Thursday, February 17, 2011

How condo developers in Tocondo fleece the sheep

The article contains this tidbit:

Some 18,000 new condominium units were completed in the Greater Toronto Area last year, according to the market research firm Urbanation. Another 17,000 will pop up this year, and 20,000 will rise next year—meaning Toronto will have more condo units for sale than any other city on the continent. Despite sluggish employment in the province and the threat of rising interest rates, condo sales are hitting a near-record pace, up 20 per cent in 2010 from 2009.

Helps explain why Tocondo feels so trashed.

Developers have found in Tocondo the most gulable market in North America.

On Jan. 10, just before noon, more than 100 real estate brokers descended on the corner of The Esplanade and Scott Street. They queued on a snow-and-ice crusted red carpet, shrugging their shoulders against the stiff breeze, chatting in Cantonese, Mandarin, Farsi, Arabic, Korean and even, occasionally, English.

These brokers were so-called VIPs, and each held a specially numbered card sent out by the developer Cityzen (and its partners Fernbrook Homes and Castlepoint Realty Partners) to enter the Living Room Condo Store, a new, high-tech sales centre for Backstage condominiums. Backstage is a modern, D-shaped tower that will one day rise 36 storeys into the skyline atop an awkward 20,000 square-foot parcel of land, right where Yonge Street meets the GO train bridge.


Bahhhhh.

Nice amusing graphic on condo naming conventions: Class Envy, Climate Envy, City Envy and Alphanumeric Hijinx.

Read more here.

1 comment:

Jack Witson said...
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