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York Region experiences a growing taste for tall living
Condo towers drawing eager buyers in double cohort of first-timers and downsizers
DEREK RAYMAKER
Special to The Globe and Mail
High-rise condominiums are no longer limited to the inner city core, but the reason the skyscraper suite has hit a nerve with new home buyers in odd places is more complicated than you'd think.
A Bank of Nova Scotia economics research report released recently announced that multiple-unit housing products counted for almost half (47 per cent) of all housing starts in 2005 across Canada. In 1998, multiples -- a catch-all description for condo suites, townhouses and semi-detached houses -- made up significantly less of construction, accounting for 37 per cent of all starts.
The reason is that large urban centres across Canada have seen resale home prices rise sharply while land costs for new housing have also skyrocketed, making intensification more attractive, according to the Scotiabank economists. There's also a large double-cohort demographic of buyers that find condos and townhouses attractive: young, single first-time buyers looking to take advantage of historically low interest rates, and downsizing baby boomers looking to cash out their equity and move into an affordable, low-maintenance housing product that they can purchase for cash.
The nationwide construction trend is reflected in sales in the well-established 905 suburbs of York Region north of Toronto. With municipalities such as Richmond Hill, Vaughan and Markham, the region has long been revered as a low-rise haven, until recently.
From January to April this year, sales of 826 high-rise suites were reported in York Region, making up 24 per cent of all sales, according to data collected by RealNet Canada. That's almost double the market share of high-rises from the same period in 2004, when 501 condo suites were sold, making up 13 per cent of all sales.
York Region high-rise sales have risen steadily, while low-rise sales have fallen off to 2,559 in the first four months of 2006, from 3,073 in the same period of 2005. Sales for that period of 2004 totaled 3,332.
But the raw market forces making multiples more attractive cited in the Scotiabank report may not be the only reason high-rises are catching on.
York Region has embarked on a monumental effort to make Highway 7, Yonge Street and Leslie Street a transit corridor with its Viva bus service, with the aim of attracting more high-rise construction and the evolution of "transit villages."
Markham has been particularly aggressive in attracting high-rise projects around a downtown core development (Markham City Centre) and Viva's eastern terminus (Cornell Centre). "What it all boils down to is more intensification around transit-supported density," said Valerie Shuttleworth, Markham's director of planning and urban design. "We're now allocating [new] servicing based on population rather than unit type, which also favours high-rise development."
It's no surprise then that Markham was the second-largest condominium market outside Toronto, with 885 sales last year, next to Mississauga, which had 1,795 sales driven by a massive high-rise development crusade in its city centre core, according to RealNet data.
Ms. Shuttleworth suggests there are limited similarities between Markham and Mississauga when it comes to encouraging high-rise construction in the city centre projects. For one thing, Markham is encouraging condominium developers to build to a human scale, meaning within height restrictions of between 12 and 16 storeys. Mississauga's newest high-rises will be two to three times taller than that.
Condominium marketing expert Barry Lyon is pleased to see more mature 905 municipalities encouraging high-rise development, and suggests that it will have an added benefit of keeping young people who grew up in these communities living there.
"There's a great loyalty in each community, and people look to stay in those communities as their needs change," he said, adding that there's been noticeable job growth in the 905 centres in the technological sectors, compared with Toronto.
"There's untapped demand from young people and we're just scratching the surface of what's possible out there," he said. "The important thing is that we're not adding any more highway lanes or commuting time."
Condo towers drawing eager buyers in double cohort of first-timers and downsizers
DEREK RAYMAKER
Special to The Globe and Mail
High-rise condominiums are no longer limited to the inner city core, but the reason the skyscraper suite has hit a nerve with new home buyers in odd places is more complicated than you'd think.
A Bank of Nova Scotia economics research report released recently announced that multiple-unit housing products counted for almost half (47 per cent) of all housing starts in 2005 across Canada. In 1998, multiples -- a catch-all description for condo suites, townhouses and semi-detached houses -- made up significantly less of construction, accounting for 37 per cent of all starts.
The reason is that large urban centres across Canada have seen resale home prices rise sharply while land costs for new housing have also skyrocketed, making intensification more attractive, according to the Scotiabank economists. There's also a large double-cohort demographic of buyers that find condos and townhouses attractive: young, single first-time buyers looking to take advantage of historically low interest rates, and downsizing baby boomers looking to cash out their equity and move into an affordable, low-maintenance housing product that they can purchase for cash.
The nationwide construction trend is reflected in sales in the well-established 905 suburbs of York Region north of Toronto. With municipalities such as Richmond Hill, Vaughan and Markham, the region has long been revered as a low-rise haven, until recently.
From January to April this year, sales of 826 high-rise suites were reported in York Region, making up 24 per cent of all sales, according to data collected by RealNet Canada. That's almost double the market share of high-rises from the same period in 2004, when 501 condo suites were sold, making up 13 per cent of all sales.
York Region high-rise sales have risen steadily, while low-rise sales have fallen off to 2,559 in the first four months of 2006, from 3,073 in the same period of 2005. Sales for that period of 2004 totaled 3,332.
But the raw market forces making multiples more attractive cited in the Scotiabank report may not be the only reason high-rises are catching on.
York Region has embarked on a monumental effort to make Highway 7, Yonge Street and Leslie Street a transit corridor with its Viva bus service, with the aim of attracting more high-rise construction and the evolution of "transit villages."
Markham has been particularly aggressive in attracting high-rise projects around a downtown core development (Markham City Centre) and Viva's eastern terminus (Cornell Centre). "What it all boils down to is more intensification around transit-supported density," said Valerie Shuttleworth, Markham's director of planning and urban design. "We're now allocating [new] servicing based on population rather than unit type, which also favours high-rise development."
It's no surprise then that Markham was the second-largest condominium market outside Toronto, with 885 sales last year, next to Mississauga, which had 1,795 sales driven by a massive high-rise development crusade in its city centre core, according to RealNet data.
Ms. Shuttleworth suggests there are limited similarities between Markham and Mississauga when it comes to encouraging high-rise construction in the city centre projects. For one thing, Markham is encouraging condominium developers to build to a human scale, meaning within height restrictions of between 12 and 16 storeys. Mississauga's newest high-rises will be two to three times taller than that.
Condominium marketing expert Barry Lyon is pleased to see more mature 905 municipalities encouraging high-rise development, and suggests that it will have an added benefit of keeping young people who grew up in these communities living there.
"There's a great loyalty in each community, and people look to stay in those communities as their needs change," he said, adding that there's been noticeable job growth in the 905 centres in the technological sectors, compared with Toronto.
"There's untapped demand from young people and we're just scratching the surface of what's possible out there," he said. "The important thing is that we're not adding any more highway lanes or commuting time."