Chicken Little calls for a market crash haven’t cooled Toronto’s red-hot condo market, and one brokerage expects the summer to keep sizzling, and the investment opportunities to continue growing.
“Toronto defies gravity, especially in the real estate Industry,” says David Fingold, the co-developer of “The Chedington,” and president of Forest Hill Real Estate. “With only a small pause in 2007-2008 during the American financial crisis, the growth in the Greater Toronto Market is unprecedented in size and scope. Toronto residential developers have been building and selling tens of thousands residential units every year for over 15 years.”
Fingold and his wife Ronni, who is the founder of Forest Hill Real Estate over 30 years ago, are uniquely placed to have an insider’s knowledge of Toronto’s condo building boom, having been in on the ground floor when it started in the mid-1990s.
“I was fortunate enough to have been the co-developer of the premier residential condo development that started this building spree. The project known as ‘The Chedington’ was built in 1994-1996,” Fingold told REP, adding that condo buildings are numbered when they are registered, with The Chedington being #1100.
“Ronni and I just closed on our own personal condo unit in ‘The Avenue’ built three years ago, it’s condo registration number is #2146,” smiles Fingold, “so there are over 1,100 new condo buildings in Toronto since ‘The Chedington’ up until about 2012 when ‘The Avenue’ was registered with many more condo registrations in the last three years. It’s a truly amazing growth story, with the promise of a lot more growth to come for Toronto.”
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With the drop in oil prices and the concurrent drop in the Canadian dollar – hovering just around the 80 cent mark compared to the U.S. greenback – the Toronto condo investment opportunities are there for the taking, especially for those looking to step up into luxury listings.
“No city in North America has grown like Toronto; nowhere!” says Fingold. “The new condo buildings on the books to be built in the near future indicates this phenomena is not about to end, as long as interest rates remain low and stable.”
Founded in 1985 Forest Hill Real Estate Inc. has specialized in the sale of prestigious homes, luxury condominiums, country properties, estates, vacant lots and commercial and industrial properties. In the past decade alone, the company has participated in well over $10 billion in real estate sales volume.
Some 500 salespeople are in 14 offices in Toronto, York Region, Oakville, Muskoka and the Kawarthas.
“In 2014 we became the exclusive member for Toronto with Leverage Global Partners, a unique network that aligns the most prestigious independent luxury real estate brokerage firms from around the world,” says Fingold, which has only one exclusive member per community.
Websites and other online channels require explicit strategies and reasonable investment, adds Fingold.
“At Forest Hill, we ensure that our online marketing is fresh and interesting,” he says. “The marketing team regularly optimizes and updates the company social networking feeds and sites, maintaining engaging and enthralling content.”