Category Archives: City of Toronto

Golden Triangle Garage Sale – June 1st, 2013 8 am to 2 pm

Posted on May 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Golden Triangle Garage Sale is here! The Garage sale is one of the biggest and best in the area, located at Pape and O’Connor on June 1st, 2013 from 8 am to 2 pm. Check out the link below:

http://www.goldentrianglegaragesale.blogspot.ca/

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The Toronto Land Transfer Tax Should be Scrapped, Not Capped

Posted on March 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

The City of Toronto’s Executive Committee has announced that it is considering a proposal to cap the Toronto land Transfer Tax, but the Toronto Real Estate Board says that the tax should be done away with completely, not just capped.

“The Toronto Land Transfer Tax should be scrapped, not capped. We are encouraged that the Executive Committee is considering action on the Land Transfer Tax, but, not only is capping not enough to correct the problems that this tax is creating for our city, it could make this bad tax even worse,” said the president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, Ann Hannah.

The Toronto Land Transfer Tax can add tens of thousands of dollars to the purchase of a home in the city, which is pushing home buyers outside of the city, according to recent polling. According to the Toronto Real Estate Board’s latest poll, 77 per cent of residents in the Greater Toronto Area who are planning to buy a home in the next two years will be more likely to purchase a home outside of Toronto specifically in an effort to avoid the Land Transfer Tax.

“The best approach is a phased elimination of this tax,” said the Toronto Real Estate Board’s Chief Government and Public Affairs Officer, Von Palmer. “The only way to truly solve the problems that this tax is creating for our city is to get rid of it; and with a predictable phase-out strategy, home buyers could make informed decisions and City Council could set a reasonable schedule, which would make market distortions unlikely.”

This site is owned & operated by: Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd Johnston & Daniel Division,477 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 2L9, 416.489.2121. The content is provided by a number of sources as referenced in the contribution list.

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Real Estate Agents To Work With New Budget Chief To Overhaul Toronto Land Transfer Tax

Posted on February 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Toronto Real Estate Board recently issued a press release congratulating the new Chair of the City of Toronto’s Budget Committee, Councillor Frank Di Giorgio.

“We applaud Councillor Di Giorgio for this commitment to the city,” said Toronto Real Estate Board president Ann Hannah. “The role of Budget Chief is critical to the success of our city. We look forward to working with Councillor Di Giorgio, in his new role, as he works to address the many important budget issues facing our city, especially the negative impacts of the Toronto Land Transfer Tax.”

According to polls conducted on behalf of the board, almost 70 per cent of Toronto residents support plans to eliminate the land transfer tax, while almost 80 per cent of residents in the GTA would purchase a home outside of Toronto to avoid the tax when they plan to buy a home in the next two years.

“For the buyer of an average detached home in Toronto, the municipal land transfer tax costs about $10,000. It is unfair to expect people like down-sizing seniors, or young growing families who need more space, to pay so much more than their fair share,” Said Hannah. She continued, “Housing sales create jobs when because when people move they spend money on things like renovations, movers, appliances and furnishings. In fact, studies have shown that every resale housing transaction results in over $40,000 of spin-off spending. Every housing sale that is lost as a result of the Toronto land transfer tax risks Toronto jobs.”

This site is owned & operated by: Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd Johnston & Daniel Division,477 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 2L9, 416.489.2121. The content is provided by a number of sources as referenced in the contribution list.

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Did You Know That Renting Out Your Parking Spot Is Illegal In Toronto?

Posted on January 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

According to this article in the Toronto Star, renting out your parking spot is actually illegal despite the amount of people who do it, and the amount of businesses popping up to help parking spot owners rent out their spaces.

But renting out your parking spot is actually illegal in Toronto, a city whose bylaws were written before the internet arose to help us take unwanted things off our hands in exchange for cold hard cash.

Many of the renters and those who rent the parking spots can’t think of who they’d be hurting when they choose to rent a parking spot temporarily – like say for five days at $50 near Bay and Grenville, as the woman quoted in the article did.

