Tag Archives: listings
Investigate your future condo community before committing to a condo
by Denise Lash
Everywhere you turn it seems like a new condominium is being built. First-time homebuyers are opting for condominium living. Empty nesters also continue to sell their homes and move into condo units.
But how many of these purchasers think about the community they’re buying into? Usually it’s the price, location, and features that one considers when shopping for the perfect condo. But what about after construction? How will residents get along with one another? Does it really matter?
Sure it does. Just think of this scenario: Jane and Doug, young professionals, bought a luxurious two-bedroom unit at Yonge and St. Clair. Jane is pregnant. Doug just bought Jane a golden retriever puppy for her birthday.
You can see it now. The baby is born. The puppy wants attention. Lots of barking and crying ensue. The puppy isn’t fully trained yet and has a few accidents in the hallway and in the elevator. The neighbours, who haven’t even met Jane and Doug, complain to management. Letters are sent to the couple demanding that they remove the dog. Jane is in tears. It’s difficult enough having a baby and then dealing with angry neighbours and management and losing her puppy on top of that.
Now consider the alternative scenario. The building that Doug and Jane purchased in has an unusual management style. New residents get welcome packages from the board of directors and management. They have information telling them about the rules and how the building operates. The manager suggests a meeting with the board of directors before the next board meeting as a general introduction. Doug and Jane meet with management and the board, who notice that Jane is pregnant and has a puppy. The board notifies Doug and Jane of the specific rules and the common problems relating to pets. The board also tells them about the committee set up to handle pet issues. Jane volunteers on it.
Jane attends the committee meetings and learns about problems in the building with noisy pets, dangerous pets, and the messes they sometimes cause. She knows that if her dog is noisy there will be complaints. She and Doug have to make every effort to clean up after and give attention to their dog so that they’ll be able to keep their pet.
The initial welcome depends on the attitude and enthusiasm of the board, management, and residents.
You can see that providing this welcome and information can assist the board and management and perhaps even prevent those frustrating and unpleasant situations where residents are unaware of their responsibilities.
Residents need to become familiar with the community. They need to know what the rules are and why they need to follow them. Remember to be neighbourly and cultivate positive relationships.
Denise Lash is a condominium lawyer with Miller Thomson LLP and the host of the television program MondoCondo. Don’t miss the launch of MondoCondo beginning October 15 on Global, CH, and Prime. Watch Denise tackle every aspect of condo life. Check local listings or visit www.torontocondoshow.com for details.
———————————————————————————
Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information
Related posts:
- Condos as the New Toronto Starter Home With property prices in the GTA skyrocketing, 50% of condos...
- Toronto Condo Profile: Aria Condos Art and nature in perfect harmony For those discerning enough...
- Step-down condo lifestyle Move over first-time homebuyers – retirees and empty nesters are...
- The Toronto Condo Stereotype Shatters It’s no longer just downtown first-timers who buy; high rises...
- Young buyers drive Toronto condo boom The Toronto condo building boom that began several years ago...
House prices going through the roof
Even The Donald has been trumped by a real estate record
By Jessica Gresko – Associated Press
PALM BEACH, Florida — Donald Trump’s property for sale has all the big-time extras one might expect. Pricey marble and 24-karat gold fixtures in its bathrooms, a gargantuan fountain by the driveway and 145 metres of oceanfront out back.
Perhaps the biggest thing about the home, however, is its price: $125 million (U.S.). And (sorry, Donald) that price has already been trumped. A home in Aspen, Colo., is now listed at $135 million. Another in Lake Tahoe, Nev., was recently listed at a flat $100 million.
The listings represent a monetary milestone in American real estate: The first time U.S. homes have broken into a whopping nine figures, according to real estate experts, and they’ve done so in quick succession. A May survey of the nation’s most expensive homes by Forbes.com put Trump’s home at the most expensive and the first to break the $100 million mark.
Now, the trio has market followers wondering: Will they sell? And what do you really get for $100 million?
“I’m surprised it took so long for people to realize value,” Trump said of the listings.
Usually the top 10 per cent of any marketplace is considered the luxury market, but these properties are a tier above.
“They’re super-luxury properties,” said Trump, the real estate mogul and reality TV star.
Shari Chase, of Chase International, which has the Lake Tahoe listing, said: “This is stratospheric for offering prices but I think we’re going in that direction….These three properties, they are really the Super Bowl of real estate.”
The listings are extreme. At these prices, bedrooms, bathrooms and square-footage are almost irrelevant. Like their price tags, all three are gigantic.
At the Aspen property, owned by Saudi Prince Bandar, the main residence, finished in 1990, has more than 56,000 square feet (about 1,000 square feet bigger than the White House) on a nearly 40-hectare site. It even has its own car wash and gas pumps.
