Tag Archives: vertical city
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.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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Vertical City
Toronto is Growing Up
The Toronto Real Estate Board President’s column as it appears each Friday in the Toronto Sun Resale Homes and Condos section
Torontonians are crazy for condos. Last month there were 2,361 condo sales in Toronto and the GTA, an increase of 25% from the previous July.
While sales of all housing types have been robust throughout the past couple of months, Toronto condo sales are making a stronger contribution to the big picture than ever before.
In little more than a decade, Toronto condo sales have gone from comprising a quarter of all GTA real estate transactions to accounting for almost one in every three homes that changes hands. In central Toronto condos now represent 60% of resale real estate transactions.
As a result of the Toronto condo boom the population of the downtown core grew by 10% in the last five-year census period, representing the largest five-year population increase in the core throughout the last 30 years.
And there’s more to come. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts rose in the Toronto area by 10% in June from the previous month to 24,000 units. This can mainly be attributed to condominiums as multi-family developments were up 15% from the prior month.
The popularity of Toronto condominiums has skyrocketed because they appeal to people from so many different walks of life. Toronto welcomes nearly 100,000 newcomers to Canada each year from countries like India and China, where high-rise living is the norm. As such, the Toronto condo market is a natural fit.
Well-educated young adults who are on a career path also see Toronto condo living as an affordable and convenient option, given its proximity to business and city life. Indeed many from the twenty and thirty something age choose developments that reflect their personality.
Whether you’re a media buff, into retro chic or have a penchant for fine art, there’s a Toronto condo designed specifically with your needs in mind.
Empty nesters and those who purchase property around the globe are also drawn to Toronto condos, given their spectacular architecture and luxurious features.
A recent report by Urbanation substantiates their wide appeal; indicating that in the second quarter of this year Toronto new condo sales increased 223% from Q1, to 2,963 units.
Even if you’re not drawn to this housing type, our new vertical city has an economic benefit to all GTA residents.
It obviously benefits housing industry related professions, but it also has a positive impact on a number of other sectors. In fact, according to a study by the Canadian Real Estate Association, one out of every 100 jobs depends on spending associated with resale housing transactions, on things like renovations, furniture and appliances. This study also found that the average resale housing transaction in Ontario generates more than $47,000 in economic spinoffs. Even the smallest businesses benefit from condominium communities, which provide a steady stream of clientele to their ground floor shops.
New housing units also put additional funds into the City’s coffers through property taxes. And intensification offers the opportunity to improve, rather than disperse, city services like transit, waste removal and recreation facilities.
As the fifth most populous urban centre in North America behind Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, Toronto is growing up, both literally and figuratively as it matures into a world-class city.
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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Six towers set to bloom
John Bentley Mays – Globe and Mail
A work of architecture begins its real-world career (as opposed to its life in the designer’s mind and studio) as a hole in the ground. Downtown Toronto nowadays sports many of these muddy pits in the urban fabric. But not all holes are created equal. Here are a few important ones that deserve watching in the weeks and months to come.
590 Jarvis St.
One of Toronto’s most fashionable avenues in Victorian times, Jarvis Street suffered badly 100 years ago, when its wealthy residents decamped to nearby Rosedale. Great Gulf Group’s X The Condominium, at the corner of Jarvis and Charles streets, will be a good tonic for its historically dilapidated neighbourhood.
The great modern master Ludwig Mies van der Rohe inspired the design by Peter Clewes and the late Adrian di Castri of the Toronto firm architectsAlliance, and the radical spirit of Mies is invoked in every crisp line and strict angle of the tower.
Jarvis and Adelaide streets
Like X up Jarvis, Aspen Ridge Homes’s Vü — its podium is now peeking out of the ground — is a piece of solid city-building. This dense complex of high-ceilinged lofts, townhouses and condominium apartments will be situated on the long-neglected east side of downtown. Or at least the district was neglected through much of the 20th century. Since the turn of this century, condominium blocks have been going up in the neighbourhood at a fast clip, and Vü will add substantially to the momentum of this residential revival.
The design is by David Pontarini, founding partner in the Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini Architects.
183 Wellington St. West
The luxurious Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominium tower is at a stage of construction that delights architecture aficionados: poking up above street level a few storeys, with all its massive concrete bones showing, and no cladding to obscure the craftsmanship of engineers and technicians.
Designed by the U.S. firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and Toronto’s Page + Steele Architects, the project will feature an urbane glass podium lifted smartly off the street by concrete columns. Behind this entry pavilion will rise the tower proper, its outer walls tilting outward with attractive flair.
330 King St. West at John
Just a few steps north of the Ritz-Carlton, the Bell Lightbox will be another tall tower in what’s becoming a big cluster of them along King. It has been designed by Bruce Kuwabara of the well-known Toronto firm Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, and it will house the famous Toronto International Film Festival Group and many condominiums up top.
If architects’ renderings are anything to go on, the building will be bright and lively, and crowned with a glowing box illuminated from within by light-emitting diodes — “a vertical city of film,” Mr. Kuwabara has poetically called it.
1 Bedford Rd.
Out of this hole in the ground will emerge a tower with 32 residential floors that will likely add a touch of suave to the unsightly north side of Bloor Street, west of University Avenue. The scheme, also by Mr. Kuwabara, has had its share of tribulation.
A couple of years ago, you may recall, the muscular local citizens’ group attacked H&R Developments and Lanterra Developments, whose project this is, arguing that grannies would be plunged into darkness by the tower, and so forth. The upshot was a decision by the city to shrink the building a little —not enough, thankfully, to blunt the contribution this tower will make to the streetscape.
When this building was being designed, I was bothered a bit by the architect’s bowing to the preservationists and incorporating some scraps from the studio of beaux-arts designer John M. Lyle (the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Union Station), which once stood at 1 Bedford. It now appears that these bits and pieces will be integrated elegantly into Mr. Kuwabara’s modernist etude.
325 Bay St. at Adelaide
When it’s finished, Toronto architect Eberhard Zeidler’s 60-storey Trump International Hotel and Tower will make this address in the financial district one of the swankiest in Canada.
The people living there will have access to all of the luxuries of the five-star hotel on the building’s lower storeys. Cars will be parked by valets. For those who can’t be bothered to own a car, the management will provide round-the-clock use of two chauffeured Mercedes. And there will be lots of room at the top: The penthouses will be a lavish 4,300 to 7,400 square feet in area.
I like the idea of this big dollop of ritz in the heart of the city. Along with many of the other holes in downtown Toronto, the one at 325 Bay will soon be filling up with residential architecture that adds value to being and living here.
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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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