However, the woman in the article also didn’t know if the person who rented the spot to her owned the spot or leased it or even had the authority to rent it to her.

While this has created a grey legal area for Toronto’s residents and visitors to the city who want to park cheaply – and for those willing to make it happen for a small fee – it’s difficult for residents to follow the law if there are obscure laws out there that they don’t even know they’re breaking them.

What do you think? Should people be allowed to rent out their parking spots? Have you ever rented or rented out a parking spot?

This site is owned & operated by: Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd Johnston & Daniel Division,477 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 2L9, 416.489.2121. The content is provided by a number of sources as referenced in the contribution list.

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Monthly Resale Housing Figures Released By Toronto Real Estate Board

Posted on January 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

The end of the year home sales for 2012 have been released by the Toronto Real Estate Board, showing that the 3,690 home sales through the Toronto MLS Listings was a drop from the previous year’s 4,585 sales, but that the total home sales in 2011 and 2012 were actually close: In 2011, there were 89,096 home sales while in 2012 there were a total of 85,731 home sales.

“The number of transactions in 2012 was quite strong from a historic perspective,” said the president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, Ann Hannah, in a press release. “We saw strong year-over-year growth in sales in the first half of the year, but this growth was more than offset by sales declines in the second half. Stricter mortgage lending guidelines resulted in some households postponing their purchase of a home. In the City of Toronto, the dip in sales was compounded by the additional Land Transfer Tax, which buyers must pay upfront.”

The average selling price also increased by 6.5 per cent in December to $478,739 year over year, while the total average selling price for 2012 increased by seven per cent to $497,298.

“Robust annual rates of price growth were reported through most months of 2012,” said the senior manager of market analysis for the Toronto Real Estate Board, Jason Mercer. “Price growth was strongest for low-rise homes, including singles, semis and townhouses. Despite a dip in sales, market conditions remained tight for these home types with substantial competition between buyers.”

This site is owned & operated by: Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd Johnston & Daniel Division,477 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 2L9, 416.489.2121. The content is provided by a number of sources as referenced in the contribution list.

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Land Transfer Tax May Head to Mississauga

Posted on November 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

According to this article in the Toronto Star , the mayor of Mississauga may be gaining support in her previously lone efforts to introduce a land transfer tax to Mississauga, like the one Toronto has.

The land transfer tax can add thousands to the cost of buying a home and makes affordable home buying difficult for people like first-time home buyers. The Toronto Real Estate Board has long been campaigning to remove the Toronto land transfer tax.

Support for the tax in Mississauga is growing as the city deals with a $1.5 billion infrastructure deficit, but the Mississauga Real Estate Board sent Mississauga city council a letter asking them to not implement a land transfer tax in the city, citing a recent poll commissioned by the Toronto Real Estate Board that showed 74 per cent of people living in Toronto who wanted to buy a home within the next two years were looking at nearby cities like Mississauga specifically to avoid the land transfer tax.

What do you think? Is the city’s infrastructure worth implementing a land transfer tax, or could it make homebuyers look elsewhere?

This site is owned & operated by: Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd Johnston & Daniel Division,477 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 2L9, 416.489.2121. The content is provided by a number of sources as referenced in the contribution list.

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National Housing Day: The Importance of Affordable Housing

Posted on November 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

November 22nd was National Housing Day and the Toronto Real Estate Board teamed up with several different organizations such as Toronto Habitat for Humanity to hold a symposium to promote affordable housing.

“Quality of life is a key contributing factor to the Greater Toronto Area’s solid works standing and it all begins with creating quality affordable housing options that develop into healthy communities,” said Ann Hannah, the president of the Toronto Real Estate Association in a press release recognizing National Housing Day. “In addition to the key contribution home ownership makes to quality of life in our city, it also has wide reaching economic effects, with the sale of each home generating more than $40,000 in spin-off spending on things like furniture, appliances, renovations and financial and legal services.”

“Developing affordable housing solutions is a formidable challenge but government, industry, non-profit organizations and the private sector are demonstrating that through our cooperative efforts progress is being made,” she continued.

