Tag Archives: LEED-certified condos
Number of benefits to LEED-certified condos
Toronto Real Estate Board President’s column as it appears in the Toronto Star
There’s no doubt that homebuyers are drawn to the luxury and in many cases, affordability, that Toronto condominiums offer. As a result, the GTA’s population is booming; it currently ranks as the fifth largest city region in North America behind Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. And it’s interesting to note that as the GTA grows up, it’s also going green.
From schools to office buildings, municipal facilities to retail outlets, buildings throughout the GTA are working to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
It is a rating system in which points are awarded for environmentally friendly building characteristics in five key areas: sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
An internationally accepted third-party certification program, it provides building operators with tools to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.
According to recent reports, the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC), the non-profit organization that implements LEED, has more than one thousand projects registered, with approximately one-third of all projects located in Ontario.
In Canada for only five years, the LEED program has been widely embraced and certainly by no one more than Toronto condominium developers.
To qualify for this coveted status today’s condominiums are built with energy efficient heating and cooling systems, low VOC paints and finishes, and low-E argon-filled windows.
You’ll also find innovative energy-saving ideas like rainwater collection facilities, motion sensor lighting in stairwells, and two-chute disposal systems for convenient recycling on every floor.
LEED condos feature individual suite controls that allow you to monitor and limit energy usage, all off switches, programmable thermostats and energy-efficient appliances.
Building amenities include lush rooftop gardens, individual storage units, covered parking for bicycles, close proximity to transit lines and direct access to car sharing company services.
If you’re drawn to the idea of owning a green home you’re not alone. In a Nielson Canada-wide survey of attitudes towards green homes 85% of respondents claimed that certification of the home would play an important role in their buying decision and 82% said they would be willing to invest more money in a home purchase if it was certified.
Beyond helping the environment, there are a number of other benefits to buying a LEED certified condominium. You’ll enjoy better indoor air quality, lower costs for water and electricity usage and likely, a more active lifestyle. You might even enjoy a lower home insurance premium and achieve higher resale value.
If you’re interested in finding out about the many benefits of LEED-certified condos, talk to a Greater Toronto Realtor.
Toronto Real Estate Board Members not only have access to up-to-the-minute data on resale housing, they also have special access to a database that contains detailed information on 95% of all new construction developments in the GTA that are greater than 15 units in size.
Some Realtors have even pursued special training offered by the National Association of Green Agents and Brokers. Look for the ACCREDITED GREENAGENT™ and ACCREDITED GREENBROKER™ designations.
For more information on the home buying and selling process, neighbourhood profiles and the latest market statistics visit www.TorontoRealEstateBoard.com.
Tom Lebour is President of the Toronto Real Estate Board, a professional association that represents 28,000 Realtors in the Greater Toronto Area.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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Incoming search terms
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Vertical City – Toronto is growing up and going green
The Toronto Real Estate Board President’s Column as it appears each Friday in the Toronto Sun Resale Homes and Condos section
In a recent column I talked about how the Greater Toronto Area is becoming a vertical city, with almost one in every three homes that changes hands being a condominium.
There’s no doubt that homebuyers are drawn to the luxury and in many cases, affordability, that Toronto condos offer. As a result, the GTA’s population is booming; it currently ranks as the fifth largest city region in North America behind Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. And it’s interesting to note that as the GTA grows up, it’s also going green.
From schools to office buildings, municipal facilities to retail outlets, buildings throughout the GTA are working to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
It is a rating system in which points are awarded for environmentally friendly building characteristics in five key areas: sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
An internationally accepted third-party certification program, it provides building operators with tools to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.
According to recent reports, the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC), the non-profit organization that implements LEED, has more than one thousand projects registered, with approximately one-third of all projects located in Ontario.
In Canada for only five years, the LEED program has been widely embraced and certainly by no one more than Toronto condo developers.
To qualify for this coveted status today’s Toronto condos are built with energy efficient heating and cooling systems, low VOC paints and finishes, and low-E argon-filled windows.
You’ll also find innovative energy-saving ideas like rainwater collection facilities, motion sensor lighting in stairwells, and two-chute disposal systems for convenient recycling on every floor.
LEED condos feature individual suite controls that allow you to monitor and limit energy usage, all off switches, programmable thermostats and energy-efficient appliances.
Building amenities include lush rooftop gardens, individual storage units, covered parking for bicycles, close proximity to transit lines and direct access to car sharing company services.
