urbandreamer
recession proof
there's room for 30 million if we keep everysingle pre-1955 building.
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Record breaking condo sales in Q2 2007
- Thread starter Mike in TO
- Start date
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
There goes your plan for St. Clair...
Jarrek
Active Member
If everyone wants to live like a sardine in a can, then yes, the sky is the limit.
BobBob
Senior Member
I don't think talking about 30 million is realistic or relevant, and only sidetracks the discussion.
The important thing is that the City of Toronto could easily take at least another couple of million people without altering household sizes or anything like that, simply by developing its avenues and brownfields, and redeveloping derelict areas. Throw in the 905 and we could keep growing at this rate for decades without needing to encroach on more farmland.
The important thing is that the City of Toronto could easily take at least another couple of million people without altering household sizes or anything like that, simply by developing its avenues and brownfields, and redeveloping derelict areas. Throw in the 905 and we could keep growing at this rate for decades without needing to encroach on more farmland.
junctionist
Senior Member
Once you branch out into the sidestreets, it doesn't seem like a bad place to live. I would like to acknowledge positive improvements to the area such as the Bairrada restaurant and the adjacent building for seniors and the disabled, new businesses that have entrances by the sidewalk, as well as the Tribute Homes subdivision, because the lots are actually compact and urban with a fair bit of architectural variation. It's not like the tiny backyards face the street anyways. Once you pass Old Weston Road, I think St. Clair is on the level. But from Runnymede you have an avenue where a bus never comes faster than once every half hour, where the road looks like it hasn't been resurfaced since the 1950s. Another failure was that Home Depot. At the time when it was built, everyone in the area was just happy that the Ontario Stockyards were gone. So they built a giant store with no entrance facing St. Clair, requiring pedestrians or cyclists to take the road that feeds the parking lot. All in all, an area that needs a lot of attention.
casaguy
Senior Member
Stand by for a mega moving day
Record 47,000 new condos about to come on stream in Toronto
Terrence Belford
The Globe and Mail
Published on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 11:24AM EST
Last updated on Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 7:33AM EST
The next two years promise to reshape the look and feel of the Greater Toronto Area in ways probably not felt since the building boom of the 1970s. Then, we went out. This time, we are going up.
At the same time, the Toronto area is about to have its own exodus – inward not out.
Quiet suburban neighbourhoods are about to vibrate with new life. Old, once-neglected industrial areas in the city core are about to be transformed into mini-villages.
Record condo sales in 2007 and the early months of 2008 are about to be translated into move-in dates.
In the GTA's best years, about 15,000 condo units become available for occupancy, says George Carras, president of RealNet Canada Inc.
Over the coming two years, Mr. Carras predicts we will see about 47,000 new condo suites become available to their owners – 27,000 of them next year.
Ben Myers, executive vice-president of Urbanation Inc., is more conservative in his estimates. He says the Metro Census Area will see about 17,000 new condos finally occupied in 2010, and 19,000 reach the same stage in 2011.
(A word of explanation here. RealNet tracks the GTA, which is larger than the CMA because it includes cities like Burlington and Oshawa. Mr. Carras says his 2010 figures represent 114 projects, which builders say will be ready for occupancy during the course of that year. Mr. Myers says the CMA area has 84 projects expected to be in the same condition.) Numbers aside, what they do agree on is that the next two years will not only see neighbourhoods such as downtown west, the Sheppard corridor, North York west and Mississauga city centre become heavily populated, but also experience an economic and business boom.
“There is going to be an enormous surge of new life in many areas of the GTA,” says Barry Lyon, president of N. Barry Lyon Consulting Ltd. “Residential drives retail, so that means the influx of all these people will spark a whole wave of new retail and service businesses in those areas.
“It will also be a boom time for moving companies, furniture stores, hardware stores – even dog-walking services. People moving into new homes need all these things, and when they are concentrated into specific neighbourhoods you can be certain business in those neighbourhoods will boom.”
The importance of this great migration cannot be underestimated, all three men say.
Take the availability of rental suites downtown and the price you have to pay for one. Mr. Lyon suggests that up to 40 per cent of the new condo suites will be investor-owned and immediately put on the rental market.
That means almost 19,000 new suites will become available by the end of 2011. Right now, the vacancy rate for downtown condos is at or less than 1 per cent, Mr. Myers says. The new suites will not only ease the shortage, but also see landlords competing for tenants.
“That will likely mean rents may even ease somewhat in the shorter term,” Mr. Myers says.
Major retail chains are already taking note of the demographic shifts and planning new outlets to meet the needs of new residential populations, Mr. Carras says.
“Companies like Pizza Pizza track housing trends carefully and base their trading areas for each new location on what they see happening,” he says. “You can bet they are already planning new outlets in places like downtown west and along Sheppard in North York.”
Mr. Lyon says supermarket chains are masters of demographics-based planning. He points to the new Sobeys on Bremner Boulevard near the Rogers Centre as an example of new-format supermarkets to serve new high-rise neighbourhoods.
“What is also going to change is the ethnic makeup of many neighbourhoods,” Mr. Lyon says. “Many of these condos were bought by new Canadians, so you are going to see much more diverse, multicultural neighbourhoods created.”
