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(Image: Shane Fester from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)
Real estate commentators usually reach for sales figures and average prices to explain what’s happening in the market, but there are a ton of other figures that are equally illuminating. This week, we’ve seen stories about the number of new condo projects in Toronto, the amount a typical first-time buyer is planning to pay and more. We round up the notable numbers below.
(Image: Twitter)
Robert MacFarlane, a crane operator working on Daniel Libeskind’s L Tower on Front Street, tweets photos from his panoramic vantage point atop what is currently the tallest free-standing crane in Canada. His tools—a point-and-shoot camera and a smartphone—are simple, but with 365-degree views stretching as far west as Mississauga and as far north as Markham, the results are spectacular.
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Pinnacle’s proposal would see five new towers next to the Toronto Star building at 1 Yonge Street (Image: Taxiarchos228)
The plans for a large-scale development at 1 Yonge Street, currently home to a set of low-rise buildings and the Toronto Star’s old parking lot, are even more ambitious than last summer’s rumours suggested. Late last week, Urban Toronto published a pair of architectural sketches showing Pinnacle International’s plans for a skyline-defining, five-tower development that would include Canada’s two tallest skyscrapers. Alongside the 92-storey and 98-storey buildings, the cluster would also contain an office tower of some 30 storeys, two 70-storey towers and street-level retail space (the Toronto Star office at the corner of Yonge and Queens Quay would remain untouched). The proposal is still in its infancy as the city has requested Pinnacle wait to formally submit it until after Waterfront Toronto has finished a study on future development in the area, which may not be until late summer. Moreover, as with Oxford Properties’ Convention Centre plans and David Mirvish and Frank Gehry’s theatre district proposal, questions remain over the area’s ability to sustain a set of monolithic residential towers. Although, at least Pinnacle would only be razing a parking lot, and not a beloved theatre. [Urban Toronto]
A high-stakes turf war is heating up between Rogers and Bell over the chance to provide television to Toronto’s ever-growing ranks of downtown condo-dwellers. For decades, bylaws prohibiting satellite dishes on condo balconies prevented Bell from selling its satellite TV in high-rises, leaving Rogers to sign exclusive deals with developers. But the landscape has changed: Rogers’ deals are now expiring and, with Fibe TV, Bell has traded in ugly satellites for discreet fiber optics cable. The company recently made its first major play, offering steep discounts on TV and PVR rentals (but buyer beware: the ultra-low rates expire after a year, and customers must also sign up for home phone and internet). Bell has even taken the unprecedented step of running fiber into single suites—some private residences at the Four Seasons are on Fibe—setting the precedent for a gritty customer-by-customer battle between it and Rogers. And here we thought the competitors were learning to play nice. [Globe and Mail]
The buyer: Michelle Hotchkiss, a 46-year-old payroll manager.
The story: Hotchkiss bought a two-bedroom condo at Queen and Dovercourt 10 years ago. “I’ve seen the neighbourhood go from kind of scary to hot and trendy,” she says. But it was starting to get too trendy—10 new high-rises were going up nearby, and Hotchkiss was worried the area would get too dense. She was also running out of space in her own unit. She had just graduated from the pastry program at George Brown, and her kitchen wasn’t big enough for her new hobby. Her second bedroom was stacked with trays and decorating utensils, which made it hard for her to have guests. She wanted a larger condo with two bedrooms, an ensuite bathroom and an on-site gym. Hotchkiss set a budget of $450,000 and focused her search on places within walking distance of her job in Liberty Village. She looked at 10 condos over the course of a single week before finding the perfect one.
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For months, market gurus have been predicting that condo prices would stagnate due to new mortgage regulations and a multitude of new condo towers (and many many more in the making). They were actually on point this time: over the summer, pre-construction sales (and prices) fell off, and now, for the first time since the recession, resale condos are also flattening. According to MLS figures for the third quarter, the average high-rise resale price was $334,204, only a modest rise from the $332,969 average price in the third quarter of 2011. Also, as increasing supply has moved power from sellers to buyers, a similar situation has shifted power from landlords towards tenants in the renters’ market. Average rents still rose, but only by 3.4 per cent for one-bedroom units (to $1,605) and 2.2 per cent for two-bedroom units (to $2,097). Of course, those figures only take into account units leased through MLS, which isn’t exactly the most popular avenue for renters. [Globe and Mail]
(Image: Seekdes)
It can be difficult to imagine a Toronto skyline uncluttered by the recently finished Shangri-La or Concord’s perpetually under-construction CityPlace—both feel like fixtures, despite their youth. The CBC must have thought so too, because it borrowed a fun format from the New York Times to help everyone remember life before the forest of downtown high-rises. Old and new photographs of the same vista sit next to one another, and a slider lets you scroll across to instantly populate the skyline—or level it. Dramatic before-and-afters like this usually involve black-and-white photos crammed with Model Ts and bowler hats, which makes it all the more arresting that most of these “before” images are from the ’90s (one is even from 2002). See all the photos [CBC] »
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When David Mirvish and Frank Gehry announced their major King West redevelopment plans earlier this month, Mirvish said the pair weren’t building three condo towers—they were creating “sculptures for people to live in.” However, the poetics didn’t quash concerns about whether the Theatre District’s infrastructure can sustain the 2,600 new condo units or whether anyone will buy the apartments in an already saturated market. For Gehry, though, those issues aren’t new. Over the past decade, the Harvard-educated architect has proposed similarly grand designs in New York, his hometown of L.A., and overseas—all of which have been met with a certain degree of trepidation. Some ultimately lived up to their promise, becoming iconic, landmark buildings, while a tough economy and high costs have delayed others (a track record that has raised questions about whether his Toronto project will ever even happen). Here, we examine five of the starchitect’s past residential projects, and see how his Mirvish plans compare.
