Toronto's west-end is a popular area where furious bidding wars eventually lead to a 'sold' sign. This house was sold in November 2016. Prices have risen so high that co-ownership is becoming an attractive alternative.
Photo Credit: CP / Graeme Roy

Toronto: speed-dating for real estate

Toronto real estate prices continue to make headlines even as talk of a real estate bubble grows louder.

Many people in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) feel priced out of the market. Now real estate agent Lesli Gaynor, is putting her own experience to use in guiding potential buyers into co-ownership arrangements.

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On May 4th, Gaynor and her partners are holding a variation on a speed-dating event, to match potential real estate partners.

“Housing is pretty essential!”

With a background in social work and social policy, she is the first to acknowledge that the partnerships are not for everyone. But judging from the turnout at two previous seminars she held, there is growing interest.

The practice is not unusual among new immigrants to Canada, many of whom, over the generations, pooled their resources and focused on paying off their homes as soon as possible.

But for native-born Canadians, the assumption of the ability to afford a single-family home has been taken for granted. In many other places in Canada, it is still the case.

In the GTA, however, with prices at astronomical levels, with little connection to average incomes, people have been moving into condominium dwellings, or apartments, to raise families.

There is growing demand that Toronto follow Vancouver’s example and institute a tax on foreign buyers, as well as implement a progressive surtax on pricey homes owned by people who don’t pay income tax, in an effort to temper the market.

“We’re so over housed”

And while that may take time, Gaynor is advising and connecting people who want to make the move, with the financial clout greater resources can provide.

She describes a pairing that developed recently, where a 70-year old woman, who was no longer comfortable living completely alone, would like to share a duplex with a young family who can’t afford the down payment on a single-family home.

For the young family Gaynor says, “it’s like having a built-in grandmother.” and the elder woman was keen on the idea of being in close proximity to children.

Or, two young families coming together with a view to sharing the child-rearing responsibilities.

“I come to real estate with a very different, kind of life experience. And one of the big ones is that I really believe that some of the problems that we’re facing right now in our housing and the prices of our housing is that people have lost the sense of community.”

Gaynor describes some of the issues that need to be addressed:

“How do you mediate differences, how do you make sure that the legal agreements are really tight, make sure that people understand and are committed to at least a certain amount of time, that you put in some pre-agreements about what happens if we come up with a difference, do we have a mediation process in place” she says.

“There’s lots of great ways for us to address some of the social concerns that people have.”

Gaynor foresees these partnerships as a growing trend in the Toronto area.

“I think we’re going to hit a real interesting economic crisis, I mean we’ve got people who’ve no pensions, a whole group of people who are going to be retiring at the very same time, our services for our seniors, I don’t know what it’s like in Montreal, but I can tell you in Toronto, are evaporating at a rapid rate or they’re so expensive people can’t afford them, and we also have a young population that’s you know, going to be economically, you know, I think in a really precarious employment situation.”

“Housing is pretty essential!” she says.

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