But what all three also say is that the shape-shifting of the GTA is going to create significant new challenges.
One is an ever bigger shift to singles and couples and away from families in new high-density neighbourhoods. Condo suites large enough to accommodate growing families are far too expensive for the average family budget – even if builders were building them, Mr. Lyon says.
Another will be public transit.
“The TTC's planning still lags far behind need,” Mr. Lyon says. “The [Toronto] Transit Commission is planning stops where there is no population, and its response to rising costs of operation is to raise fares. Every time it does that it loses riders.”
Special to The Globe and Mail
Record 47,000 new condos about to come on stream in Toronto
Terrence Belford
The Globe and Mail
Published on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 11:24AM EST
Last updated on Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 7:33AM EST
The next two years promise to reshape the look and feel of the Greater Toronto Area in ways probably not felt since the building boom of the 1970s. Then, we went out. This time, we are going up.
At the same time, the Toronto area is about to have its own exodus – inward not out.
Quiet suburban neighbourhoods are about to vibrate with new life. Old, once-neglected industrial areas in the city core are about to be transformed into mini-villages.
Record condo sales in 2007 and the early months of 2008 are about to be translated into move-in dates.
In the GTA's best years, about 15,000 condo units become available for occupancy, says George Carras, president of RealNet Canada Inc.
Over the coming two years, Mr. Carras predicts we will see about 47,000 new condo suites become available to their owners – 27,000 of them next year.
Ben Myers, executive vice-president of Urbanation Inc., is more conservative in his estimates. He says the Metro Census Area will see about 17,000 new condos finally occupied in 2010, and 19,000 reach the same stage in 2011.
(A word of explanation here. RealNet tracks the GTA, which is larger than the CMA because it includes cities like Burlington and Oshawa. Mr. Carras says his 2010 figures represent 114 projects, which builders say will be ready for occupancy during the course of that year. Mr. Myers says the CMA area has 84 projects expected to be in the same condition.) Numbers aside, what they do agree on is that the next two years will not only see neighbourhoods such as downtown west, the Sheppard corridor, North York west and Mississauga city centre become heavily populated, but also experience an economic and business boom.
“There is going to be an enormous surge of new life in many areas of the GTA,” says Barry Lyon, president of N. Barry Lyon Consulting Ltd. “Residential drives retail, so that means the influx of all these people will spark a whole wave of new retail and service businesses in those areas.
“It will also be a boom time for moving companies, furniture stores, hardware stores – even dog-walking services. People moving into new homes need all these things, and when they are concentrated into specific neighbourhoods you can be certain business in those neighbourhoods will boom.”
The importance of this great migration cannot be underestimated, all three men say.
Take the availability of rental suites downtown and the price you have to pay for one. Mr. Lyon suggests that up to 40 per cent of the new condo suites will be investor-owned and immediately put on the rental market.
That means almost 19,000 new suites will become available by the end of 2011. Right now, the vacancy rate for downtown condos is at or less than 1 per cent, Mr. Myers says. The new suites will not only ease the shortage, but also see landlords competing for tenants.
“That will likely mean rents may even ease somewhat in the shorter term,” Mr. Myers says.
Major retail chains are already taking note of the demographic shifts and planning new outlets to meet the needs of new residential populations, Mr. Carras says.
“Companies like Pizza Pizza track housing trends carefully and base their trading areas for each new location on what they see happening,” he says. “You can bet they are already planning new outlets in places like downtown west and along Sheppard in North York.”
Mr. Lyon says supermarket chains are masters of demographics-based planning. He points to the new Sobeys on Bremner Boulevard near the Rogers Centre as an example of new-format supermarkets to serve new high-rise neighbourhoods.
“What is also going to change is the ethnic makeup of many neighbourhoods,” Mr. Lyon says. “Many of these condos were bought by new Canadians, so you are going to see much more diverse, multicultural neighbourhoods created.”
But what all three also say is that the shape-shifting of the GTA is going to create significant new challenges.
One is an ever bigger shift to singles and couples and away from families in new high-density neighbourhoods. Condo suites large enough to accommodate growing families are far too expensive for the average family budget – even if builders were building them, Mr. Lyon says.
Another will be public transit.
“The TTC's planning still lags far behind need,” Mr. Lyon says. “The [Toronto] Transit Commission is planning stops where there is no population, and its response to rising costs of operation is to raise fares. Every time it does that it loses riders.”
Special to The Globe and Mail
AnnetteMeetsJane
Active Member
We are seeing development all over the city...
The very much not-downtown area at the extreme western end of St. Claire described by Junctionist and UrbanDreamer is suddenly beginning to shape up. There is a new car dealership literally over the Jane-St Claire intersection. The area immediately to the east is being built on - small unit commercial of some sort...? It feels like that area is just beginning to turn the corner.
AmJ
The very much not-downtown area at the extreme western end of St. Claire described by Junctionist and UrbanDreamer is suddenly beginning to shape up. There is a new car dealership literally over the Jane-St Claire intersection. The area immediately to the east is being built on - small unit commercial of some sort...? It feels like that area is just beginning to turn the corner.
AmJ