Toronto Condo and Real Estate Blog

By Derek Raymaker - Globe and Mail

Toronto is among the most extraordinary condominium markets in North America, not so much because of the quality of the suites but the vast array of pockets that seem to perform well.

As we look at the lesser known condo submarkets around the Greater Toronto Area, it’s apparent that the city’s proud neighbourhoods have played a role in staking out markets beyond downtown.

The eastern reaches of Toronto include some of the most stridently independent neighbourhoods, including The Beaches, Riverdale, Leslieville and the Danforth. Each of these communities has endured its own peaks and valleys in terms of affluence, and all are in demand today among younger buyers. In the case of The Beaches, older empty nesters are drawn to the shoreline neighbourhood.

On the fringes of these neighbourhoods are Kingston Road and Eastern Avenue. Both arterial roads are flush with heavy traffic during the day, but they also have surplus commercial and industrial buildings ideal for lofts or more experimental condominium developments.

The east end has become a test canvas of sorts for art-deco, mid-rise designs reflecting South Beach and other maritime styles. Certainly, the buyers who gravitate to the east end are more likely to take a chance on designs that reflect their free-spiritedness rather than the standard cookie-cutter suites of downtown or the harbour front.

But the kicker for most buyers is, as always, affordability. At the end of 2007, the average price for this neighbourhood stood at $402 a square foot, pretty close to the Greater Toronto average of $399, according to data collected by RealNet Canada. That’s up 17% year over year.

The average suite in this neighbourhood is quite a bit larger than the average in Toronto, and prices are higher, too, at an average of $379,601, compared with $355,998 in Greater Toronto. That’s also a cool hundred grand higher than the area’s average price of $276,992 in 2006.

Hyde Park Homes has been active in the east end, starting with a successful 18-unit infill townhouse redevelopment in the Upper Beaches and following it up with Leslieville Lofts just north of Queen Street East at Broadview Avenue.

Leslieville Lofts will be a new eight-storey building on the site of a former auto-body shop made up of 157 suites and 14 two-storey townhouses, with prices ranging from $180,000 for 470 square feet to $1.4-million for a 2,265-square-foot penthouse.

Leslieville Lofts, which was launched last November, features open-concept spaces and vast terraces on the seventh floor. The townhouses will be zoned as live/work units.

If you’re looking for spectacular views, Minto’s Skyy project at the top of Pottery Road near Danforth Avenue will soar 25 storeys above the Don River Valley. It features contemporary open-concept designs suited for younger buyers, but it’s also been a big hit with local residents who want to cash in on their valuable houses but stay in the same neighbourhood. The project is now under construction.

Prices here range from $189,000 for 522 square feet to $1.5-million for a 4,482-square-foot penthouse with two terraces and an enormous living area with a curved bank of floor-to-ceiling windows.

An authentic loft project - living space that is converted from industrial use - that has turned a lot of heads for its shape-shifting design and intriguing courtyard is the Printing Factory Lofts, developed by Beaverbrook Homes. This 254-unit project will also include 44 stacked townhouses with street-level access on Boston Avenue, just north of Queen. Prices here range from $189,000 for 573 square feet to $491,000 for 1,235 square feet, with extensive landscaping in common outdoor areas as well as private yards.

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By Tavia Grant - Globe and Mail

Canadians are spending a greater chunk of their incomes on housing, air travel and cell phones while the proportion devoted to personal taxes has hit a 14-year low, a government report showed Tuesday.

Canadians were in an expansive mood in 2006, boosting spending by 4.6% from 2005 - more than twice the rate of inflation, Statistics Canada said in its survey of household spending.

The biggest share of Canadian household budgets was still on personal taxes, shelter and transportation, at 20%, 19% and 14%, respectively.

However, relatively less appears to be going to the tax man. Personal taxes edged higher - to an average of $13,630 - but that was the lowest share since 1992. A dwindling portion is also going towards food - where the proportion of spending hit the lowest on record.

