Archive for the 'Opinion' Category

New Hometrader.ca Site Looks Promising

Published at January 5, 2009 in News and Opinion. 0 Comments

hometrader.ca screen shot

If you are looking to buy a new condo in Toronto, you probably have picked up a copy of The Condo Guide magazine. These free, bi-monthly full colour magazines are more or less 100% advertisements bought and paid for by Toronto’s numerous condo developers with a few “articles” thrown in for good measure by industry insiders.  The magazine is distributed by the Trader corporation and is available on corner newstands all over the city.

Their current website is pretty much useless as a search tool for condo buyers, but they are working on creating a new website called HomeTrader (currently in beta), that so far looks pretty promising. .

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Update on College Park III: Aura

Published at November 21, 2008 in News and Opinion. 1 Comment

With the current financial climate, there is a lot of talk lately that some of the condo developments in Toronto that are in the pre-construction stage will not be able to get financing to build and therefore these projects will be canceled.  So far this has not happened, but it is a definite possibility, as credit is drying up around the globe, and banks are suddenly gun-shy.

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July Statistics for New Condo Sales

Published at August 26, 2008 in News, Opinion and Toronto Market Statistics. 0 Comments

When it comes to real estate statistics, I always take everything with a grain of salt. Fact is, most real estate statistics are compiled and released for general media consumption by the real estate industry: Real Estate Boards, CMHC, Real Estate Marketing companies, Realtors, Lenders, etc. They have a vested interest in a robust housing market. Inevitably this bias will shine through.

I was just reading through the latest numbers from BILD (Building Industry and Land Development Association) and if you just read the headline from the press release, you might conclude that everything is rosy in the new homes and condominium market in Toronto.

The headline reads: “Condo Sales Reach New Heights in July”. Now this can be interpreted in several ways and ‘New heights’ could mean just about anything. In this case it is referring to the fact that new home sales in the high-rise category (i.e. condos) were the highest for the month of July when compared to any other month so far this year. However, looking closer at the numbers clearly shows that the sales figures for July for new condo sales are actually down about 21% compared to July of 2007. Overall, new condo sales in the GTA are down about 22% for the YTD for 2008 when compared with 2007.

Also interesting from this press release is that condos appear to be taking up a greater and greater share of the overall market for new homes in the GTA. The reason given is land that land is becoming scarce. Builders are building up rather than out.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment.

Toronto Resale Market Slows; New Developments to Follow?

Published at August 22, 2008 in Buyers Tips, Investment, New Developments, News, Opinion and Resale Condos. 0 Comments

Interesting article in today’s Globe and Mail about more anecdotal and factual evidence that the Toronto resale market is slowing down.

Agents are starting to see conditional offers more and more, negotiations are actually taking place, and sellers who price their property too high are getting a rude wake-up call to the new realities of the marketplace.

Gone are the heady days of 2007 when a seller could simply list their property at seemingly any price and they would usually be rewarded with an offer.

So what about the market for new condos? What is the market like today and what will it look like heading into the final quarter of 2008 and into 2009? I spend most of my time helping buyers enter into the pre-construction condo market in Toronto.

A new report from Urbanation, a research firm run by the folks behind Market Vision-a brokerage specializing and new developments-seems to suggest that new condos will be following the trend currently happening in the resale market.

“We’re expecting a slowdown in 2009,” said Jane Renwick, editor and vice-president of Urbanation, a condominium market research company.

“So we would say that we were at 22,000 [condo] sales at the end of 2007. We’re predicting 16,000 sales to round out this year. And we’re expecting sales to dip beyond that in 2009.”

Urbanation released a report yesterday about the Toronto condo market’s second quarter of 2008.

Following record condo sales in 2007, she said, the market is now back to 2005 and 2006 levels.

Anecdotal evidence, evidence on the ground from my own experiences and the experiences of my colleagues who also specialize in new condo developments, suggests that the market is currently still hot. People are still lining up for condos (overnight in many cases), and prices are still rising. However, there is a sentiment that slow times are ahead and smart buyers are proceeding with caution, not just jumping into any development that comes along. If you are looking to flip a condo and make a quick profit overnight, it is probably not the best time to buy.

If you ever have any questions about new condos or Toronto Real Estate, please give me a call or send me an email.

International Investors & Developers Have their Eyes on Canada

Published at August 14, 2008 in Investment and Opinion. 0 Comments

I came across an interesting post over at New Condos Online about how American developers should start aggressively pursuing Canadian buyers for their product due to the relatively strong Canadian economy and the (until very recently) high Canadian dollar.

This is very timely advice for American developers to consider. Most US Real Estate Markets are still following a downward slide. Prices are still falling, inventory is still massive with little signs of it changing in the near term. Canadian investors are beginning to wonder it things have peaked here in Canada and are starting to look elsewhere for better value and better long-term prospects for price appreciation.

While foreign developers are starting to consider Canadian buyers, foreign investors are still feeling quite bullish on the long-term prospects of condos in markets like Toronto. More and more international investors are looking at purchasing condos in Toronto as investment vehicles, or as temporary residences. Look at recent developments like Ice Condos or Aura. Anecdotal evidence suggests a substantial proportion of buyers in these landmark projects are from outside of Canada. Canada is considered a safe, secure, low-risk place to invest to many outside of our borders.

My own client list is increasingly becoming something of a United Nations. Just in the last year alone I have had new clients originating from the U.K., Dubai, Taiwan, Korea, India, China, and Bangladesh to name a few.

If you are interested in knowing more about investing in Canada and Toronto in particular, please contact me.