CityPlace Toronto exposing the Concord Apex built fiasco

CityPlace

The Little Ghetto That Could

Most home buyers want to believe they made the right decisions. From sofa's to cars to a toaster, no one wants to think they bought a piece of junk. But people do buy junk, sometimes from being ignorant, sometimes from luck of the draw. I think most would agree, we make our worst purchases impulsively.

Real Estate has been booming red hot and many people are buying without much thought. The young who have never seen a cycle before actually think the boom will never end. "Its different this time", famous last words. Unfortunately real estate is cooling everywhere and Toronto will be no exception. When the clouds clear people will once again have more choices. Like in every cycle, those who bought the worst units will be unable to sell for anything but peanuts on the dollar.

CityPlace fits the bill for an "investment" with major downside and here's why:

Location. Sandwiched between train tracks and freeways with no way in or out that isn't on a freeway collector road.  Right on the edge of downtown. A beacon of tracks the big flashing warning for anyone who's ever studied real estate value. Train tracks, freeways, power plants, fire stations ... bad. Despite what salesmen say, Toronto is full of undeveloped land. Look at Queen West. Those short dilapidated storefronts are screaming "tear me down and build high" The Bohemian Embassy project is the perfect example. There are so many places to make condo towers it will take 100 years to worry about space. Anyone who's ever been to a real big city can tell at a glance Toronto's skyline is an infant. Plenty of choices ahead. Soothing sounds of the freeway has never been a big selling point.

Quality. This website explains all well enough. CityPlace is a haphazard development with to many problems to be considered "new condo quirks". Some of that comes from the hot market. Contractors are in demand and it can be tough to find workers who are qualified. That's no excuse to build crap though. Water leaks, bad electricity, a central air system that cannot pass 60 days without a major meltdown, these things are not getting better. Maintenance fees are going to rise as strata's band aid structural problems that are hidden within walls. Its a shame Concord didn't make sure each step was done right before moving on. Its easy to fix problems at the building stage but next to to impossible to fix structural defects when all is done.

Inventory. Concord has not sold all the units in the buildings that are finished. How are they going to sell the next half of the development? Give Concord a call. There are units still unsold in the completed buildings. I suspect presales for the others are slowing to the point Concord may abandon ship. I doubt the large centerpiece tower will ever be built. Take into account all the other downtown startups and ... well there's plenty of condo to go around. If the market folds, as it seems to be heading, inventory will outpace demand. There are many buildings on Wellington and Richmond that are actually part of downtown not "sort of close to it but over the tracks".

Maybe the market won't slow or fold. Maybe it will keep booming to no end. Yeah maybe .... but that has never happened in history to date.

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