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What happens when condo building is getting too old?

Too old for what really? There are sensational low and mid-rise apartment buildings in Paris, Manhattan, Montreal etc. that are 100+ years old. As long as they are structurally sound and the owners are willing to pay for the upkeep (building envelopes, balconies, elevators, electrical and plumbing upgrades, window replacement, etc.) then how does it become "too old"?
 
It gets demolished and a new one with higher capacity is built.
I have to call your bluff on this. Please provide examples to support your claim of condos being torn down to build higher capacity replacements.

In fact, has a condo ever been demolished in Toronto? Toronto's only had condos since the late 1960s. Would any of these be ready for tear down? I would think they'd be refaced and updated rather than demolished.

https://losttoronto2.wordpress.com/tag/torontos-first-condominium/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/the-man-who-brought-condos-to-toronto/article4087150/
 
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Cool links Admiral Beez!!!

Our condo is older than that condominium in your link by a good 3 years.

I know of others -- not conversions -- about the same age, or older, as ours. Grozbord King & Associates (architects) was responsible for many of these earliest condos (plus rental highrises), most of which have that dark red-brown brick look (The Grange, Wynford Park etc.)

When we bought our place, I did some microfiche digging and found a Toronto Star article on our building. (A three-bedroom on the top floor went for $35K!)

In my research, I kept running into two things:

(1) The articles always had to explain what a condominium is, usually in the third paragraph. "A condominium is a building in which people don't rent but buy their apartments and then pay monthly fees to maintain the common areas such as the lobby, elevators ... yada yada) That's how foreign the concept was in the early 70s.

(2) There was some sort of condo boom in the early 70s, although nothing like today obviously. All the reports carried dire warnings that the market would crash and nobody would be interested in these things. I believe that that more or less happened by 1980 (just a guess) and so, Toronto just sprawled and sprawled and sprawled.

There were of course co-ops. I believe 29 Dale was converted in 1970. There's also a co-op tower on Broadview just north of Pottery Road which dates to the late 60s.
 
There has only been a single condo actually sold as far as I know, at Yonge and Eglinton. A small 27 unit condo sold to a developer, who with a bit more property, is building 617 units. The old condo is still standing currently, and is less than 30 years old.

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2017/01/48-storey-condo-replace-8-storey-condo-yonge-eglinton


Condos rarely sell, especially larger ones, as it is extremely difficult to get 80% support. When you only need 22 supporting votes to sell, it is easier to make it happen than when you need 220.
 
It gets demolished and a new one with higher capacity is built.

Note that most condos aren't old enough to be designated heritage status, even when they become too costly to maintain.

In the event, it gets demolished. What are the rights and obligations of the owner? What are the various options that owner has? Does the owner has to pay anything out of there pocket? Does owner get a better and new unit?
 
(2) There was some sort of condo boom in the early 70s, although nothing like today obviously. All the reports carried dire warnings that the market would crash and nobody would be interested in these things. I believe that that more or less happened by 1980 (just a guess) and so, Toronto just sprawled and sprawled and sprawled.
There was a second crash in demand the mid-1990's in the aftermath of the leaking condo crisis in Vancouver, which got significant national news attention and led to a casual belief that builders could not be trusted to properly construct these towers to last for many years.

 
In the event, it gets demolished. What are the rights and obligations of the owner? What are the various options that owner has? Does the owner has to pay anything out of there pocket? Does owner get a better and new unit?

I am pretty sure that, by the time a condo gets old enough to be torn down, the land will have appreciated like crazy and so the owners basically split the revenue on the sale of the land. That's what I was told, anyway.
 
It gets demolished and a new one with higher capacity is built.

Note that most condos aren't old enough to be designated heritage status, even when they become too costly to maintain.
Just curious, do you know of any in Toronto that have been demolished? I can't think of any.
 
I am pretty sure that, by the time a condo gets old enough to be torn down, the land will have appreciated like crazy and so the owners basically split the revenue on the sale of the land. That's what I was told, anyway.
That makes sense. You'd think that property values for an older building would have grown exponentially over its lifespan.
 