If you’re drawn to the idea of owning a green home you’re not alone. In a Nielson Canada-wide survey of attitudes towards green homes 85% of respondents claimed that certification of the home would play an important role in their buying decision and 82% said they would be willing to invest more money in a home purchase if it was certified.
Beyond helping the environment, there are a number of other benefits to buying a LEED certified condominium. You’ll enjoy better indoor air quality, lower costs for water and electricity usage and likely, a more active lifestyle. You might even enjoy a lower home insurance premium and achieve higher resale value.
If you’re interested in finding out about the many benefits of LEED-certified condos, talk to a Greater Toronto Realtor.
Toronto Real Estate Board Members not only have access to up-to-the-minute data on resale housing, they also have special access to a database that contains detailed information on 95% of all new construction developments in the GTA that are greater than 15 units in size.
Some Toronto Realtors have even pursued special training offered by the National Association of Green Agents and Brokers. Look for the Accredited Green Agent™ and Accredited Green Broker™ designations.
For more information on the home buying and selling process, neighbourhood profiles and the latest market statistics visit www.TorontoRealEstateBoard.com.
Tom Lebour is President of the Toronto Real Estate Board, a professional association that represents 28,000 Realtors in the Greater Toronto Area.
————————————————————————————————————
Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
————————————————————————————————————
Related posts:
- Number of benefits to LEED-certified condos There's no doubt that homebuyers are drawn to the luxury...
- Green homes LEED the way The trend towards “green real estate” continues to accelerate as...
- Vertical City In little more than a decade, Toronto condo sales have...
- Minto’s green dream team The green courtyard helped MintoMidtown in June become the largest...
- Toronto Site Seeing With all that Toronto condos have to offer, it's not...
M5V sales centre takes LEED
M5V reveals that green living does not mean you have to compromise on design or a comfortable lifestyle
Excerpt from an article by Shelly Sanders Greer – Toronto Star
M5V, developed by TAS Design/Build, reveals what potential purchasers can expect from green initiatives in this 30-storey, 224-suite condominium, and shows that green living does not have to mean compromising design or comfort.
Condo residents benefit with a 35 to 40%eduction in energy use over a new building built to code, and 40% less water used.
At M5V‘s sales centre, at King St. W. and Peter Sts., green features include energy efficient and water-conserving appliances, roof water collection for irrigation of the green landscaping at the sales centre, a permeable paving system, which absorbs rain water instead of letting it flow to storm sewers, and an efficient heat-recovery ventilation system.
“People don’t realize that half your heating load is ventilation, so the sales centre and the condo will be using exhaust air for pre-heating,” Carpenter explains.
What also makes this sales centre unusual is that it can be taken down and re-used. Traditionally, sales centres are destroyed once construction of the condominium begins, which add loads of debris to landfill sites. In M5V‘s case, the flooring is all dry-laid so that it can be re-used, the mechanical equipment on the roof can be taken down, and the wall panels are re-mountable.
Although M5V has broken new ground with the first LEED-registered sales office, it will be one of many condos in Toronto that have been voluntarily built to a green standard. In Canada 325 projects are registered to become LEED certified, and 53 are certified. B.C. leads the way with 22% of all LEED certifications, followed by Ontario with 14%.
“The first LEED condo was done by Minto,” says Jeahny Shim, president and editor of Urbanation. “Tridel has also built LEED-certified condos and other developers are voluntarily starting to incorporate green features. This is consumer-driven as consumers are more aware of energy costs and 40% of maintenance fees are for utilities.”
The M5V condo project is in the final stages of planning approval, says Mortazavi.
Building green is voluntary, costs more than traditional construction (up to $100,000 extra for a condominium to be LEED-certified) and takes longer for approvals, which is why the City of Toronto is working to bring another Toronto-specific rating standard to the market along with incentives for developers to build green.
The idea is to set the bar high and make it easier to reach. This way, consumers, who have everything to gain from green building, will have more developments like M5V to choose from, and green features will be the norm, not the exception.
In the end, the rating system is just part of the solution. D’Abramo, Carpenter, Love and Morris are all working toward the same goal — incorporating high levels of energy efficiency in all future condominium developments.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information
Incoming search terms
Related posts:
- Young guns driving enviro-condo push It seems it’s the developers – not buyers – who...
- Number of benefits to LEED-certified condos There's no doubt that homebuyers are drawn to the luxury...
- Green building takes root in new condos By Derek Raymaker – Globe and Mail Toronto’s Shane Baghai is...
- LEED set to take giant leap ahead Over the next six months, LEED Complete pilot projects will...
- Vertical City – Toronto is growing up and going green In Canada for only five years, the LEED program has...
