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Tons of character with a sun drenched main floor featuring hardwood floors, high ceilings, crown moulding and a main floor family room. Two and a half storeys with three spacious bedrooms, a professionally landscaped garden and two car parking! Steps to Queen Street East and all the best that Lesieville has to offer!

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According to the 2016-2017 Innovation Cities Index, Toronto ranked eighth out of 500 cities worldwide.

As CTV News reports, 2thinknow grades each city in three categories – cultural assets, human infrastructure and networked markets – to determine its overall potential for fostering innovation.

London, New York and Tokyo took the top three spots, respectively. Montreal came in at 19 and Vancouver ranked 24th.
SOURCE: BlogTO

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Our real-estate market has seen consistent increases in the cost of housing, with the average price of a detached home in Toronto increasing by over 32 per cent this past November from the same month last year, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board.

While those who prefer urban living have embraced higher-density housing, folks looking for traditional ground-oriented housing must move farther and farther away from the city to find it.

So what if there was a way to introduce new ground-oriented housing in the heart of Toronto that could accommodate up to 100,000 people, and the solution was literally in our backyard all along? That is, if your backyard is along a laneway.

Laneway housing is an innovative concept first introduced in Toronto back in 2006. And while it ultimately went nowhere here, it did inspire Vancouver, Ottawa and other cities to introduce policies that embraced it.

The original concept a decade ago contemplated a separate dwelling being legally severed and requiring new municipal services, resulting in the digging up of laneways.

The new groundswell of interest in laneway housing (call it laneway housing 2.0) is focused on taking a different approach, where the new structures will be treated as secondary dwellings on the existing property.

That means the garage at the rear of the property could be rebuilt by the owner to include a secondary dwelling unit, potentially serviced through the existing municipal connections, limiting neighbourhood disruption and creating new appropriately sized, ground-oriented housing units that could range in size from 700 to 1,500 square feet.

This could represent one of the most innovative solutions to a wide range of the city‘s housing needs, including multi-generational households where the owner can provide accommodation for parents or children or introduce much needed rental housing stock and help generate new income from their property. And it would be creating new ground-oriented housing in areas close to transit and existing community amenities, with minimal neighbourhood disruption.

There is no silver bullet solution to solve all of our housing challenges in the GTA, but with approximately 300 kilometres of laneways in the City of Toronto, laneway housing could be a good start.

But this innovation will require that everyone works together: citizens, government and industry. And community consultations are underway. If you’re interested, you can participate by going online to: lanescape.ca/survey to learn more about the initiative and provide your input.

Remember: The best way to predict the future is to help create it.

SOURCE: THE TORONTO STAR

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Toronto, ON (January 12, 2016) – Low interest rates, coupled with population growth and solid economic fundamentals, contributed to a 214 per cent increase in average residential housing values in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) over almost two-­-decades, according to RE/MAX Hallmark Ltd., one of country’s largest real estate franchises.

The GTA housing market is now entering its 20th year of consecutive price appreciation, on the heels of a record-­-breaking 2015. The market has reported a steady increase in values since 1996, when the cost of an average home in the GTA hovered at $198,150. Average price broke through the $600,000 benchmark in 2015, settling at $622,217 – an increase of 6.21 per cent when compounded annually over the 19-­-year period.

“The overall strength and stability of Toronto’s housing market is a global anomaly,” says Ken McLachlan, Broker-­-Owner, RE/MAX Hallmark Ltd. “Very few large residential housing markets can compete with the GTA’s performance over the past two decades”

When analyzing the level of growth in the Greater Toronto Area, population played a serious role. In 2014, the Toronto CMA topped six million (6,055,724), a figure eight per cent higher than the 2011 Census population of 5,583,064 and a substantial 42 per cent uptick over the 1996 Census figure of 4,263,757.

The low interest rate environment has also influenced home buying activity in the GTA. While the average residential mortgage-­-lending rate for a five-­-year term hovered at approximately eight per cent in 1996, the same product can be had for under three per cent in today’s competitive market.
Homeownership rates have also steadily increased in the GTA, in spite of rising values. Between 1996 and 2006, the level of ownership jumped approximately 10 per cent in the GTA (58.4 per cent to 67.6 per cent). The most recent available rates for the province of Ontario sat at 71.4 per cent in 2011.

Given the turbulence the GTA market has withstood –recessions, 9/11, and SARS, just to name a few – the performance is “nothing short of remarkable”, explains McLachlan.

“Moving forward, there is no reason to expect the upward trend to end,” says McLachlan. “In light of recent volatility in the stock market and overall economic uncertainty, we anticipate an upswing in home buying activity as investors look to tangible assets like bricks and mortar to ride out the storm. The strength of the US dollar will also contribute, serving as an impetus for greater investment in the Greater Toronto Area throughout 2016.”

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Here is a list of things to look for during your final purchaser visit:

• Inspect ceilings, walls and floors for any damage that did not exist at the time you made your offer
• Turn on and off every light switch
• Test heating and air conditioning
• Test any exhaust fans
• Test all appliances
• Open and close all windows
• Test all of the outlets
• Check around all visible piping for leaks
• Run sink and tub water. Flush toilets
• Test the garage door opener
• Check for things that you thought would be included (appliances, light fixtures, etc)

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SCENARIO
So… now the property is on the market with a set date for offers. Let’s make the assumption here that the property is significantly under priced. Let’s say that today is Friday and offers are being reviewed on Monday. Let’s also assume there are public open houses on both Saturday and Sunday where a lot of potential buyers will view the property. While the majority of buyers will wait until Monday to make an offer as specified by the listing agent, there is always a possibility of a buyer submitting a “bully offer” before Monday. It will likely be substantially higher than the list price and will not likely contain any conditions. The goal here is to scoop up the property before too many people see it and to make an offer that is tempting enough that the seller will not want to risk letting it go and waiting until Monday with hopes of a better offer. Note that even with the set offers date, a seller is still able to consider a “bully offer” although they are not obligated to.

TIPS FOR A SELLER IN THIS SCENARIO
If you are going to consider a “bully offer”, make sure that your agent advises all parties who have viewed the property of this “bully offer” in order to try to generate competition with the bully offer. A good realtor will know to do this as it’s in the seller’s best interest. Unfortunately a “not so good” realtor will fail to do this and often the seller will be the victim because a buyer who was waiting until Monday may have had a better offer but didn’t even know the bully offer existed.

TIPS FOR THE BUYER IN THIS SCENARIO
First and foremost, if you view a property that you plan to make an offer on but you are waiting until offers night, make sure your agent asks the listing agent specifically to let them know if any bully offers come in. As well, if it’s a Friday and offers date is Monday, make sure you get a bank draft on the Friday as a back up in case a bully offer comes in over the weekend.

When making the “bully offer”, make sure that your offer is strong (5,000 over asking usually won’t do the trick) and if possible don’t include any conditions in the offer. A short irrevocable date is also a good strategy to allow the listing agent less time to drum up competition.

So there you go! That’s a “bully offer” in a nutshell. Remember that every scenario is different and as such, the strategy and process will change accordingly. If you have any other questions on this topic, feel free to give us a call at 416.465.7850.

Do you have a real estate question that you would like us to write about? Email it to us at info@rosswebpro.com.

Ford Thurston
Sales Representative

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