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Toronto the Good
Toronto holds steady as Canada’s most diverse market — in more ways than one
| Text : Elizabeth Kerr | Photo : www.thinkstockphotos.com |
“Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” One of Mark Twain’s most famous quips could easily have been applied to Toronto twenty years ago. The general mood in the city was that the downtown core was dying a slow death, and it was giving up its status as one of the few places North America where people actually lived in the city centre. Reality couldn’t be more different.
Toronto’s modern growth began in the early 1970s, and in the decades since it has continued its development as Canada’s key business and finance centre. After the city and its surrounding boroughs merged in 1998, the GTA of almost six million was born. A diverse economy, strong cultural industries (Toronto hosts tourist magnets like the Toronto International Film Festival, Caribana and one of the biggest Pride events in the world), a largely liberal, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual population, low crime rates, the country’s best universities and hospitals and large swaths of urban greenery have made Toronto popular with both investors and those opting to immigrate. Asians may look at the subway and wonder how such a large city can function on such a draconian system, but it began construction just after the Second World War. Give it a break.
So Toronto’s downtown collapse isn’t imminent, as some would have us believe? “Ah. No,” scoffs Barbara Lawlor, broker of record and president of Baker Real Estate Incorporated. “If anything I would say it has grown tremendously. What’s happening in the entertainment district is quite amazing. We’ve just started moving in the residents of the Ritz-Carlton. That’s the first five-star hotel and residence in Toronto and that’s quite exciting. The beautiful thing about all these fabulous cultural centres are close the underground Path, the subway, King Street is full a nightclubs and theatres … it’s wonderful.”
The recent downtown renaissance began it the late-’90s and really blossomed when the Victorian-era Distillery District became a touchstone for urban hip. The core — the relatively compact area between St Clair Avenue In the north and the lake, and High Park and Pape Avenue — has seen a staggering amount of development of late: condominium developments like the Hazelton Hotel’s residences, the Ritz-Carlton and upcoming Four Seasons flagship hotel and residence, Great Gulf’s 70-storey 1 Bloor Street East, and the Pemberton Group’s two-tower U Condos on Bay Street as a start; cultural additions such as the new Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts, TIFF’s Bell Lightbox in the existing theatre district, the fantastically divisive Crystal at the ROM, and public green space like the Don Valley Brickworks. The apartment boom is being supported by increasing demand for office space in the traditional financial district. “A lot of businesses are setting up headquarters in Toronto. There has always been a lot of those but in the last couple of years many have come,” Lawlor points out.
Despite its size and available land, the city has turned into a flat market. “There’s lots downtown and we’re finding the [suburban] 905 has come on gangbusters this past year and again, it’s condominiums leading the charge,” Lawlor begins. “Toronto is actually the North American capital of condominiums. This year for example we’ll probably hit 20,000 sales and our closest competitor in the United States is probably at 5,000.”
On average prices in Toronto are not the highest in the country; that honour belongs to Vancouver. They’re rising, but not skyrocketing according to Lawlor. “So it’s very stable and has a sense of value … Canada and certainly Toronto, which I can speak to better, is seen as a very safe, in capital letters, economy.”
Property options in Toronto are broader and that keeps average per square foot rates lower than Vancouver’s. Downtown prices on both houses and apartments can be steep: the city’s prime addresses in Forest Hill, Rosedale, Bay Street, High Park and the like are all downtown. But the so-called 905, comprising Mississauga, Oakville, Richmond Hill, Markham and Whitby to name just a few, are increasingly drawing middle class residents that find the city centre too pricey. “It’s definitely more affordable. You can buy product in the high [CA$300s, approximately HK$3,000] to the mid-400s in the 905. In Toronto it’s hard to get in below the mid-500s.”
So who’s buying in Toronto? Investment is widespread but as Lawlor sees it, “What’s driving us is the multi-cultural immigration; people are coming to live here from all over the world. Mainland China is probably at the forefront right now, but I have buyers from India, Pakistan, Japan, from everywhere. They’re coming to this new city and immediately finding a real estate agent — who speaks their native language — because they believe in real estate as an investment, as a solid place to put their money. And condominiums in particular are very popular possibly because people come hard-wired for apartment living.” And the spiking Canadian dollar isn’t affecting sales? “Well, you know,” laughs Lawlor. “It hasn’t affected us yet. We’ve had an extra-ordinary year so if anything confidence is high. As long as confidence is low in American real estate this will be the place to put your money.”
And if you are putting your money there, where should you put it? As expected, it’s the little street favoured by hippies in the ’60s that became — and remains — the city’s swankiest neighbourhood. “Yorkville is still the leader,” Lawlor states of the perennial hotspot. “Everything changes and nothing changes, you know?”
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