Our building is around 40 years old, and we bought in anyway. Like idiots, lol. Yes, our fees are high, but are all-inclusive. We even have a full VIP cable package, which we could personally do without, but it's nice to have.

As renters, we'd been in small, medium, and larger units, and spent time in old, middle-aged, and brand new buildings. We liked the settled-in charms of older buildings -- residents seem more mature and settled, while the new build was filled with students, Air BnB'ers, absentee owners, and were just in a state of chaos most of the time.

Frankly, we went older because we needed the space. Older buildings often have larger 2 and 3 bed units, and we got one that feels more like a nice-sized bungalow. It had also been gutted and completely modernized for sale (no popcorn ceiling!). Our fellow residents are mostly very mature (lots of seniors), which means that, for the most part, things are very quiet and respectful.

BUT...

Our gym sucks. It's a joke, and as our building has a lot of seniors who don't give two hoots about modern equipment, free weights, or squat racks, it will likely remain that way for a long time. Our community room looks like one of those church basement meeting rooms from the 80's.

Many of the residents don't have or don't want to use computers. Therefore, notices are posted in the building or sent door-to-door rather than by email, and we don't have an internal site we can check for information. It's 2019 everywhere else, but still 1978 in here.

Apparently, previous board and management was incompetent and (likely) corrupt. But now there is a new board, new management (ACMO-certified), and things are starting to turn around (we hope).

We will eventually need to replace windows, but owners are more interested in refurbishment and lick-and-stick repairs than just biting the bullet and bringing them up to modern standards. They don't understand that at some point, all those maintenance costs will be sunk and the replacement will NEED to happen (and will no doubt cost a hell of a lot more). But they have already had years of enjoyment out of their original non-argon E, non-UV protected slider windows, and don't seem to care about kicking the can down the road. They always just want the cheapest option, which is frustrating.

The joys of condo living...lol.
 
Our building is around 40 years old, and we bought in anyway. Like idiots, lol. Yes, our fees are high, but are all-inclusive. We even have a full VIP cable package, which we could personally do without, but it's nice to have.

As renters, we'd been in small, medium, and larger units, and spent time in old, middle-aged, and brand new buildings. We liked the settled-in charms of older buildings -- residents seem more mature and settled, while the new build was filled with students, Air BnB'ers, absentee owners, and were just in a state of chaos most of the time.

Frankly, we went older because we needed the space. Older buildings often have larger 2 and 3 bed units, and we got one that feels more like a nice-sized bungalow. It had also been gutted and completely modernized for sale (no popcorn ceiling!). Our fellow residents are mostly very mature (lots of seniors), which means that, for the most part, things are very quiet and respectful.

BUT...

Our gym sucks. It's a joke, and as our building has a lot of seniors who don't give two hoots about modern equipment, free weights, or squat racks, it will likely remain that way for a long time. Our community room looks like one of those church basement meeting rooms from the 80's.

Many of the residents don't have or don't want to use computers. Therefore, notices are posted in the building or sent door-to-door rather than by email, and we don't have an internal site we can check for information. It's 2019 everywhere else, but still 1978 in here.

Apparently, previous board and management was incompetent and (likely) corrupt. But now there is a new board, new management (ACMO-certified), and things are starting to turn around (we hope).

We will eventually need to replace windows, but owners are more interested in refurbishment and lick-and-stick repairs than just biting the bullet and bringing them up to modern standards. They don't understand that at some point, all those maintenance costs will be sunk and the replacement will NEED to happen (and will no doubt cost a hell of a lot more). But they have already had years of enjoyment out of their original non-argon E, non-UV protected slider windows, and don't seem to care about kicking the can down the road. They always just want the cheapest option, which is frustrating.

The joys of condo living...lol.

Hi
I’m confused about buying a townhouse condo , it’s a 1975 built , condo fee is quite higher around $500 , but unit is in good condition, roof was repaired 8 years ago , window are also in good condition, unit asking price is very affordable .
I’m confused because the unit is very old but maintained, but still what are the life of condos is it 50 , 60 years or more?
is this kind of investment really worth it, because it will definitely going to need a lot of maintenance cost , and I think it will be a never ending story.
worst that I can’t afford a house ? so can only go for condominium.
Don’t know , any suggestions?
 

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