Need more outdoors? The Lake Tahoe home, owned by Tommy Hilfiger Corp. co-founder Joel Horowitz, comes with 38,000 square feet of livable space on 85 hectares. Included are a private trout-stocked lake and two par-3 golf courses. Among indoor features is a grand staircase that replicates one built on the Titanic.
Smaller on acreage but bigger in square footage is Trump’s property, called Maison de L’Amitié (House of Friendship), which he bought for about $41 million in 2004.
He assigned renovations to Apprentice winner Kendra Todd. Its approximately 80,000 square feet encompass several buildings.
Sara Clemence, an editor for Forbes.com who wrote its listing report, says the recent 100-million-plus-dollar listings are significant.
“That said, just because you ask for it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it,” she said.
Taxes alone on the Trump property, if sold at its current asking price, would be more than $2 million a year, according to the Palm Beach County property appraiser website.
The Donald, surprised to hear his property had U.S. competition, asked, “Who’s at 135? My property is worth more than $125 million. It’s a bargain.”
———————————————————————————
Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information
Incoming search terms
Related posts:
- Toronto’s house prices stabilizing The three types of properties surveyed in Toronto's real estate...
- Luxury homes sales through the roof as buyers seek stable investment The country's richest residents – as well as millionaires from...
- GTA house prices aren’t in collapse "Real estate is a great investment, and it's not a...
- Buyers catch a break as house prices dip The average price in September was $393,647, down 6% from...
- Cottages prices going through the roof Talbot Boggs – Canadian Press It’s summer, and all across the...
Real estate prices up all over Toronto
If you had purchased a Toronto area home at the beginning of the year, what neighbourhood would have given you the best return on your investment? While prices for detached houses rose on average 5% in the first half of the year, some neighbourhoods have seen a much more significant appreciation. In contrast to the trend of higher returns in downtown Toronto, the best returns this year are in neighbourhoods outside the core.
“Downtown isn’t the centre of the universe any longer,” said Christine Martysiewicz. “Prices are such that people are now looking at points east, west and north to get more home and lot size for the dollar.”
Last year about half of detached homes reporting double-digit price increases were in downtown Toronto. This year increases are more evenly spread across the 63 districts surveyed.
One big reason is that the average price for a detached home downtown has hit a daunting $830,000.
Homeowners are now looking at areas such as the Scarborough Bluffs. The Bluffs is the top-performing area for the first half of the year, with prices for a detached home climbing 21.2% to $360,175. In second place was the nearby Beaches with values up 19.6% to $622,042.
The survey comes on the heels of a report yesterday by the Canadian Real Estate Association that shows the first half of the year with a record amount of activity in sales of existing homes.
A new annual record is expected to be set this year with 186,177 units sold in the first six months, up 3.6% from 2005, already a record year. With higher interest rates putting a crimp on affordability, the association expects sales to be about 1% more than 2005 by year end.
Toronto, which has a more mature housing market, saw activity increase by a more moderate 2.5% during the first half. More listings in the Toronto real estate market should give some relief to buyers who can expect a more temperate market with more modest price increases.
That’s certainly the case in Toronto, where the Swansea, South Parkdale and Roncesvalles communities saw prices appreciate by 19.25% to $640,132. The Bayview Village area, with large lot sizes and available bungalows, saw a jump of 17.7% to $602,211. The Lawrence Park area, popular with the financial community who want a family-friendly neighbourhood close to Bay St., saw a jump of 17.6% to a prohibitive $1,132,410 for the average detached home.With detached homes becoming less affordable, buyers have increasingly turned to Toronto condos in order to get a foothold in choice locations.
The top return for the first half of the year for condominiums is in the Yorkville-Annex area where condos have climbed 16%. The average price in this area is now a substantial $516,729 – the highest average price for a condo in the city.
In second place is the more affordably priced west end of Humber Summit, which saw prices increase by 14% to $173,238. Lawrence Park again made the top five with a 10.6% increase to $327,525.
———————————————————————————
Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information
Incoming search terms
Related posts:
- Some pockets still warm as real estate market cools Prices jump in Trinity Bellwoods, Leslieville and Old Mill, fall...
- New hunting grounds eyed as Toronto real estate market tightens Potential homeowners are searching harder to find overlooked areas that...
- Toronto Real Estate Forecast 2010 MLS® sales in the GTA will hit a record high...
- First-time buyers boost house and condo sales despite erosion of affordability Heated Spring real estate market forecast from coast-to-coast March 20/2007...
- Toronto real estate resilient in first half of 2009 In the midst of the recession, approximately 20% of single-detached...
