$6.8M Rosedale home a Toronto real estate record
New standard not expected to last
Heavy price gains for luxury homes
Excerpt from an article by Tony Wong - Toronto Star
The buyers of the elegant stone mansion in north Toronto find themselves willing to part with $6,795,000 when they take possession next Friday. That makes it the most expensive home to be sold on the Multiple Listing Service in the Greater Toronto area this year. A robust economy coupled with a housing market that has seen healthy and steady appreciation over the last nine years means that sales of luxury properties priced at $1.5 million or more in the Greater Toronto area are up significantly, says a report released yesterday.
289 luxury homes sold in January to May 2006, compared to 221 a year earlier, representing a 31% increase.
The figures for Toronto would be even more dramatic if infill home development - where purchasers buy an existing house for teardown value and build it up from scratch - were included.There is a substantial amount of tear-down going on in Toronto. You have people paying a million dollars on property then building a completely new house.
According to a separate World Wealth report released on Tuesday, there were 232,000 Canadian millionaires at the end of 2005, up 7.2% from the prior year. As a result, the luxury segment of the market is seeing some heady days.
The most expensive property currently listed for sale in Canada is an estate in Oakville - for $45 million.
Leading in terms of upper-end sales are the North Toronto neighbourhoods of Lytton Park, Ledbury Park and John Ross Robertson, followed by Rosedale, Summerhill, Oakville, Lawrence Park and the Kingsway.
Realizing a million doesn’t quite go as far nowadays, a luxury property has been redefined as costing $1.5 million or more, up from the previous benchmark of $1 million. So far this year, seven homes have sold for more than $5 million.
Move-up buyers are largely responsible for the significant upswing, said the report. Many are cashing in on serious equity gains realized in recent years.
Average home price growth is expected to slow this year compared to last. The average price in the Toronto area by mid-June was $358,648, up 4% from a year earlier.
Detached homes are not the only product sought by luxury buyers. Upscale, million-dollar-plus condominiums have also increased in popularity as aging baby boomers enter the market.
A Toronto area not previously associated with million-dollar sales, the cozy Beach, has seen a 380% increase in homes valued at $1 million or over. Last year only five million-dollar-plus homes sold. This year, 24 have sold.
The highest-priced MLS sale in Canada this year was for $10,880,000 in the greater Vancouver area. Such western cities as Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Calgary and Edmonton saw a significant upswing in luxury home sales.
———————————————————————————
Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information
