The Home of the Week overlooks the ocean and disappears into its lush B.C. island surroundings.Prime Focus Pictures
This week: Ontario’s HST rebate isn’t helping condos much, and seniors and students find a novel solution to the housing crisis. Plus, the power deserts threatening Ontario’s home-building goals, and one property worth a look.
Tax break
HST rebate boosts Ontario home sales, but not condos
Buyers in Ontario are opting for single-family homes over condos, despite the HST rebate aiming to kick-start sales for both.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The condo conundrum continues. Single-family homes are selling more thanks to Ontario’s HST rebate on new builds, according to a new industry report this week, but the measure hasn’t had the intended effect on condos sales. In the first three months after the tax break began, 7,215 new detached or single-family homes sold – more than double the same quarter last year, and about 15 per cent higher than the 10-year average – but only 1,195 condos moved, up just 12 per cent year-over-year and a whopping 88 per cent below the 10-year average.
And it’s not just a Toronto problem, according to the report by five industry groups, including the Building Industry and Land Development Association. As Rachelle Younglai reports, condo sales are faltering across the province. In Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo, single-family homes sales were around triple last year’s, while condo sales dropped. “The trend everywhere is single-family home sales rising and condos not,” Justin Sherwood, BILD’s chief operating officer, told Rachelle.
The report is bad news for the condo developers, who are still looking for a way out of this prolonged downturn, but it could be a good time for buyers. If you’re considering buying in Ontario, here’s your guide to putting the HST rebate towards your mortgage qualification, and Rachelle’s full story about the report.
Making it work
Home shares are on the rise, pairing seniors and students looking to save
Suzanne Petrie shares her home in Barrie, Ont., with 20-year-old Max Benitez-Arreguin, thanks to a growing home-share platform connecting retirees and students.TANNIS TOOHEY
After retiring from teaching, Suzanne Petrie has found a more unconventional way to continue helping students: living with one. The 65 year old shares her Barrie, Ont., home with a student from Cancun, charging him a low amount of rent in exchange for some chores and watching the house while she’s on trips. “I don’t want to waste space, not when so many people need housing,” Petrie told Kerry Gold.
Seniors with the space and students looking to save are finding home shares a win-win as Canadian platforms to arrange them explode. SharedSpaces helped Petrie and her housemate Max Benitez-Arreguin connect after it partnered with Georgian College in 2023, where the 20-year-old just finished his occupational therapy assistant studies. The platform operates in several provinces and just started in Metro Vancouver, one of several regions that a federally funded home-sharing platform, Sparrow, also covers.
But the novel solution to the housing crisis – and for seniors who don’t want to downsize – isn’t just about saving money. “It’s also about strengthening communities and creating meaningful connections at a time when many Canadians are feeling increasingly isolated and disconnected,” SharedSpaces CEO Rylan Kinnon told Gold.
This week’s lowest fixed and variable mortgage rates in Canada
Rates shown are the lowest available for each term/type and category (insured vs. uninsured) as of market close on Thursday, August 13.
In depth
The power crisis threatening Ontario’s housing goals and your electricity bills
Those empty lots where new subdivisions were meant to be built around Toronto? They could mean you’ll pay more for your electricity soon in Ontario. Power deserts are short-circuiting plans to build much-needed housing, thanks to a patchwork of local electricity companies without the infrastructure to connect many of the 1.5 million new homes Ontario has pledged.
Power deserts
Across swaths of the Greater Toronto Area, depicted in red on this map, primary electricity feeder lines are unable to accommodate connection requests from power-hungry customers such as large housing developments or new industrial operations. Elexicon’s main service area, including nearly all of Pickering, Ajax and Whitby, stands out.
Available load
capacity (MVA*)
Newmarket
0 to 1
Brooklin
1.1 to 3
3.1 to 5
5.1 to 10
Markham
Whitby
Richmond
Hill
Ajax
10.1 +
Pickering
Scarborough
Lake Ontario
Toronto
10 km
*Mega Volt Amperes
matt mcclearn and john sopinski/the globe and mail,
source: ontario energy board
Power deserts
Across swaths of the Greater Toronto Area, depicted in red on this map, primary electricity feeder lines are unable to accommodate connection requests from power-hungry customers such as large housing developments or new industrial operations. Elexicon’s main service area, including nearly all of Pickering, Ajax and Whitby, stands out.
