Wynford Dr. are brilliant examples of how architecture is bringing new richness to the city. As well as providing new opportunities, each of these structures resolves the traditional distinction between beauty and utility. Form is as much a part of these three buildings as function.

The TTC’s new streetcars. Though only two are in service, the Toronto Transit Commission will eventually operate 204 of these stylish low-floor vehicles. Long, lean and light-filled, they will hum where their predecessors groaned. They also confirm the city’s affection for streetcars, which, though not universal, runs deep.

New neighbourhood amenities such as Regent Park on Dundas St. E. and Reading Spouts Garden next to the Jane/Sheppard Library. The latter is a small hard-surfaced pocket park that fills a small site formerly occupied by a hydro substation. Returning the space to residents has already changed the area. The much larger Regent Park is a stage set as well as a green space centred around a long, linear playground, an outdoor kitchen, playing field and a concrete plaza. Recreation is now built into the community.

The Vertical City. No one wants to live next to a condo tower, but there’s no shortage of people willing to live in one. Though some decry downtown Toronto’s growing stock of residential skyscrapers, their appeal has nowhere to go but up. Despite questions about unit size, building quality and materials, high-rise life has three big advantages — location, location, location. Once the issue of family-friendly apartments has been sorted out — as it will be — the city will be transformed yet again.

Dog walkers. They are the urban pioneers who coldly go where no Torontonian has gone — the shadows of the Gardiner Expressway, the empty lots and weedy verges. They are heralds of the new city, where every parcel of land serves a purpose, intended or otherwise. They are the ones who civilize the urban wastes and return them to circulation.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca

The 'Housing Bubble' bursting. Find out what other economists think

Low mortgage rates will continue to fuel Toronto home sales Add to ...

Carolyn Ireland

The Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Sep. 11 2014, 10:46 AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Sep. 11 2014, 4:35 PM EDT

 

Toronto’s sizzling summer real estate market appears set to remain hot right through the fall.

John Andrew, a professor at Queen’s University, is watching with interest for the August numbers that the Canadian Real Estate Association will report in the coming days.


Low mortgage rates fuelled property sales in cities across Canada, with Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary seeing the most action, he says.

  

 

Prof. Andrew, who is the director of the executive seminars on corporate and investment real estate at Queen’s, predicts September and October will bring more of the same.

“I don’t think we’re going to see a significant downturn in sales until we see an uptick in mortgage rates.”


And when he says an uptick, he’s not referring to a month or two of gently rising rates – he’s talking about a sustained upward trend.


The Toronto Real Estate Board reported that sales rose 2.8 per cent in the Greater Toronto Area in August from a year earlier, while the average selling price rose 8.9 per cent. Prof. Andrew says the increase in sales in August came on a drop in listings.


The market is still fairly balanced, he says, but it could tip over to a sellers’ market. He wonders if that, in turn, will encourage more homeowners to list their properties for sale. “As soon as people realize it’s a sellers’ market, they say ‘maybe it’s a good time to sell our house.’ ”


Prof. Andrew notes the contrast between this year and last, when a sudden shift in the market came right after Labour Day. Last summer, mortgage rates edged up between June and September. Many people hadn’t been paying attention and that led to a sudden burst of buying in September when people were spurred on by the fear that rates would climb even higher.


Fluctuating bond yields have brought about the movement in mortgage rates over the past year.
The professor also points out that he used to make a note in his calendar of the days when the Bank of Canada’s interest rate committee was set to meet. He could expect a lot of calls from media on those days. More recently, those meetings have become a non-event, he says, because no one expects the central bank to make a change.


The low mortgage rates through the summer of 2014 may have attracted more marginal buyers who will struggle to pay their mortgages when rates eventually rise, some economists warn.


David Madani of Capital Economics cautioned this week that imbalances in the market for newly-built houses and condo units point to a looming slowdown. In the new-house market, starts are running ahead of demographic demand, the economist warns. Inventories remain high for new units despite the incentives offered by developers.


Meanwhile, this week, a buyer stepped up to purchase that mid-town Toronto house with nearly its entire backyard taken up by a koi pond. The house at 552 Merton St. was a Globe Real Estate “home of the week” in August.


The house, with an asking price of $1.099-million, had a dozen or so koi living in a 132,000-litre pool.


Real estate agent Bruce Cram of ReMax Hallmark Realty Ltd., who represented the seller, scheduled a date to review bids from potential buyers but that date passed with no offers.


Mr. Cram believes the lack of offers had nothing to do with any summer doldrums in real estate; the market was buzzing and swarms of people came through the house. He says people were intrigued by the koi pond but they couldn’t get their heads around it. “There was a ton of interest,” he says, “but if it wasn’t their passion they wouldn’t know what to do with it.”


The new owner is unsure of what to do with the pond, Mr. Cram says. “She perceives it may be too much to maintain.”
For now, the koi keep swimming.

Follow Carolyn Ireland on Twitter: @CarolynIreland

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Canada's Million Dollar Housing Markets: Look Out Vancouver, Toronto's Moving In

Excerpted from the Financial Post

May 6, 2014

Canada's million-dollar housing markets: Look out Vancouver, Toronto's moving in
By Garry Marr

Toronto is on the verge of becoming the second Canadian city where the average price of a detached home hits the $1-million mark.