“In the 1960s, food represented the largest proportion of household expenditure, accounting for nearly 19% of total spending,” the report said. This has steadily tumbled, to just over 10% of total spending in 2006.

Spending on shelter rose 5% to an average of $12,990 while transportation spending rose 4%.

Nowhere was the money flowing more than in oil-rich Alberta, which set a record for spending growth.

“Spending growth in Alberta surpassed all other provinces by a wide margin,” the report said.

Average household spending in Alberta soared 14% - the largest year-over-year increase for one province ever recorded by this survey. Prince Edward Island tallied the second-largest growth, followed by Saskatchewan and Quebec.

The slowest growth in spending on goods and services was in Manitoba, where it rose just 1%, and in Ontario where this figure grew by just under 2%, Statscan said.

Spending differs broadly between income levels. The poorest fifth of the population spend more than half of their budget on food, shelter and clothing. The wealthiest fifth spend mostly on taxes and shelter.

Among other findings from the survey:

- Canadians used public transportation more in 2006, with spending rising 17%. This was mostly towards air travel, followed by city commuter buses and subways.

- Spending on clothing swelled 13%.

- Household spending on cell phone and other wireless services jumped more than 18%. At the same time, spending for conventional land-line telephone service continued to fall, dropping 3%.

- More than two thirds of households say they own at least one cell phone - up from 64% in 2005. One in five households say they own two cell phones while 1 in 20 use cell phones only and no conventional land-line phone.

- Calgary was the most wireless city, with 87% of households having a cell phone. Quebec has the lowest rate of cell phone ownership.

- A record 31% of households bought new computer hardware.

- More than three-quarters of households reported owning a computer in 2006. Nearly 97% of the highest income households had a computer, and 93% had internet access from home. By contrast, 45% of households in the lowest income group had a computer, and one-third had home access to the internet.

- Average spending on internet access services rose 12%.

- Ownership of DVD players surpassed VCRs for the first time.

- Spending on digital cameras grew 6%, while spending on conventional cameras plummeted 29%.

- Spending on movies fell 8% while reading materials spending slid 5%.

- Spending on pharmaceutical products is rising, led by Alberta.

- Spending on “games of chance” dropped 5%, led by declines in non-government bingos and raffle tickets.

Statscan produced the study by interviewing about 21,000 Canadian households between January and April of last year.

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The Canadian Press

Bank of Nova Scotia expects a more moderate rate of Canadian real estate construction, sales and price gains in 2008, compared with the heated activity of recent years.

Adrienne Warren, senior economist at the bank, said Tuesday the key factors will be “decreasing affordability, especially for first-time buyers, and some softening in domestic economic conditions associated with the intensifying U.S. slowdown.”

She said housing starts “will likely ease to around 204,000 units, still firmly above underlying household formation, with the more affordable multiple-family segment holding up better than single-detached construction.”

Ms. Warren said housing starts totalled 228,343 units in 2007, essentially matching the high level of activity of the previous two years and only 2% below the peak of 2004.

Strength was evident across the country, but was led by more than a 60% surge in new homebuilding in Saskatchewan, underpinned by strong job growth, good affordability and a positive shift in interprovincial migration.

Resale activity was equally brisk, with multiple-listing sales reaching a record in 2007 and average home prices climbing 11%.

While Western Canada continues to lead in price appreciation, average home prices rose by at least 5% in all provinces last year.

Also speaking at Scotiabank’s real estate outlook forum, Phil Soper, chief executive of Brookfield Real Estate Services, predicted that “balanced conditions will prevail throughout 2008, which will mark a return to a more ‘normal’ environment …”

Ms. Warren said the current housing upswing “is going on 10 years, whereas the prior three cycles ranged from five to six years. It has also outlasted the housing booms experienced in many other advanced economies this decade.”

However, average annual price appreciation over this period has been typical at just under 6% per year, well below the almost 10% average gains recorded in the late-1980s.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960