Condos in the News

Condominiums are quickly becoming a large part of life in Toronto – 20,000 new units are underway to become available in 2010, and the Toronto condo market seems to have notoriously avoided the economic repercussions of the recession.

“We have become the largest condominium market in North America in terms of new production – bigger than New York,” condominium consultant Barry Lyon told CBC last week. City banks provide insurance that the condominiums being built will be bought by somebody, as 70 per cent of the units must be sold before banks will lend them any financing for breaking ground, proving that there is definitely a demand and that people are buying them.

One of the largest driving factors in the condo boom is the amount of younger people buying them. Condos are an affordable option for buyers looking into first-time home ownership, which provides a much different view on condo life now than 20 odd years ago when the majority of condo owners were retirees. Nowadays, it’s the reverse – 80 per cent of condo owners in Toronto are young, first-time buyers.

Condos have often been considered somewhat beneficial to the environment, increasing development upwards, rather than encouraging urban sprawl outwards into surrounding areas.  One way the city of Toronto is trying to take advantage of this concept is by implementing a policy last week that forces condo developers with more than 20 units who are building on transit lines to buy every unit in their buildings a TTC Metropass for a year. Otherwise, they won’t get condominium approval from the city.

Described by city staff as a “transportation demand management measure”, councillor Howard Moscoe told the National Post last week, “I think we’re going to get awards for this all over North America,” and that the policy “will cause people on transit lines to abandon their cars.” The project’s main objectives are to reduce downtown Torontonians’ dependency on cars and encourage transit use. This will cost the developers an estimated $1400 per unit to be absorbed into their own expenses as this cannot be passed along to the buyers.