The Toronto Real Estate Board has sponsored two Habitat for Humanity homes in Toronto in the past year, while also supporting shelter charities and raising almost $400,000 for different shelter charities.

“We believe that one of the most important contributions we can make to Toronto’s future is to foster opportunities for the people of our city to create a better life through affordable home ownership,” said city councillor Ana Bailao, who is also the chair of the City of Toronto Affordable Housing Committee.

According to Habitat for Humanity Toronto CEO Neil Hetherington, “It is thanks to the support of organizations like TREB that the volunteers of Habitat for Humanity Toronto have been able to build more affordable homes than ever before. Our combined efforts put Habitat’s partner families on the path to a better life and in doing so, create a better city for us all to enjoy.”

This site is owned & operated by: Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd Johnston & Daniel Division,477 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 2L9, 416.489.2121. The content is provided by a number of sources as referenced in the contribution list.

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Reporting Grow-Op Houses In Toronto

Posted on August 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

Reporting Grow-Op Houses In Toronto

Grow-ops don’t seem to discriminate – a massive multi-million dollar operation was found on the rooftop of a Greater Toronto Area condominium just recently. Even luxury homes are at stake with grow-ops.

However, there are several signs a neighbourhood home might be a grow-op:

- A patch on the roof in the winter that is free of snow, as if it’s so warm the snow melts right off once it touches it. This can be a sign of significant heat and humidity inside, which is vented from the growing area to the roof. Also, numerous vents may be visible venting hot, wet air out of the home.

- Foggy windows due to excessive condensation building up inside of the home from the humidity.

- Props like a “beware of dog” sign and no dog, or children’s toys scattered around the yard but no kids around.

- Windows covered in tinfoil, plastic or blinds that never open.

The majority of grow-ops go unreported and people running grow-ops take strict measures to make sure their homes go undetected, like rewiring the home, tapping into other people’s hydro, making the house humid and others. These homes are hazardous for future residents to live in.

In some cases, homes are discovered by police and the public is made aware of the former grow-op, but unfortunately most of them are unreported and unsuspecting home buyers purchase these homes, putting themselves at risk of toxic black mold infestations and fires due to hasty wiring jobs.

Getting a home inspection before buying any home can also help home buyers avoid these consequences. If you notice the telltale signs in a neighbour’s home, you can anonymously report the house to Crimestoppers.

 

This site is owned & operated by: Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd Johnston & Daniel Division,477 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 2L9, 416.489.2121. The content is provided by a number of sources as referenced in the contribution list.

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Mid-August Resale Housing Market Figures from the Toronto Real Estate Board

Posted on August 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

 

The Toronto Real Estate Board’s latest market housing figures release says that 2,857 homes were sold in the Greater Toronto Area during the first 14 days of August, which is a 7.6 per cent drop compared to last year.

“A number of factors played into the dip in sales in the first half of August,” said Ann Hannah, the president of the Toronto Real Estate Board. “Sales growth in the spring was very strong, suggesting that some buyers sped up their decision to buy. Stricter mortgage lending guidelines that came into effect at the beginning o July likely prompted some households to put their buying decision on hold. Finally, relatively higher home prices and the additional upfront cost of the City’s land transfer tax go a long way to explain the more pronounced dip in sales in the 416-area code.”

The average selling price in the Greater Toronto Area over this time rose 9.2 per cent to $480,180.

“The strong annual rate of price growth so far in August was driven by the single-detached market segment, particularly in the City of Toronto,” said Jason Mercer, the Toronto Real Estate Board’s senior manager of market analysis. “While this segment of the market has been consistently tight over the past year, the strong double-digit price growth for single-detached houses in the city suggests that the mix of houses sold this year compared to last also changed, with higher end homes accounting for a greater share of sales this year,” he said.

The full press release is available here:

http://www.torontorealestateboard.com/market_news/release_market_updates/news2012/nr_mid_month_0812.htm
This site is owned & operated by: Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd Johnston & Daniel Division,477 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 2L9, 416.489.2121. The content is provided by a number of sources as referenced in the contribution list.

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