Available load
capacity (MVA*)
Newmarket
0 to 1
Brooklin
1.1 to 3
3.1 to 5
5.1 to 10
Markham
Whitby
Richmond
Hill
Ajax
10.1 +
Pickering
Scarborough
Lake Ontario
Toronto
10 km
*Mega Volt Amperes
matt mcclearn and john sopinski/the globe and mail,
source: ontario energy board
Power deserts
Across swaths of the Greater Toronto Area, depicted in red on this map, primary electricity feeder lines are unable to accommodate connection requests from power-hungry customers such as large housing developments or new industrial operations. Elexicon’s main service area, including nearly all of Pickering, Ajax and Whitby, stands out.
Newmarket
Available load
capacity (MVA*)
0 to 1
Brooklin
1.1 to 3
3.1 to 5
5.1 to 10
Markham
Whitby
Richmond
Hill
Ajax
10.1 +
Pickering
Scarborough
Lake Ontario
Toronto
10 km
*Mega Volt Amperes
matt mcclearn and john sopinski/the globe and mail, source: ontario energy board
As Matthew McClearn reports, the province’s fragmented power grid is in need of major last-mile upgrades – estimated up to $120-billion – but developers, local distribution companies and municipal governments are fighting over who will foot the bill.
And in the meantime, lots for proposed subdivisions in communities around Toronto, like Brooklin where he visited, remain empty. “It would be like organizing a railroad, having all your main lines, all the engineers, but you don’t have any track into a station,” David McFadden, a long-time energy lawyer who has served as chair of Toronto Hydro’s board of directors, told Matthew.
The province’s Energy Minister Stephen Lecce is weighing options, and what he decides to do could change who owns the LDCs and drive up your power bills or property taxes, depending on who gets stuck with the tab. So read Matthew’s deep-dive into the Ontario’s power struggles and keep an eye on your electricity rates.
Design corner
Are ceiling fans really the kiss of death for decor?
Ceiling fans are an affordable way to keep cool – and they don't necessarily have to be ugly.ALEX LUKEY/Supplied
I’m no fan of my ceiling fan, and I don’t think it needs much explaining. As Matthew Hague writes, the fixture has been called the kiss of death for design and derided on home makeover shows since the early aughts, often for dated dark wood panels or brass embellishments. I dream of the day I can replace my standard-issue eyesore with something cuter and easier to clean.
But the affordable fixture could be earning its way back into the hearts of even the snobbiest of home decor enthusiasts. Experts told Matthew there are plenty of more sleek ceiling fan options available these days, and amid relentless heat, North American sales are predicted to grow in the next several years thanks to their easy installation and low cost to run. However, while they can be handy year-round, they don’t cool a room the way an air conditioner does. So if you’re thinking about giving the ceiling fan another look, here’s what to consider before you join the club.
Home of the Week
A Bowen Island home with a living roof and heavenly views
Oversized windows help bring the breathtaking surroundings into the warm interior.Prime Focus Pictures
1301 Sunset Rd., Bowen Island, B.C. – Full gallery here
The roof of this compact home is alive, but the views could make you think you’ve died and gone to heaven. At 250 metres above sea level on Bowen Island, the property rises over B.C.’s Howe Sound for breathtaking views just a 20-minute ferry from West Vancouver. “You’re looking through the house, and you have the wide view of the sea, looking towards Texada Island and the Sunshine Coast,” said owner Jan Willem. “You feel, well, like heaven.”
The two-bedroom was designed by architect Allan Peters to blend into the stunning coastal landscape using an element from Willem’s Dutch homeland. The green roof – a popular feature in the Netherlands but not as common here 20 years ago – makes it appear as though the home is vanishing into the hillside from certain angles. It’s also excellent for absorbing rain, regulating interior temperatures and eating dinner with a view.
The interior is meant to invite the surroundings in, with oversized windows opening up the view and wood-panelled ceilings creating a warm, natural atmosphere. Willem, a mechanical engineer, insisted on framing the oversized fireplace with a decommissioned cargo ship’s weathered steel that he lugged himself from Squamish. But the owner says it’s still the views and dramatic sunsets he’ll miss the most about the property.
Guess the price
b. The asking price is $1,998,000.