(Image: picturenarrative)
Some newly released census data should provide ammunition for those who claim the “Manhattanization” of Toronto could see a majority of the city’s residents living in condo towers. According to Statistics Canada, 27.4 per cent of Toronto households now live in high-rises, a rise of nearly a percentage point since 2006; meanwhile, the average size of a condo unit is shrinking. There are a couple of explanations for why people are making do with less living space: the average number of members in a family is falling; more people are living alone; and high property prices mean more and more people are limited to small units. But, the Globe and Mail points out, there is also perhaps a gap between the demand for larger units and developers’ willingness to build them. From a builder’s perspective, there’s a larger pool of potential buyers for small units (plus investors looking to rent out their places also prefer smaller units), which means that buildings full of shoeboxes are easiest to finance. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »
Despite construction issues and warnings about a bubble, the slew of condo towers popping up all over Toronto have some undeniable virtues: they’re sleek and modern, and they allow densely packed urbanites a modicum of privacy. These contemporary aquariums, designed by Torontonian Teddy Luong for Umbra, give the humble Siamese fighting fish a chance to experience that same brand of condo-dwelling life. A few artfully placed windows mitigate the Panopticon-like quality of aquariums past, and the units are stackable, meaning pet owners can instantly become high-rise developers without even needing a hardhat. $35. Click to buy »
Umbra, 165 John St., 416-599-0088, umbra.com
The University of Toronto created a stir earlier this year when news surfaced about an agreement with Knightstone Capital Management to build a 24-storey student residence south of College Street, between Spadina and Huron. Residents weren’t thrilled at the prospect of 800 (possibly) soused-up and raucous students living nearby, and worried that one high-rise in the low-lying neighbourhood could open the door to others. With the revelation this week that a different American company, Bailey and Company, has filed a rezoning application to build a 30-storey mixed-use structure right next to the proposed residence, the latter fear appears justified. The Ontario Municipal Board’s next pre-hearing on the Knightstone building isn’t until November—giving residents’ associations plenty of time to hone their “slippery slope” arguments. [Globe and Mail]
(Image: Danielle Scott)
Though the creep of condo towers across Toronto can feel inexorable, John Tory is insisting that Ontario Place could accomodate residential development without becoming home to a “wall of high-rise condos” (or a casino, either). Since February, the former Progressive Conservative leader has been heading an advisory panel tasked with figuring out what the heck to do with the down-at-heels amusement park, and yesterday, he released his final report (pdf), which describes a vibrant, multi-use public space with a Forum-like music venue. Here are the highlights from the report:
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Jan Gandhi and Omar Jabri share a love of big-city life: the people, the architecture, the fashion, the logarithmic bustle of human energy that comes from high-density, high-rise living. They first met as articling students with different Bay Street law firms, introduced by mutual friends. Together they moved to New York, where Gandhi worked as in-house counsel for MTV and Jabri as an intellectual property lawyer, and they lived in an apartment in Chelsea. Gandhi became addicted to flash-sale websites, filling her wardrobe with deeply discounted designer fashions. Flash sales are enormously popular in New York. She saw an underserved market in Toronto, so she hatched a plan to return and launch her own site.
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A guerilla mural that popped up near the lot (Image: Facebook)
A prized two-acre piece of provincial land at Yonge and Wellesley is up for sale and councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam is fighting hard to keep condo developers’ hands off it. She, Toronto Centre MPP Glen Murray and city staff are negotiating with Infrastructure Ontario to try to buy the empty lot, so they can turn it into a park for tree-starved residents of the high-rise-heavy area. Although estimates put the lot’s worth between $30 million and $60 million, Wong-Tam believes the city can either swap city-owned land for it, or buy it outright using the parkland acquisition fund (which, ironically, receives millions from developers who prefer to pay cash in lieu of donating land for park space). A new downtown park would be great—especially if there were much-needed parking beneath it, as the Toronto Parking Authority has proposed. But the province is so cash-strapped, we guess it’ll be looking for the highest bidder (read: developers). [Toronto Star]
Add meth-producing neighbours to the list of condo owners’ worries—police discovered three crystal meth labs in a Scarborough high-rise this week after residents complained of weird smells and suspicious leaks. On Monday morning, police found the first lab on the 30th floor of 190 Borough Drive, a tower near Ellesmere Road and McCowan Avenue. Yesterday morning, they found an additional two labs in the building, taped off the area and brought out the hazmat truck to clear out the toxic materials. No arrests have been made, but neighbours told police they saw a man make a daring escape by shimmying down to the balcony below. Given that Toronto’s condos are also alleged to harbour brothels, those shiny towers are starting to seem less like yuppie havens and more like dens of iniquity. [Toronto Star]
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