Toronto: Where ‘relatively average’ homes now cost up to $2-million
Christie’s International Real Estate has dubbed Toronto the world’s “hottest” market for luxury real estate.
The “Luxury Defined” report released yesterday by the real estate arm of the renowned auction house found that high-end home sales jumped by 37 per cent last year in Toronto, the only city in the world to register a year-over-year faster pace.
It’s well known that Toronto is a real estate hot spot, so much so that there’s angst among some observers over whether there’s a bubble to pop.
Let’s look at why Christie’s found this.
“Extremely low supply of homes in Toronto has pushed prices to $1-million to $2-million for relatively average homes in the city and up to $2-million for larger homes or those in the most desirable neighbourhoods,” the report said.
“The shortage of homes pushed luxury condo prices above $1-million as well in 2014.”
And here’s a notable finding: It took an average of just 31 days on the market for a home in the $1-million-plus range to sell.
That’s up from 50 days in 2011, and far less time than the 71 days in San Francisco, 81 days in Los Angeles, 87 days in New York, 93 days in Sydney and 142 days in Miami.
London, Paris and Hong Kong followed at 165 days, 170 days and 225 days, respectively.
The starting price for an average luxury home in Toronto, by the way, is above $3-million (U.S.), according to Christie’s.
That equals San Francisco, and tops the $2-million of Miami, Dubai and Rio, though it lags the $8-million of Los Angeles, the $5-million of New York, the $6-million of London and the $4-million of Sydney.
ICHAEL BABAD
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, May 01, 2015 7:35AM EDT