A TWO-BEDROOM TWO-AND-A-HALF-BATH APARTMENT IN DOWNTOWN TORONTO
A Duplex in Toronto’s Financial District
Steve Payne for The New York Times
Queen Street West, a shopping strip with boutiques, is a block away.
1,175,000 CANADIAN DOLLARS (ABOUT $1,110,000)
This duplex apartment is on the top of a 14-story building just west of Toronto’s Financial District. One of 12 units in the building, it has floor-to-ceiling windows. The patio and several rooms have expansive views of the Toronto skyline, including the well-known CN Tower.
The entrance to the apartment is on the lower level, where there is a windowless den, the bedrooms and a washer/dryer closet. The master bedroom has a gas fireplace surrounded by built-in shelves, a walk-in closet and an en-suite marble-and-travertine bathroom. Each bedroom has a Juliet balcony with a sliding glass door.
Upstairs is an open kitchen with an island and appliances from the Frigidaire Gallery Collection. (There is also a half bathroom off the kitchen.) The other half of the floor is dedicated to an open living area, which has a gas fireplace and built-in shelving, along with a 42-inch Panasonic flat-screen plasma television that comes with the property.
Running the length of the apartment are windows and sliding doors leading to a 30-by-10-foot patio. It has a gas hook-up for grilling, as well as rocky landscaping designed to evoke the Canadian shield, the swath of rock that stretches northward from the Toronto area to Hudson Bay and beyond.
The building, called District Lofts, offers residents use of a fitness center and a meeting room. Queen Street West, a shopping strip with boutiques, is a block away; King Street West, which has evolved into a kind of restaurant row, is a few blocks south. The building is on the border of two neighborhoods, the fashion and entertainment districts. Streetcars run along Spadina Avenue; the subway stop at Osgoode Hall is less than half a mile away.
MARKET OVERVIEW
In stark contrast to the sagging residential markets of most major international cities, the Toronto skyline is a gallery of giant cranes in action. Buildings are going up left and right, and prices are rising accordingly.
“It’s the first time in my career where I’m starting to not recognize addresses because of the pace of development,” said Steven Fudge, the sales agent for the property featured here, who has worked in Toronto real estate for 20 years. “It’s absolutely phenomenal.”
In 2008, in the middle of the economic downturn, many Canadians chose not to put their properties on the market, which prevented housing prices from dropping significantly. In addition, Canadian banks lowered interest rates. Soon afterward, the market began its revival.
“Now that everyone thinks we’re out of the woods, coupled with historically low interest rates, there is a furor to get into the market,” said Paul Johnston, a downtown Toronto-based agent with Right at Home Realty.
At present, Mr. Johnston said, apartments in Toronto resell for around 428,000 Canadian dollars (about $400,000), an increase of 17 percent over the same period last year. That’s around 500 to 700 Canadian dollars ($475 to $660) a square foot, Mr. Fudge said. They can reach as much as 1,500 Canadian dollars ($1,400) a square foot at new luxury properties from developers like Donald Trump, whose penthouses can run into eight figures.
Central Toronto has single-family homes in addition to its budding collection of condo towers. Three-bedroom houses with parking in established downtown neighborhoods start around 600,000 Canadian dollars ($560,000) and head into the millions.
Over all, the national average home price in Canada is expected to increase another 5.4 percent in 2010, the Canadian Real Estate Association said this month. But despite the price increases, buyers are lining up, agents say.
“I don’t think there’s a deal I’ve been on in the last year where I haven’t been in competition with someone else,” said Todd Sloan, an agent with Sutton Group-Associates Realty in Toronto, referring to bidding wars that he says are taking place throughout the city.
WHO BUYS IN TORONTO
As of late, Mr. Johnston said, many foreign buyers in Toronto are from South Asia and Hong Kong, with smaller numbers coming from Europe, Britain and Russia in search of investment properties. Developers have been conducting direct-marketing campaigns in places like Hong Kong and China, Mr. Fudge said.
BUYING BASICS
There are no restrictions on foreign buyers, said Randolph Pendrith, a Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in real estate.
But foreigners are subject to two taxes. One is the Ontario land-transfer tax, a graduated system that levies about 6,400 Canadian dollars ($6,200) a year on a property costing 495,000 Canadian dollars ($475,000). The other is the Toronto land-transfer tax, which is 5,683 Canadian dollars ($5,450) a year at the same price point.
Legal advice is recommended on all real estate transactions, said John Filice, a Toronto mortgage agent with Invis, a Canadian mortgage brokerage; the service usually costs 1,100 to 2,100 Canadian dollars ($1,000 to $2,000). Those shopping for homes should also be aware that Canadian banks typically require documentation of three to four months of a buyer’s savings history; with that in mind, buyers should acquire those documents before they come to Canada, Mr. Filice said.
USEFUL WEB SITES
Toronto tourism: seetorontonow.com
Citizenship and Immigration Canada: cic.gc.ca
Toronto’s Entertainment District: torontoed.com
Land transfer tax calculator: torontorealestateboard.com/LTT_splash/ltt_calculator.htm
LANGUAGES AND CURRENCY
English; Canadian dollar (1 Canadian dollar = $1.06)
TAXES AND FEES
Property taxes are 7,915 Canadian dollars ($7,475) a year; maintenance is 820 Canadian dollars ($774) a month.
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