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Is Toronto Condo Living Right For You?

Condos are generally more affordable than detached homes in the same area, allowing condo owners to remain near or in downtown Toronto. Many condo buyers are also first-time home buyers who’ve found an affordable way to live where they want to while jumping into homeownership at the same time.

Being able to afford something doesn’t always mean that it’s perfect for you, though. But condo sales are rising throughout the Greater Toronto – and sometimes, even surpassing sales of regular homes – meaning that many Toronto home buyers are finding that condos suit their needs perfectly.

All homeownership comes with pros and cons, but when you weigh the pros and cons of condo living, is it right for you? When it comes to condo living, many of the pros are considered cons for some people, while the opposite is also true. Here is a list of what condo living offers, and how each can be considered good or bad.

• Amenities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, bowling alleys and fitness rooms are available for your use, preventing you from having to pay membership fees elsewhere. In addition, you’re way more likely to actually visit the gym once in a while if you don’t have to go outside.
• Many people are drawn to the downtown area – they love that there’s always something going on and that they can join in whenever they like. Others feel the downtown core is too noisy and they’d prefer a more country-esque living situation. As you travel farther from Toronto you will find more affordable housing, but could end up with a commute a few hours long.
• Little maintenance is required in a condo, because your monthly maintenance fees pay for things like snow removal and lawn mowing. These monthly maintenance fees are seen by many as one of the biggest downsides to condominium living – but keep in mind the monthly maintenance fee is a set, monthly fee, whereas the upkeep and maintenance of a home can cost more annually, and also include surprise emergency repairs that can eat up your budget.
• Close quarters are also another fact of life when it comes to living in a condo. Some people like meeting and interacting with all sorts of people as well as being friendly with their neighbours. Others, not so much.
• Rules govern condo living. Each building has its own set of rules and is required to enforce them, and some may restrict pets, decorations and noise. Some people don’t like living by a set of rules, others love the structure and enjoy knowing that everyone else in the building has to abide by the same rules.

If you are still not sure whether a Toronto condo is for you or not, contact your Toronto Real Estate Team. We can help.

 

What Is “Exclusive Use” In A Toronto Condo?

If you’re considering buying your first Toronto condo, you might feel bombarded by a number of different terms that relate to condo ownership – which you’ve never heard before.

“Exclusive use” might be one of those terms. Here are a series of explanations that might help you better understand exclusive use in a Toronto condo.

Your condominium is “owned” by you. You do not own other areas of the building.

Common elements are everything not owned by you, including the heating and air conditioning systems, the swimming pool, walkways, gardens, garages and lobbies – you share these with other owners in your condo building, and your monthly maintenance fees help pay for their up keep.

Exclusive use refers to exclusive use common elements, which are elements only used by you specifically, but not actually owned by you in the sense that your condominium unit is owned by you. These elements include your balcony or terrace, storage locker and your parking space (although in some buildings you may actually own you parking space, and can sell it later.)

All of the specific definitions that apply to a condominium building (as in, what in that building is exclusive use or a common element) are found in the condominium declaration – this document is extremely important, but often written in complicated legalese. Your Toronto real estate agent can help you look it over!

Your Toronto Condo Declaration: What It Means

Your Toronto condo declaration contains all the information about your condominium suite and the building itself, including what is “exclusive use” (what is available for use exclusively to you, but not actually owned by you, such as your locker, balcony and sometimes parking spot), the boundaries of your condominium suite and rules such as whether or not pets are allowed, noise and what can be done in your suite with regards to physical changes or alterations.

A condo declaration is something you really need to read, although unfortunately they are written by lawyers and can be difficult to understand – it might be useful to have your Toronto real estate agent or a real estate lawyer help you look it over so you know more about a condominium and the condo building before you buy it.

Condo buildings have a legal obligation to enforce the rules set out in the condominium declaration.  In fact, they have a legal obligation to enforce the rules all the time for everyone, and not just enforce them against certain people. This is why some people are able to sneak pets into a “no pets” condo – if the rules aren’t enforced in general, it’s not likely the condo will get a ruling in their favour if they take you to court over it.

Toronto real estate lawyer Bob Aaron’s latest Toronto Star column deals with the enforcement of condominium declaration rules in court, and what can happen when the condominium building doesn’t bother to enforce them all of the time. It’s definitely worth a read if you live in a condo or are considering downtown Toronto condo living!

Toronto Condos Keep Breaking Records Through 2011 To 2012

According to this article in the Toronto Star, the Toronto condo market has continued to break records through 2011 and even already into 2012.

2011 saw a number of records for Toronto condo construction and sales:

-The announcement of the tallest residential tower in Toronto at 75 storeys.
-The smallest condo suites in Toronto with two 270-square-foot condos in motion for the King Street West DNA condos project by Canderel.
-High-rise condo sales in the 905 area code surpassing sales in the 416 area code for the first time ever in August.
-Sales in the range of 27,000 far outshot initial predictions, while about 20,000 are predicted for by Ben Myers of condo research company Urbanation.

And already, Toronto holds the world record for the most high rises under construction in 2012 with 132.

Across Canada, about 11 per cent of homeowners live in condominiums, while more than twice that number live in condos in the city of Toronto.

Downtown Toronto Condo Price Appreciation Matches The Overall Market

In December, downtown condo average sale prices were up 5.2% in C01, west of Yonge and south of Bloor and up by 5.6% in C08 east of Yonge and south of Bloor compared to one year ago.

When you compare year-over-year average numbers, both condo areas tracked the overall market average quite well… The C01 annual appreciation number was 7.1% – slightly below the TREB average and the C08 appreciation came in one percent over the average at 8.9%.

These numbers seem to put to rest the mistaken belief that the downtown Toronto condo market is going to disintegrate and prices are going to freefall – the evidence just does NOT point to that at all !!  These sales numbers show us that whenever new inventory does come on the market, it’s being absorbed within a 33-37 day marketing period on average.

Lower inventories in both TREB districts compared to November caused the C01 ratio of sales-to-listings to be 26.7%, squarely in neutral market territory and the C08 ratio being a moderate seller’s market 37.7%.

We expect there will be more new condo buildings completed and occupied in the first two quarters of 2012 so watch for inventory to increase slightly both east and west of Yonge.

Watch the video below for the full report.