Toronto Condo and Real Estate Blog

Talk to residents at a builder’s previous project and check the Tarion website for information

By Desi Auciello, President of the Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association-Urban Development Institute

In early September, I wrote about the similarities and differences between the various industry and third party builder awards programs. I promised that at the end of awards season, I would get back to you with any further insights.

Between Sept. 6 and Oct. 11, there were four different announcements from three organizations naming four local builders as “best of the best,” based on their respective methodologies, geographies and/or product types.

First off the mark was J.D. Power & Associates, announcing Mattamy Homes as the top-rated low-rise builder in the Greater Toronto Area market.

Next up were the Tarion awards of excellence, at which Tribute Communities won the large volume builder award and Great Gulf Homes won the highrise builder award.

A week later, the Ontario Home Builders’Association announced Mattamy Homes as provincial builder of the year.

And a few weeks ago, J.D. Power released its first-ever highrise builder ratings for the GTA market, with Tridel topping the ratings.

As an aside, whereas J.D. Power rates low-rise builders in 34 U.S. markets plus the GTA, ours is the first market where it has measured the satisfaction of condominium buyers — that’s just how important highrise has become as a market segment in the GTA.

In any event, the common thread among all of these builders is they are all previous winners of our association’s home builder of the year award.

Great Gulf happens to be the reigning and only repeat winner of our award (it also won in 2002).

My point is, that whether the awards are industry-based or independent, there is a remarkable consistency in the results, a trend that holds when you look beyond the winners to the finalists. For example, Tribute and Great Gulf ranked second and third respectively in the J.D. Power low-rise builder ratings.

Taking a closer look at the J.D. Power highrise builder ratings, I notice that the market average score was 588 points,compared with 664 for the low-rise builders, and that where 59% of low-rise buyers were either satisfied or very satisfied with their new home builder, just 42% of highrise buyers felt that way.

So, while I congratulate Tridel and all the above-average rated highrise low-rise builders, the survey results leave plenty of room for improvement, particularly when compared to the 34 other U.S. markets in which J.D. Power rates home builders.

That said, we ran the RealNet Canada Inc. sales numbers for the 21 rated low-rise builders and it turns out that they represent only half of the low-rise housing market.

We subsequently ran the RealNet data for the nine rated highrise builders and they are producing fewer than 30 per cent of total highrise unit sales.

Combining low- and highrise sales, J.D. Power-rated builders account for an average 42% of all sales.

In other words, there could be any number of builders (representing 58% of our sales volume) that are as good or better than the rated builders, who didn’t make the list, based on J.D. Power’s requirement of a minimum of 50 completed surveys per builder.

So, with awards season having come and gone, I reiterate my advice to homebuyers that while awards are a reliable indicator, there remains no substitute for due diligence in researching your builder.

Check your prospective builder out on the website of Tarion Warranty Corp. (http://www.tarion.com, find a builder) which provides information on all builders, big and small, low- or highrise.

Talk to occupants in the project or previous developments. And last but not least, read the agreement of purchase and sale yourself and have the agreement reviewed by a lawyer before you sign it.

For further information on the new homebuying process, visit http://www.newhomes.org.

Do you have a question about the home building industry? Email Desi Auciello, president of the Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association-Urban Development Institute at president@gthba.ca or fax 416-391-2118. The views expressed here are those of the GTHBA-UDI president.

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Torontonians embrace the idea of intensification, at least theoretically, but many balk when a highrise condo is proposed in their neighbourhood

Excerpt from an article by Theresa Boyle, Real Estate Reporter Toronto Star

A funny thing happened after a highrise condominium project won approval for development in the heart of Toronto’s Annex.

In an era when highrise condo projects usually see the two sides at each other’s throats, and when the majority of such proposals get appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, such harmony is rare.

Torontonians embrace the idea of intensification, at least theoretically, but many balk when a highrise condo is proposed in their neighbourhood.

Although the development process at One Bedford wasn’t always smooth, and required a lot of give and take on both sides, there are lessons to be learned from the experience.

“The fact is that the Annex (is home to) a very special group of people. On the one hand, they are very vigilant in terms of developments around the neighbourhood,” he says. “But on the other hand, they do appreciate the good things that development brings if it’s done right.”

“It was less acrimonious, having been through other ones,” says Fullerton, who last year led the charge in sinking a proposed 46-storey condo on the former site of the McLaughlin Planetarium, beside the Royal Ontario Museum.

Two condo towers — one 51 storeys and the other 37 — have risen at Yonge and Eglinton, despite vociferous opposition. Last year, the OMB gave the nod to four condo towers — ranging in height from 19 to 32 storeys — adjacent to Sherway Gardens mall, even though Toronto city council had nixed the plan.

According to Emporis Buildings, which tracks highrises around the world on its website http://www.emporis.com, Toronto is home to 1,655 buildings that are 12 storeys or higher — including both residential and office towers.

There are currently 182 applications before the city for highrise condo projects, according to Peter Moore of the planning department. In the 12- to 29-storey range, there are 125 active projects and, in the 30 and over range, there are 57.

Development lawyer Steve Diamond estimates that 80% of applications for condo towers end up before the OMB, usually due to objections from area residents.

Mandelbaum says the key to the success of One Bedford was good architecture.The articulated design of One Bedford provided the opportunity to create 47 floor plans, some with two-storey layouts.

The 262 units at One Bedford range in price from the low $300,000s to just over $2 million.

The podium at One Bedford will be made of limestone and glass. It will have a high-end retail component that will integrate into the Bloor streetscape.”Our strategy for One Bedford, and it was a successful strategy, was that we made it so nice on the first eight storeys, and so slight and elegant on the higher parts, that the ratepayers felt it was a better use of a reasonable amount of density. They ended up concurring with the project.”

Read the rest of the article here ———————————————————————————

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Excerpt from an article by Theresa Boyle, Real Estate Reporter Toronto Star

Toronto’s “hostility” toward tall buildings is self-defeating, says the CEO of the Royal Ontario Museum.

“We need to reverse our reactive prejudice against height, and understand height as a wonderful asset to a modern North American urban culture in the right circumstances,” William Thorsell last week told the “Higher Learning” symposium, sponsored by the City of Toronto, Canadian Urban Institute and the Toronto Society of Architects.

Thorsell had led the charge to build a 46-storey condominium adjacent to the ROM, but dropped the plans a year ago amid a huge public outcry. While he didn’t refer to the battle in his keynote address, it’s clear he’s still bruised by it.

“The city’s general hostility to height, both in its intelligentsia and in the residents of its healthy central neighbourhoods, has survived as a kind of subtext to urban development here,” he argued.

“Proposals for tall buildings are almost always equated right off the top… with horror and greed, rather than anticipation and beauty,” he added.

Thorsell’s remarks elicited an angry response from Mimi Fullerton, of the Annex Residents’ Association, which spearheaded the opposition to the ROM condo.

“I think to reduce all Torontonians to a NIMBY-ism and a fear of heights is to insult the intelligence of the neighbourhoods of Toronto,” she charged.

She said she’s all in favour of well-designed, tall buildings, but only in the proper locations. The proposal for the ROM condo was in the wrong location, she said, explaining that it was out of keeping with a neighbourhood that is home to such historical, cultural and public buildings as the University of Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Arts and Queen’s Park.

“The ROM’s condo proposal last year was the wrong building in the wrong place. It was a special historical public area, and I really think that you have to qualify this,” Fullerton said.

Read the rest of the article here ———————————————————————————

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