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Toronto Condominiums: Festival Towers

With all of the attention the Toronto International Film Festival is getting, it’s surprising that there isn’t more light being shone on the Festival Towers, a 42-storey condominium building directly over the festival’s future permanent home.

There are about 400 condominium units and a five-storey underground parking garage at the King and John building, and suites are available now. The lobby of the tower promises to always be a red carpet event with a 24-hour concierge, valet parking and dramatic artwork.

The 10th and 11th floors of the Festival Towers contain a meditation garden, a cinema, a spa, exercise facilities and an indoor pool complete with a floor-to-ceiling waterfall.

Underneath the towers is the Bell Lightbox, a five-storey building that will be the new home of the Toronto International Film Festival as well as a space for all of Toronto to enjoy film and filmmaking all year round. It will contain a large atrium, five cinemas open to the public, a rooftop outdoor amphitheater, a lounge, learning studios and a centre for students, two restaurants and the offices of the Toronto International Film Festival staff.

Construction began on the project in 2007, but was conceptualized as early as 2003 by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, the same firm that designed Toronto’s Gardiner Museum and the National Ballet School.

Toronto Condominiums Can Offer The Best Of Both Worlds

Condominiums dominate more than half of new Toronto home sales, which is a lot different than condo living 25 years ago, when condominiums only composed five per cent. So what are some issues Toronto homebuyers have to consider when choosing between a condominium and a house, and are there really any downsides to choosing a condo instead?

Backyards

A Toronto condominium? Or a house? Which is better for you...?

Houses typically have backyards ranging in all different sizes, while condos have patios or balconies. However, most condominiums have courtyards and nearby parks that are perfect for walking the dog and communal rooftop terraces and green spaces for enjoying the sunshine close to home without having to worry about any of the cleaning or maintenance. For those with a green thumb, there’s also a number of ways you can get creative when gardening on your balcony, even growing vegetables in a container garden.

Space

Condominiums can generally be smaller than houses, as well as only consist of one floor. However, the nearby amenities can make up for this in spades. Imagine no longer having to clutter whole rooms with various pieces of exercise equipment because there’s a state-of-the-art fitness facility a few floors down, and no more worrying about where you’re going to fit everyone who comes over for Saturday night hockey thanks to the high-tech theatre room. Newer condos also appreciate how much residents value space and design for open-concept, spacious suites with lots of light.

Kids

Families are slowly warming up to the idea of a downtown Toronto condominium as a place to live and grow. An increasing number of condominiums are being built with families in mind and as a result they are closer to schools, day care facilities and recreation centers. Most condominiums also have 24-hour concierge and security services to keep your family feeling safe and secure.

Two things to look into before choosing a Toronto condominium

There is nothing comparable to being mere steps from transit, boutiques, nightlife and the hottest restaurants the city of Toronto has to offer. Shorter commutes, indoor pools and fully-stocked exercise rooms aren’t too bad either. This is what comes naturally with condo living in Toronto, but make sure you research to ensure nothing unanticipated is headed your way. Of course, your Toronto real estate agent can provide you with plenty of information and decision-making help, but learning a bit on your own time can always prove useful.

Don’t hesitate to look into the condo’s reserve fund, which is allotted for certain emergencies, renovations or major repairs. If this fund is poorly managed, it’s a sign of overall poor financial health and might mean that bills for the residents’ share of certain costs might be headed your way if you purchase a condo there. A real estate lawyer and accountant can help you look into these aspects of how a condominium is managed.

Meet your potential neighbours. Little gives someone as thorough of an understanding of how a condominium building is run than living there. Catch them in the hallway, exchange numbers or ask around in order to be able to ask three to five condo owners about their quality of life in the building, what fee increases they’ve experienced, how management is, whether there have been any drastic rule changes or implementations and about any assessments in the building.

It’s prudent to always do your research to determine if living in a condominium will meet your expectations with few unexpected surprises.

Toronto Condominiums And Car Sharing

The majority of downtown Toronto condominium owners are mere steps to everything they could ever need, but still need a car every now and then. Enter car-sharing, a service that allows Toronto condo owners to rent cars as they need them without worrying about a thing.

Some new Toronto condominiums are already planning on offering car sharing instead of parking, such as the 42-storey condominium development on University Ave which will offer no parking whatsoever aside from car-share spots and bikes. This controversial condominium didn’t have space for a parking lot in such a narrow location, and after much debate the experiment was approved. Other Toronto-area condos offer their residents special discounts on the service instead, but still maintain parking spaces for regular cars.

Car-sharing companies also offer a wide variety of models, from functional SUVs for IKEA shopping sprees to swanky BMWs for impressing dates, by the hour or for days at a time.

Car-sharing companies make it easy to not worry about the costs associated with car ownership like insurance costs, parking fees and repairs. For example, car-sharing company Zip Car has cars parked all over the city that Torontonians can quickly reserve online. Members receive a special card that allows them to walk up to the car and unlock it when it’s their turn and drive away. Gas is free, insurance and kilometers are included. Zip Car in particular estimates that each of their almost 7,000 cars in North America takes 20 personally-owned cars off the road, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and truly making car-sharing Toronto condos the greenest of all.

Toronto Condominium Market Update

While prior Toronto real estate statistics mentioned that the Toronto condominium market was expected to slow down, the demand for Toronto condos is still at record highs, with only slightly fewer condos sold than in the late 2007 and early 2008 boom.

The sales of condos in the last quarter of 2010 were slightly lower than the same time in 2009, but the sales are still growing strong. Which is good, because the condo developments keep on coming. Last year alone, Toronto had 16,000 new units completed, which was twice as many as New York. Over 34,000 units are under construction in the city, with 5,000 more units scheduled to start construction between now and the end of the year.

The Toronto Real Estate Board released figures at the end of July showing that sales had declined 25 per cent over June, but prices remained constant. As supply grows, prices may also come down, which is always good news for condominium buyers in Toronto.

One interesting factoid about the Toronto condo market is that a large portion of them is owned by overseas investors, about 40 per cent, while the Toronto home market is quite the opposite. The worst case for these investors and the best case for Toronto condominium buyers is that they might rush to sell if prices take a hit, providing buyers with even more choice at less cost.

The boom of condominium supply in the city shouldn’t slow, because Toronto needs an annual increase of 40,000 living spaces per year due to immigration and there’s little room to place communities of homes, leaving developers with the obvious choice of building even more condos.