There are some people who love statistics, and so, in case you are one of them, here are a few real estate tidbits I jotted down from a recent meeting with “Condo Guru” Barry Lyon:
· Single dwelling family land is getting scarce. The new “single” dwelling is a townhouse, which has proven to be a great starter home for the first 3 to 5 years of a young family. · The average difference in price between new sales (pre-construction) and resales is $90,000. · The average $/sq ft for new sales is $440/sq ft. · In 2013, by making units smaller, the prices remained flat. In 2011 the average sq ft of a condo was 850 sq ft; today it is 800 sq ft. · Mortgage companies do not like to finance units with less than 500 sq ft. · Some units today are as small as 289 sq ft (eg. Smart House Condos). · Five years ago, there were 100 individual developers. In 2013, there were 213, which is really too many, leaving many unsold pre-construction units. · There were 172,000 high-rise units completed in the GTA between 2000 and 2013. · In 2014, there will be incentives from developers to sell the units. Since I am familiar with pre-construction sales, I would be pleased to help you negotiate with the developer. · As single family housing becomes too expensive, people are pushed into renting and condos. · Toronto has 303 High-rise Development Applications for 135,000 proposed units. For all of GTA, there are 502 applications for 240,900 units. · Markham has most applications in the 905 GTA. · Architects are very busy! · Condos in Toronto are not turning over as much, as the baby boomers tend to stay put. · Immigrants want to own property and buy a condo ASAP with the idea to buy a house later. · Square footage of office space per person is shrinking. A standard size used to be 250 sq ft per employee. Today it is becoming 150 sq ft per person. · People like downtown lifestyle. · 60 to 70 percent of condos are rentals. · The rental vacancy rent in Toronto is still under 2 percent. |