Rachelle Younglai's recent piece in the Globe and Mail does a great job summarizing Canada's COVID-19 housing boom. The title of the article is, "How Canada's real estate market defied expectations in the COVID-19 pandemic."
Non-mortgage debt is down. Mortgage debt is up. Money is cheap. And people are clamoring for drivable vacation homes. Average home prices in places like Prince Edward County and the Kawartha Lakes (both outside of Toronto) are up ~30% from Jan 2020 to Jan 2021.
But after I sent this article around this morning, I was reminded that this is a good summary of what has just happened. It, for the most part, does not speak to what might happen going forward.
None of us can travel anywhere. We're stuck at home. And immigration volumes last year were down some 48% in Toronto, 43% in Vancouver, 40% in Montreal, and 46% in Calgary. The Toronto region went from about 120,000 new permanent residents in 2019 to about half that last year.
The behaviors and market outcomes that we have seen over the last 12 months, therefore, make intuitive sense. But how about the next 12 months or the next 5 years? I would prefer to use this latter time period for decision making right now.
Chart: The Globe and Mail
Lately I’ve been feeling that we’ve been having some pretty serious conversations here on Architect This City. Everything from condominium reserve funds to housing/tax policy. So today I thought we could change it up and talk about something a bit more fun: farmhouses.
Last weekend when I was in Prince Edward County, one of the places that I visited was the Drake Devonshire Inn. It’s been on my list for awhile, so I’m glad I finally got to experience it. It’s an outpost of the Toronto-based Drake Hotel (no relationship to Hotline Bling Drake) and they refer to it as their “contemporary farmhouse.”
It was stunning.
As soon as I walked on the grounds, I couldn’t stop looking around, taking pictures, and examining all the art that they have sprinkled around the inn. Those are the sorts of things I do when I get excited by a building or place. I’m like a kid in a candy store.
I was so impressed that after I left I had to message my friend – who worked on the project and who I went to architecture school with – to tell her that she did an amazing job. Want to see for yourself? Click here for photos of the farmhouse. And click here for information on the design firm behind the farmhouse (+tongtong).
But beyond just a great space, the Drake Devonshire is also symbolic of something greater than seems to be taking place. Almost everybody I met in PEC seemed to be a Toronto transplant. They were done with life in the city and decided take off for the country. But along with them is coming pieces of the city. (The Hayloft Dancehall is another example.)
I used to think that this kind of city-to-country colonization was bound to happen in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which is only about an hour west of the city. But it turns out I was wrong. It seems to be happening to the east of the city in Prince Edward County.
For over 10 years I have been a big supporter and proponent of Ontario wines. It’s almost the only kind of wine I buy. When I go to a restaurant I will always look to see what wines they have from Ontario, because I would much rather support a local winemaker.
This past weekend I was in Prince Edward County visiting Norman Hardie. They are one of my favorite wineries in Ontario and if you haven’t yet tried their wines, I would encourage you to give them a go. They also have a great wood pizza oven if you decide to visit them in person.
One of the things I appreciate about Norman Hardie’s wines – besides obviously the wines themselves, though the two aren’t mutually exclusive – is his philosophy behind the wines. Here’s a snippet from the website:
I’ve chosen Southern Ontario to grow and vinify cool climate varietals, because I truly feel that these soils are unlike any other in the New World. As the worldwide market grows, the majority of wines available to us have been carefully manufactured to fit a flavour profile as opposed to smell and taste like the region they came from. I strongly believe in the importance of crafting wines that tastes of the place they came from. The French know this notion as “terroir”. Matt Kramer (Wine Spectator) calls it “Somewhereness”.
I like this approach because I feel exactly the same way about architecture and cities. Who wants a city that looks and feels like every other city in the world? That’s boring, bland, and banal (couldn’t resist the alliteration).
In my opinion, the best buildings respond to their local context and the best cities create a unique sense of place. They create somewhereness.