Toronto Condo and Real Estate Blog

From the Condo Guide Magazine

An amazing location; incredible value; fantastic suite features. Julia Mele knew right away that Crystal Blu, by Bazis International, had all of the ingredients she was looking for in her future home.

Julia had been searching throughout the city for a new condominium suite in a neighbourhood she liked, but as soon as she walked into the Crystal Blu sales office for the Bay and Bloor building, she knew it had everything she wanted and more.

“I was about to buy something else in a different area,” says Julia. “But then I found out about Crystal Blu and I compared the prices, the location and all of the features. I changed my mind right away – Crystal Blu was definitely better.”

She loves the building’s stellar location – close to both the Yonge and Bloor subway lines as well as to the amenities of Yorkville, and some of the city’s best boutique shopping, including William Ashley and Holt Renfrew. And Crystal Blu’s dramatic design also appealed to her, with its spectacular crystal-blue exterior, sure to stand out from everything around it.

She ended up purchasing a 955-sq.-ft., two-bedroom condo with balcony. Her suite faces south so she knows her views of the lake and downtown will be spectacular. As for her neighbours, she already knows she’ll have friends and family close by. She loved her suite so much, in fact, that she was quick to tell two friends, as well as her sister, about the amazing options at Crystal Blu. As a result, they all purchased suites of their own in the building.

So now, not only is Julia waiting with anticipation for her own new suite, but so are the people around her. They all agree on one thing: Crystal Blu is a step above. “One of my friends who bought into the building works in the stone and wood business, and he’s already been telling me just how high-quality the finishes in the building are,” says Julia. “You don’t have to get any upgrades. They offer upgrades, but you don’t really need them.”

In fact, all suites at Crystal Blu come with 10-ft. ceilings, as well as hardwood flooring in the principal rooms, European-inspired kitchen cabinetry, top-of-the-line stainless steel kitchen appliances and a choice of granite and/or CaesarStone quartz on the kitchen countertop and island.

The Crystal Blu building itself was designed by Roy Varacalli of Burka Varacalli Architects, with interiors by Bryon Patton of Patton & Associates, including a two-storey lobby for a magnificent first impression, and a two-storey gym that takes fitness to the next level, with separate weight, cardio and yoga studio spaces for the private use of residents and their guests. Other amenities include men’s and women’s change rooms; a club/party room with a caterer’s kitchen and separate dining room; and an outdoor pool on a landscaped terrace.

Condos at Crystal Blu range in size from over 450 to over 1,800 sq. ft. Penthouses can be custom designed to accommodate more than 4,000 sq. ft. Prices range from the mid-$200,000’s to over $1 million.

Bazis International Inc. is a diversified company involved in the development, design and construction of residential, commercial, industrial and mixed-use projects. Bazis has expanded into a world-class company committed to building state-of-the-art projects in several countries. Presently, they have interests in more than 30 international developments.

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The Condo Guide Magazine is an excellent source of housing information for those looking for information on new condos in Ontario, Canada. We offer the most up-to-date information on new condominiums across the greater Toronto area.

High-rise projects sandwiched between downtown and the suburbs have to offer more to compete effectively

By Derek Raymaker - The Globe and Mail

The vast choice in new high-rise condominium suites in central Toronto has wedged prices and demand in a nice equilibrium, if temporarily.

At an average price of $331 a square foot across Greater Toronto, condominium prices are not spiralling out of control in the same way as new detached homes, even though four high-profile super-luxury projects, including one under the Ritz-Carlton banner, have been launched, driving up the average price.

And Torontonians should be surprised and satisfied to know that condo prices here are in line with most other Canadian cities, and actually a bargain compared with Victoria, Vancouver and Calgary.

When you pull yourself away from the economic analysis (which shouldn’t be too hard) and visit the sales centres of new downtown projects, you’ll find finely tuned marketing machines aiming directly at the lifestyle-oriented instincts of buyers looking for convenience and trendy design.

But it’s location that will always trump these other factors, and a hot corner can be worth all the granite countertops in the world. There are over two dozen condo sales centres currently open in central Toronto, and there would seem to be something for everyone .

The new projects competing with them in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough need to offer more.

Developers in this grey area of the high-rise market — not quite downtown, not quite suburban — have also gravitated to particular locations featuring either scenery or convenient transportation.

In Etobicoke, the western lakeshore straddling the mouth of the Humber River continues to hit the right notes with buyers. The subway — and subway extensions — have guided North York’s high-rise development. And the Scarborough Town Centre transit and highway corridor is the site of pretty much all of the high-rise projects in that former borough. Of course, these all come with the discount you’d expect for being out of the trendy loop that exists south of Eglinton Avenue.

None of this is rocket science to any savvy marketing team. But there is one key advantage these traditional low-rise neighbourhoods have over the trendy downtown projects that bodes well for future high-rise development. That is the prevalence of tens of thousands of older couples who want to sell their large maintenance-intensive houses, but not leave their neighbourhoods.

There’s also the added bonus that many of these older buyers are able to buy a high-end two-bedroom suite priced at $500,000 or so with no mortgage after they sell their family house for $750,000 in pockets like Lawrence Park or The Kingsway.

Bayview Avenue has been a particularly popular spot for new empty-nester buyers looking for a well-appointed suite with larger square footages than you’d find in downtown Toronto’s shoeboxes in the sky to handle all the family heirlooms.

Daniels Corporation’s Kilgour Estates, just south of Lawrence Avenue, has been a huge hit with homeowners from the immediate area, with prices starting at $474,000 and going up to $1,586,000 for between 1,072 and 2,293 square feet.

Further north on Sheppard Avenue is Shane Baghai’s St. Gabriel Village, on a site to be shared with a church and to feature an emphasis on energy conservation. It has been on the market for a year with prices at $479 a square foot.

The overall price picture outside of downtown features many projects with fairly expensive suites like those mentioned above, and loads of traditional high-rise condos catering to the first-time buyer on a budget, but not much in between.

The early data for 2006 indicates it’s been a soft market overall in these areas, with a lot of building going on but not much buying.

In west North York, the average high-rise suite price reported for February was $269 a square foot, up a modest 3.8% from February, 2005, according to data compiled by RealNet Canada. The North Yonge Street corridor reports a price of $316 a square foot, up 1.6% from February, 2005, while Scarborough was at $276 a square foot, up 6.1% from February, 2005.

Etobicoke average suite prices are actually above the Greater Toronto average at $359 a square foot in February, up 3.1% from $348 in February, 2005.

Excertp from an article by Shelly Sanders Greer - Toronto Star

A convenient Scarborough site — once a location where people learned — is being transformed into a place where people live.

Regal Crest Homes has launched sales of 274 new family homes in Scarborough, minutes from Lake Ontario and the Scarborough Bluffs.

Called Centennial Gardens, these semi-detached and freehold townhomes are part of an infill development on the former site of Centennial College.

The homes will have three or four bedrooms and range in size from 1,410 to 2,115 square feet. Prices range from $291,000 to $405,400.

Closings are expected to take place from September to December 2007.

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