The Home of the Week is a renovated Beaux Arts home that belongs to a beloved Canadian cookbook author in Toronto's Rosedale neighbourhood.Supplied
Hi, I’m Moira Wyton, an audience editor at The Globe filling in for Jacob from Vancouver, the other real-estate hotbed of Canada.
This week, a look at why it’s the “summer of lowballing” in Toronto as the vast majority of homes sell for less than the listing price. Plus, the growing push to relax the foreign-buying ban, Ottawa’s big bet on prefab housing, and one property worth a look.
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LOWBALLERS
Majority of homes sold for under asking price in Toronto area, report says
It’s the “summer of lowballing” for Toronto buyers looking for a deal, and it’s working in the vast majority of cases. In July, 76 per of homes that sold in the GTA went for below their asking prices and underbidding is at an 18-month high, according to an analysis by digital real estate platform Wahi. Paired with the recent rise in sales, it’s a sign owners are coming to terms with the reality that their homes have lost value since pandemic peaks, Toronto realtor Nasma Ali told personal finance reporter Sal Farooqui.
The data shows the underbidding trend in condo sales has reached the single-family market. Sal broke down the five most over- and under-bid areas, and Casa Loma was the most underbid, with homes selling for a median price of $3-million, about $485,000 less than the median list price. However, competition was still stiff in areas with the largest share of cheaper single family homes, like The Danforth, where the median sold price was $1.2-million, $66,000 over the median asking.
HOUSING POLICY
Ottawa faces growing pressure to loosen foreign homebuying ban
Construction cranes dot Vancouver's skyline during the construction of condo towers at the Oakridge Park shopping centre redevelopment in 2023.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Major developers are pressing the federal government to allow foreign buyers to purchase preconstruction homes and condos in hopes it will help boost dried-up demand. The ban applies to both existing and preconstruction homes, and was introduced to help reign in ballooning prices during the pandemic with a 2027 expiration date. But a group of builders now say it is cutting off essential financing for projects and actually preventing desperately needed homes from being built, according to a July 31 letter to the House of Commons standing committee on finance.
As The Globe’s Rachelle Younglai and Frances Bula have reported, the letter is part of a growing pre-budget push from the beleaguered home-building industry grappling with one of the worst real-estate slumps in decades. Several projects across the country have been delayed or cancelled because they haven’t sold the minimum amount required to secure financing. The group – including Mattamy Homes, Minto Group, Great Gulf, Canderel and DiamondCorp – joins several others in B.C. calling on the province and federal government for help. Canada’s Housing Minister Gregor Robertson indicated earlier last month he was considering a way to help residential developers, but B.C. Premier David Eby rebuffed calls to remove the province’s tax on foreign buyers.
This week’s lowest fixed and variable mortgage rates in Canada
Rates shown are the lowest available for each term/type and category (insured versus uninsured) as of market close on Thursday, Aug. 7.
PREFABRICATED CONSTRUCTION
The Liberals are betting prefab homes will help boost supply. But who will want to live in them?
Jeffrey Dowell and Barbara Poushinsky along with their dog Sarge at their prefabricated home in Rideau Ferry, Ont.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail
Prefabricated homes could be a way to ease Canada’s housing crunch, but only if Ottawa and developers can get buyers on board. From homes with some manufactured components later assembled on site, to entire bathrooms and kitchens installed like Lego blocks, prefab options are oftentimes less expensive, almost always more energy efficient and safer to assemble than traditional builds. And as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government pushes to double new home construction to 500,000 annually, the government’s pledge to order prefab homes in bulk could be key to scaling up the industry.
But, as Kelsey Rolfe reported last week, it’s unclear whether Canadians are ready to raise the prefab roof with Ottawa. And it’s at least in part a branding problem for the term that conjures images of boxy, dreary traditional modular houses for buyers in what one builder calls a “cultural obsession with having our own unique homes.”
That wasn’t an issue for Jeffrey Dowell and Barbara Poushinksy when picking out where to spend their golden years, and you’d never know their cozy, vibrant home in Rideau Ferry, Ont., was assembled in a week. This past winter was the couple’s second in the house, and their monthly energy bill was never over $135 – less than the average Ontario household. “It’s a really efficient, comfortable home,” Dowell said.
Home of the Week
A cookbook author’s Rosedale home boasts a great kitchen (of course)
Anne and Bob Lindsay were young first-time parents in the early 1970s when they fell in love with a grand circa 1910 house in the upscale enclave of Rosedale.Supplied
22 Binscarth Rd., Toronto – Full gallery here
Fans of Anne Lindsay’s cookbooks have the kitchen in her Toronto home to thank for the hundreds of healthy recipes she tested there. The beloved cookbook author and her husband Bob, a Bay Street lawyer, fell in love with the house as young parents in the early 1970s, but didn’t purchase it until more than a decade later. The five-bedroom circa 1910 home, designed by respected Beaux Arts architect Francis Baker, still had many original details: bay windows, stained glass sidelights in the entry hall and a setting far back from the road to create a park-like feel.
Ms. Lindsay was wrapping up her first cookbook when their family of five moved in, and as her career grew, the couple hired architect Paul Roth to expand the home and kitchen to match. Now with white Shaker-style cabinets, a large centre island and a plenty of storage, the kitchen is still any foodie’s dream.
Guess the price
c. The asking price is $7,650,000.