Condo chaos strikes
Prices, tempers on rise as units go on sale
Peter Kuitenbrouwer
National Post
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The climax came at 11 a.m. As security guards and police in yellow jackets struggled to contain a seething, frenzied herd of real estate agents on Bloor Street, a worker leaned an aluminum ladder and climbed to the billboard above the street. Underneath the words, "The Best Corner in the World," he began peeling off a sign that read, "from $300,000 to $2-million," to reveal the new price: "from $500,000s to over $8-million."
If there was doubt before, yesterday's events confirmed this: people are speculating in the Toronto real estate market.
On the street yesterday, a riot almost broke out, provoked by two agents who, at 6 a.m., cut in front of more than 100 people who had camped out here for more than a week, for the chance to buy into an 80-storey condo tower that Bazis International wants to put at 1 Bloor St. E., corner of Yonge Street.
"I'm an agent," said Nadine Robbins. "These people who have been waiting in line are students and homeless people. The cop said to us, 'You're agents, you get to the front of the line.' "
Others shouted, "You should be in the back in the first place!"
As the crowd surged, Adam Szalai and two other "place-holders" commandeered a nearby Purolator office for an emergency meeting with a police sergeant and security guards working for the developer.
Mr. Szalai's group had for a week maintained a list of those waiting in line.
Mr. Szalai recounted later: "The sergeant said, 'Look, the builder is not going to respect your list. But I'll back you up because I think it's the best system.' "
Once the deal was done, Hersh Litvack of Re/Max (for whom Mr. Szalai was working) and Anna Cass of Royal LePage stood in front of the television cameras, to take credit for the victory of order over chaos. Mr. Hersh brought a box of Hershey chocolate bars, printed with his smiling face on the wrapper, and handed them out to the staff inside the sales centre.
At noon the developer opened the door and, as the crowd of agents in pinstripe suits and leopard-fur scarves surged around her, Monica Geiman, a sprite of a placeholder, called out names from the list, allowing agents into the sales centre. The two queue-jumpers slunk back into their spots.
A few minutes later, Ajay Jain, an agent with Century 21, emerged with a price list. He was impressed.
"The prices have gone up significantly," he said. "The largest unit has gone up by $1-million and the smallest has gone up by $60,000."
A fellow agent, referring to those who bought units before yesterday, said, "All the friends and family just doubled their money."
The sheet lists the "Dream 1805," (1,425 square feet in two bedrooms plus library, plus a balcony and a 'Lanai' (a kind of sun room) at $2,149,000.
I asked Mr. Jain why so many people want to live at Yonge and Bloor.
"They don' t," he said. "They want to buy to invest, because they think somebody else will pay them a lot more for this condo once it's built."
The sales sheet said occupancy in the tower is on Nov. 28, 2011. Mr. Jain noted that most end users don't have a 20% deposit -- a minimum $100,000 -- to tie up for four years, but investors do.
"On the board they're saying half a mil. So if you get it at this price [$415,900, the lowest price on the sheet] you're going to make a lot of money."
Mr. Jain called back last night in a rage to say that only the first 35 agents in a line of 100 agents were able to purchase a unit yesterday.
Yesterday, after the crowds melted away, Mr. Szalai stood on Bloor Street, surrounded by television camera trucks and flatbed trucks of Robert B. Somerville, who, just to add to the drama, are digging up Bloor Street to put in electricity conduits.
Two young women, Joey Tsang and Jessica Lam, both agents with Tradeworld, came up and enveloped Mr. Szalai in a bear hug.
"We were so scared, you guys rescued us," Ms. Tsang said.