A decade after the Ontario government introduced its growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (a pro-intensification policy pushing developers to build up, not out), it’s having the intended effect. According to a review of the 2014 real estate market by RealNet Canada and the Building Industry and Land Development Association, the past year saw a record number of high-rise condo unit completions: 25,571. Meanwhile, the average price of low-rise homes (which are growing scarcer) finished 2014 at a record high, $705,813, with the price gap between low-rise and high-rise homes widening to $251,337, also a record.
“It’s a new era,” RealNet chief George Carras tells Bisnow, and it’s high time that stakeholders—the building industry, government and general public alike — accept it and stop quibbling over density. “We have to embrace a more integrated approach to the region’s future.” The property market no longer operates in isolation, notes George, snapped discussing the review this week. Mixed-use developments, most of them high-rise projects that combine residential and commercial space, are the future. “Intensification is not just a plan, it’s a reality. How we respond to it will define what 2025 looks like.”
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