Tag Archives: Ritz-Carlton
Sotheby’s has high hopes for Toronto’s high end
Carolyn Ireland – Globe and Mail
At a time when pundits are watching for signs that Toronto’s housing market is cooling down, Ross McCredie is gearing up.
The chief executive officer of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada is adding a second Toronto office and new agents are signing on.
Mr. McCredie is sanguine about the top tier of the market, where Sotheby’s agents already glide between polished marble foyers.
Mr. McCredie was first drawn to Toronto by the opportunity to attach the Sotheby’s banner to condominium units in the Four Seasons Private Residences currently under construction in Yorkville.
The largest units were the quickest to sell – at prices as high as $1,500 to $1,800 a square foot, he says.
That venture went so well, and he has such high hopes for more such lucrative deals, Mr. McCredie says, that he has brought about 25 new agents onboard and expects to add another 25.
He points to the injection of capital from overseas, the line-up of five-star condo towers nearing completion, and a projection by Deloitte Services LP that the number of millionaire households in Canada will swell by 38% in 2020 from the 2011 tally.
A lot of attention is focused on investors based in China, he says, but other factors are at play too: The huge transfer of wealth from aging parents to their baby boomer offspring and the expectation that more homeowners in tony neighbourhoods such as Rosedale and Forest Hill will downsize and move into those Four Seasons condos.
“There’s a lifestyle change going on.”
There are a lot of Canadians with money and a lot of successful ex-pats are returning. They are the ones buying in Whistler, he points out.
And for those who don’t choose the Four Seasons, there are plenty of other ensuite dressing rooms being readied for the unpacking of Tom Ford moccasins and Christian Louboutin heels. The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Trump Tower, and Shangri-La are ready for occupancy or nearly so. Toronto has more condos coming on-stream than any other city in North America.
Oh and then there are the vacation properties in Florida or California that these buyers will be able to escape to when they are ensconced in their new turn-key lifestyles. Mr. McCredie wants Sotheby’s to help with the purchase of those too.
Mr. McCredie is not put off in the least by agents who say the high end of the market is slow – has been for months. Some say buyers in the upper echelons are wary amid all the turbulence in global financial markets. As for high-priced houses for sale in Rosedale that may go weeks without a showing, Mr. McCredie characterizes that as a perennial lament that can be explained by seasonal doldrums.
“Everything starts firing up in the spring again,” he says.
If there is a segment he worries about, it’s the mid-range condo market in Toronto. Those buyers, he cautions, are the most likely to be hurt if interest rates rise.
“I don’t see fire sales happening in Rosedale; I don’t see anything happening in Forest Hill.”
Those areas, along with traditional bastions like Westmount in Montreal or Shaugnessy in Vancouver, tend to fare better because homeowners are mostly well-established.
“Those are the markets that will hold up.”
He also travels the world and, in the past two years, the fervour of people who want to talk about investing in real estate here has only intensified.
“Canada is absolutely the darling of international markets now.”
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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Condominium builders battle for the middle ground
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.
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Trump Opens Canada’s Tallest Condo Tower With $6 Million Toronto Suites
By Doug Alexander – Bloomberg.com
Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto, Canada’s tallest residential building, opened last week capping a seven-year effort to bring the brand of billionaire Donald Trump to the country’s largest city.
The $500 million Trump tower is the first of three luxury hotel-condominium projects opening this year in Toronto, after The Ritz-Carlton opened last year. The Four Seasons Hotel (FS) and Private Residences and the 66-story Shangri-La Toronto are also set to open this year.
Toronto’s rise of luxury hotel residences follows a record year for tourism, with more than 9 million hotel-room nights sold in 2011, according to Tourism Toronto. The industry association said the availability of luxury hotel options attracts “high-value visitors” to the city.
About 60% of the 118 residential units in the 65- story tower have been sold, with the remaining condos priced from $2.3 million to $6.3 million, according to Talon International Development Inc., the owner and developer.
The building also has hotel suites, owned by investors who can earn revenue when used by a hotel guest. About 85% of the 261 hotel rooms have been sold, with the rest priced from $967,000.
“In this market, and at the prices I know those units have commanded, that’s a pretty healthy ratio,” John Andrew, a real- estate professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, said in a telephone interview.
An international investor bought a penthouse at Toronto’s Four Seasons for C$28 million, which the developer said last year was the most expensive condo ever sold in Canada.
Luxury Tower
Talon, based in Toronto, bought the property at Bay and Adelaide streets in the financial district in 2004 and proposed a luxury tower with the Trump name. The Trump Hotel Collection has a management agreement to operate the hotel, which was originally slated to open in 2009. Design changes delayed the project, Talon said.
The closely held developer arranged C$310 million in construction financing from Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG (RZBOPA), an Austrian bank, in 2007 and started construction with C$250 million in sales.
Buyers have come from around the world, with Canadians representing a “considerable portion,” Talon Chief Executive Officer Val Levitan said in an e-mail. That portion is growing as the project nears completion, he said.
“Early on, the bulk of purchasers were investors,” Levitan said. “Over the past couple of years that mix has shifted much more towards people who are looking to use their suites as their primary home, a downtown pied-a-terre or even as a corporate suite.”
Taking Gamble
Investors of Toronto’s luxury units are taking a gamble on a limited market of wealthy visitors and dwindling prospects as companies cut back on corporate travel, according to Andrew, director of the Queen’s Real Estate Roundtable.
“I’m very skeptical that there is sufficient market to support all of these hotels,” Andrew said in an interview. “There are not enough wealthy individuals running around that are going to keep those hotels in business.”
Toronto will have about 1,000 luxury rooms after the Four Seasons and Shangri-La open, estimates Trump’s general manager Mickael Damelincourt.
“Compared to what Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris, London has to offer in terms of luxury hotels, it’s nothing,” Damelincourt said. “There is definitely a demand.”
Trump Hotel Collection also oversees five U.S. hotels including two in New York and one in Chicago, and a hotel in Panama.
Nobody Can Compete
If there is rivalry brewing among Toronto’s luxury hotels, the billionaire behind the brand name said he isn’t worried.
“Toronto is a vibrant, great city. We have a great product,” Donald Trump told reporters Jan. 24 at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles. “Nobody will be able to compete with us.”
The Trump building is in the heart of Toronto’s financial district, rising 277 meters (908 feet) among towers bearing the logos of Canada’s largest banks including Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia.
The Trump hotel features a two-level spa with pool, a 12,000-square-foot ballroom and 31st-floor dining at Stock Restaurant Bar & Lounge. Rooms start at C$395 a night and go as high as C$20,000 for the 4,000-square-foot presidential suite.
‘Elevate Toronto’
“Collectively, these luxury properties help elevate Toronto to a level of being one of the elite cities in the world,” Alex Shnaider, chairman of Talon, said in an e-mail. “It will benefit the city as a whole — making a great city even better.”
The hotel-condo idea remains “an unproven concept” for Canada, with uncertain investment returns, said Yossi Kaplan, a Toronto realtor with Your Choice Realty whose clients own units in the building. Trump’s name resonates more with foreign investors than Canadians, he said, and most calls he gets on the project are from outside the country or recent immigrants.
Trump’s name was a draw for Toronto’s John Hutson, who bought a 17th-floor hotel suite as an investment and a 48th- floor two-bedroom condo to live in.
“You associate Trump with special projects that have wow factors,” said Hutson, 50, a tax partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP whose office is a five-minute walk away. “The key is buying the best. And from a quality and location perspective, for my money, it’s Trump.”
—————————————————————————————————–
Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
—————————————————————————————————–
Incoming search terms
Related posts:
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