Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.

What a beautiful day in Toronto. I love the heat.
I took the above photo this morning from the 7th floor of Junction House. It is a view south toward High Park. More specifically though, it is the view from the second and upper floor of what will ultimately become suite 607 (a suite that happens to be still available for sale).
Now that the building is almost topped out, I'm planning to run through a bunch of the suites with my camera and photograph all of the different views. I don't think I've seen something like this done before and I think it could be a pretty cool little photography project.
https://youtu.be/FA80wzkPBNM
Last week was the official broker launch for One Delisle. In normal times, we would have packed the house and done a fun in-person event involving food, and probably some negronis. Instead, Lucas, Riz, and I did a livestream from the sales gallery at Yonge & St. Clair.
That video is now available online (embedded above and here). You'll have to get past our hair (Lucas and I are both in desperate need of a cut), but otherwise it's pretty cool. Shoutout to Veronica for pulling everything together and making it awesome.
If you'd like to schedule an appointment at the sales gallery, send a note to sales@onedelisle.com. Please also feel free to contact me directly (or copy me on the email to the sales team). If you're interested, I would encourage you to act quickly as demand has been incredibly strong.
My friend Christopher Bibby -- who is a real estate agent here in Toronto -- is in the Globe and Mail today talking about how Toronto-area buyers have returned to downtown. The article is by Carolyn Ireland and in it Bibby cites two of his recent deals: A large 2 bedroom suite at 168 King Street East that just sold for $1.2 million and an even larger penthouse at 388 Richmond Street West that just sold for $2.4 million.
(Sidebar: 388 Richmond Street West is one of my all-time favorite buildings in the city and was developed by Howard Cohen nearly two decades ago. For more on Howard, check out this post I wrote back in 2016.)
These are two examples of buyers who want to live in the city. Of course, there are countless others who are making moves right now. As Bibby points out in the article, the mood has certainly shifted from what we were seeing last year in the condo space. Condo buyers today are even starting to comb through expired listings in the hopes of finding off-market deals.
I view this kind of real estate activity as a leading indicator for what's to come in the the city. Rental activity is naturally going to lag until people starting returning to offices en masse and downtown life fully resumes. It's more of a short-term "buying" decision. But as a condo purchaser, it's easy (and probably better) to look through the short term.
I think that's what people are doing right now and they're saying to themselves, "yeah, I want to be in the city." I know that's how I feel.

What a beautiful day in Toronto. I love the heat.
I took the above photo this morning from the 7th floor of Junction House. It is a view south toward High Park. More specifically though, it is the view from the second and upper floor of what will ultimately become suite 607 (a suite that happens to be still available for sale).
Now that the building is almost topped out, I'm planning to run through a bunch of the suites with my camera and photograph all of the different views. I don't think I've seen something like this done before and I think it could be a pretty cool little photography project.
https://youtu.be/FA80wzkPBNM
Last week was the official broker launch for One Delisle. In normal times, we would have packed the house and done a fun in-person event involving food, and probably some negronis. Instead, Lucas, Riz, and I did a livestream from the sales gallery at Yonge & St. Clair.
That video is now available online (embedded above and here). You'll have to get past our hair (Lucas and I are both in desperate need of a cut), but otherwise it's pretty cool. Shoutout to Veronica for pulling everything together and making it awesome.
If you'd like to schedule an appointment at the sales gallery, send a note to sales@onedelisle.com. Please also feel free to contact me directly (or copy me on the email to the sales team). If you're interested, I would encourage you to act quickly as demand has been incredibly strong.
My friend Christopher Bibby -- who is a real estate agent here in Toronto -- is in the Globe and Mail today talking about how Toronto-area buyers have returned to downtown. The article is by Carolyn Ireland and in it Bibby cites two of his recent deals: A large 2 bedroom suite at 168 King Street East that just sold for $1.2 million and an even larger penthouse at 388 Richmond Street West that just sold for $2.4 million.
(Sidebar: 388 Richmond Street West is one of my all-time favorite buildings in the city and was developed by Howard Cohen nearly two decades ago. For more on Howard, check out this post I wrote back in 2016.)
These are two examples of buyers who want to live in the city. Of course, there are countless others who are making moves right now. As Bibby points out in the article, the mood has certainly shifted from what we were seeing last year in the condo space. Condo buyers today are even starting to comb through expired listings in the hopes of finding off-market deals.
I view this kind of real estate activity as a leading indicator for what's to come in the the city. Rental activity is naturally going to lag until people starting returning to offices en masse and downtown life fully resumes. It's more of a short-term "buying" decision. But as a condo purchaser, it's easy (and probably better) to look through the short term.
I think that's what people are doing right now and they're saying to themselves, "yeah, I want to be in the city." I know that's how I feel.
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