Heads-up: This is going to be a Toronto-specific post.
This week there was a lot of chatter about escalating house prices in this city (though that seems to be most weeks these days).
Paul Johnston listed a detached house in Dufferin Grove for $1,285,000 and then turned around and sold it for just over $2.1mm, with 17 potential buyers at the table. I also saw my friend post a note this morning that the average price of a detached house in Toronto has now surpassed $1.5mm.
What I am curious about – and this is a question for all of you who live here and/or follow the market – is what response does escalating house prices trigger for you? I asked this on Twitter (via a poll), but I would be curious to get your thoughts here in the comments.
Do you feel rushed out of fear that you may get priced out of the market? Are you now turning your attention to out of the city? Or are you looking at other housing types, such as condos? I am sure the responses will be split.
My response: condos.
This morning while I was having a bowl of cereal and fruit, I came across this floor plan from 75 Portland Street, Toronto by CORE Architects:
It’s a 2-storey unit with a den and double height living room on the main floor and 1 bedroom and 1 media lounge (that could act like a 2nd bedroom, but doesn’t have a window so it can’t be called that) on the second floor.
This floor plan is a perfect example of what I was getting at with my post: The long and narrow of property affordability.
Rough rough, the overall dimensions look to be about 4.3m wide x 12m deep. It’s a fairly deep plan, which means you have to be careful how much “frontage” you give it. If the apartment gets too wide, then it could quickly become too big and potentially unaffordable.
With the above dimensions, and if you didn’t go 2 storeys, you’d be forced to do an inset/recessed bedroom. The living room would get all of the windows. And if you made the apartment wider to accommodate that main floor bedroom, then you’d likely end up doing an inset/recessed 2nd bedroom, anyways, because of how big the unit had become. So there are trade-offs to consider.
I’ve seen this layout first hand and I like it a lot. I think it’s an elegant solution to the challenge of deep floor plates.
But what do you think? It may not suit everyone’s needs, so I would be really curious to hear your thoughts in the comment section below or on Twitter.
Introducing The Lofts at SoDoSoPa and The Residences at The Lofts at SoDoSoPa (South of Downtown South Park).
The following South Park video is a great parody of every real estate marketing video you’ve ever seen. Real estate marketing can be so terrible.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAPmjcBnxIs?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
This video is probably old news, but I never watch TV and so it’s the first time I’m seeing it.
If you can’t see the embedded video, click here.