"We went over that mark a few years ago in Vancouver and now we are going to hit it in Toronto. It's not inexpensive to own a house in the city of Toronto," Brookfield Real Estate Services Inc. president Phil Soper said Tuesday after the the company's annual general meeting.

The Toronto Real Estate Board released its results for April sales Tuesday and those results show increased pressure on the single family portion of the resale housing market, pushing prices in the old City of Toronto close to $1-million for a detached piece of property.

"The good news is if you move outside of Toronto proper, into the suburbs, or into the ever important condo sector there is still product available across the price gamut," said Mr. Soper.

TREB said there were 4,878 detached home transactions across the city proper last month and the average price jumped to $965,670, a 13.2% increase from the average sale price for the same month a year ago. The average price of a semi-detached home reached $702,332 in the city, an 18% increase from a year ago.

Developers have long complained about government land use policies they maintain have restricted construction and created the widest gap between high-rise condominiums and single family homes in Toronto history.

"Price growth for the GTA as a whole was driven by the single-detached, semi-detached and townhouse market segments in the City of Toronto. So far this year, there has been no relief on the listings front for these home types in many neighbourhoods in Toronto and surrounding regions," said Jason Mercer, senior manager of market analysis with TREB. "Until we see a marked and sustained increase in listings, we should expect to see the annual rate of price growth above the long-term norm."

Toronto would just be entering lofty territory Vancouver has long occupied. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said this month the average detached home in the city sold for $1,198,828 in April.

Even in Toronto's 905 belt, the average sale price of a detached home reached $645,179 in April, a 9.6% increase from a year ago. By comparison a condominium apartment in Toronto's suburbs had an average sale price of $296,078.

Mr. Soper, who is also chief executive of Brookfield's Royal LePage brand, told shareholders at its AGM that the first quarter of this year was soft because of a winter that was unprecedented in terms of its impact on the Canadian market as a whole.

"The market came roaring back to life in the later weeks of the quarter and April was a very strong month," said Mr. Soper.

Brookfield is mostly shielded from the cyclical nature of the real estate market as 71% of its income comes from fixed contracts with brokers. The other 29% comes from a variable royalty stream.

"There was a downturn that lasted from the middle of 2012 to the middle of 2013. While home prices were not affected by the downturn, we did see double digit declines in volumes of homes sales during that downturn," said Mr. Soper.

Over the past 35 years though, the real estate industry shows a compound growth rate of 9.7% annually with about half of it coming from volume and half of it coming from price.

Brookfield itself is increasing its dividend to $1.20 per share in 2014 after three years of it being stuck at $1.10 which Mr. Soper said was partially due to taxation resulting from the company's conversion to a corporation from an income trust.
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Condo Sales, Prices Up-but rents starting to ease

Business
Excerpted from the Totonto Star


Condo sales, prices up — but rents starting to ease

Up to 20,000 new units are set to hit the GTA this year, making it a buyers’ and a renters’ market

By: Susan Pigg Business Reporter, Published on Tue Apr 15 2014

It could be the year of shrinking condo rents but surging condo “for sale” listings if the first quarter of 2014 is any indication.

Condo sales were up nine per cent in the first three months of this year over last, with 70 per cent of the 4,454 transactions taking place in the City of Toronto, according to figures released by the Toronto Real Estate Board Tuesday.

Prices in the first quarter were up 5.6 per cent, year over year, to an average of $351,213 across the GTA and $376,226 in the City of Toronto.

Realtors say they’ve seen more demand for condos the last few months as the supply of lowrise houses close to the downtown and transit lines has fallen so far below demand, bidding wars are driving prices for houses out of reach of many buyers.

Condo for-sale listings, on the other hand, appear to be headed in the other direction — up. And given that as many as 20,000 new condo units are expected to reach completion this year, more units are likely to hit the market by the end of this year, potentially driving down prices and even rents as owners look to rent or sell into an oversupplied market.

“. . . We could see stronger growth in listings in the second half of 2014 as some investors choose to list their units for sale. If this occurs, buyers would benefit from more choice in the marketplace and thus could have more negotiating power with regard to price,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s senior manager of market analysis.

Already there are some signs that rents may be softening for investors choosing to offer up their units to the growing number of young people, and downsizing baby boomers, looking to live and work in or close to the downtown core.

Condo rental transactions were up 17.8 per cent in Q1 of 2014, year over year, but the total number of listings surged by 27.7 per cent as more investor-owned condos came to completion.

As a result, the rent for a one-bedroom unit in the GTA declined by 1.6 per cent, to $1,573 per month in the first quarter. Rents can run closer to $1,800 in the downtown core. One-bedroom units accounted for 60 per cent of all condo rentals.

Two-bedroom units, which are seeing some increase in demand among young people looking to share the hefty rents, saw rents increase 1.9 per cent in the quarter to $2,155. Two bedrooms accounted for 60 per cent of all condo rental transactions in the first three months of 2014, according to the TREB statistics.

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