Things you should NEVER do when you live in a condo

No matter where you live, a low-rise home on a quiet suburban street or in the heart of downtown in a 40-storey tower, it’s always important to be respectful of your neighbours. With that in mind, we want to share a list of a few things you should never do when you live in a condo.

If you already live in a condo, you probably know someone in your building that does at least one or all of the faux pas on this list. If you do any of them, stop it. If you plan on moving into a condo for the first time, keep these things in mind so you can live in peace among your neighbours.

1) NEVER flick cigarettes off your balcony

It’s annoying enough to see people flicking cigarette butts on the street, don’t do it off your balcony or out a window. If you must smoke, use an ashtray and either bring the ashtray inside or cover it so the wind doesn’t blows the ashes and butts off your balcony. Throwing cigarettes on the ground or on someone else’s property is littering and it can also be dangerous. Cigarettes that are still burning can melt plastic or start fires.

2) NEVER leave bags in the garbage chute room

In most condos, each floor has a small room where you access the garbage chute. New condos have a sorter so you can dump compost, garbage, and recyclables. Occasionally, the chute will be out of service, and what a lot of people do is just leave the stinky garbage in the room and walk away like it’s not their issue anymore. If the chute is not operational, just take your garbage back to your unit and drop it off later! If everyone’s garbage piles up, it gets disgusting.

3) NEVER be too loud after 11 pm

Most condos have their own set of rules, but generally, any noise after 11 pm is unacceptable. It’s the same as on low-rise residential streets. In most new condos, the soundproofing is excellent, but people have the ability to get pretty loud, whether they’re blasting music or hosting a party with a lot of people.

4) NEVER store possessions in the hall or in your parking space

There are a few reasons you should never store your possessions in common areas; your clutter doesn’t look good in any setting, things could get stolen or damaged, and it could be a safety hazard. Generally, your stuff shouldn’t affect other people’s daily lives.

5) NEVER open the door for strangers

You may feel rude doing this, but letting people into the building that you don’t know or haven’t seen before can also be a safety issue. Condos are private residences, so if the person entering doesn’t live there and isn’t visiting someone, what are they doing? If the condo has a concierge, then this is their responsibility. If not, you should politely ask visitors to buzz in, and if they are in fact visiting someone, then that resident will let them into the building.

6) NEVER takeover an elevator 

Some condos only have two or three elevators. If you take one to move a series of items in or out of your unit, then that throws off all the other elevators. You should always reserve the service elevator if you know you’re going to need it. Don’t inconvenience your neighbours with your selfishness!

Overall, you should just be respectful when you live in a condo or anywhere else for that matter. If anything you’re going to do affects someone else negatively, then just don’t do it. Be cool, and live in harmony with your fellow condo dwellers!

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Don Mouth Naturalization Becomes A Reality

This June, we announced $1.25 billion in tri-government funding for Waterfront Toronto to naturalize the mouth of the Don River, provide flood protection and lay the groundwork for new communities. This project, officially called Port Lands Flood Protection and Enabling Infrastructure (PLFPEI), will be a vital part of helping Toronto grow in a sustainable way. This includes the $65-million in tri-government funding announced in September 2016 for Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling (CSLF), a component of the larger PLFPEI project. 

This funding allows us to create two new outlets for the Don River, a 1,000-metre river valley and greenway that will safely convey flood waters into Lake Ontario. This project includes new roads, bridges and services, as well as 29 hectares of naturalized area in the river valley, two new parks and 14 hectares of aquatic habitat. The flood protection offered by the new, naturalized Don River valley, along with new infrastructure, public spaces, wetlands and trails will create an area as big as downtown Toronto where people can live, work and play.

What Happens Now?
The PLFPEI project will take seven years to build. The plan is already in place and vetted through a rigorous due diligence process. That means we’re positioned to start detailed design right away. Because we received some funding for the CSLF project already, detailed design for the CSLF project began in September 2016 and is almost complete. We will start construction on that component this fall and we will begin digging the river in 2018.

We are currently working with the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments on agreements that will allow funds to flow as needed between now and project completion. We are also in the process of procuring the lead contractor on this project, who will act as our construction manager on both the CSLF project and the broader flood protection project.

Construction on the Cherry Street Stormwater & Lakefilling Project
Construction in the Port Lands will start this fall with the creation of a new landform around the existing Essroc Quay and the re-routing of an existing storm sewer. The landform will create room to re-align Cherry Street and build a new, higher bridge over the Keating Channel to better withstand and accommodate floodwaters. This new landform will also be the base of the future Promonotory Park North. In addition to lakefilling, creating this new landform involves the design and construction of confinement berms, rock armoring and dockwall structures. We’ll also build new aquatic and terrestrial ecological habitat. 

We will form a Construction Liaison Committee (CLC) this fall before construction begins. Once we have details about construction staging and schedule, we will share them through the CLC as well as on our website and in construction notices. We will circulate regular communications related to construction activity and traffic impacts. Access to destinations in the Port Lands, like the Cherry Beach Sports Fields, will never be blocked

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Home construction picks up in July, driven by buildings, condos, CMHC says

The federal housing agency says home construction picked up last month.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts increased to 222,324 units in July, up from 212,948 in June.

The annual pace of urban home construction increased by 5.5 per cent to 206,122 units, driven by a rise in multiple urban starts, generally apartment buildings, townhouses and condominiums, while single, detached home starts slowed.

Multiple urban starts increased by 10.4 per cent to 141,950 while single-detached urban starts fell by 3.9 per cent to 64,172.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16,202 units.

The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates increased to 217,550 in July compared with 215,175 in June.

The data on housing starts came as Statistics Canada also reported the value of building permits issued in June rose to $8.1 billion, up 2.5 per cent from May and the second highest value on record.

The overall increase came despite a 0.9 per cent drop to $5.0 billion in residential building permits in June. Building permits for non-residential structures rose 8.8 per cent to $3.0 billion.

The Canadian Press

source : CMHC

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Toronto / GTA Market Report

Canada continues to experience strong GDP growth, with the latest monthly data from May 2017 showing that the economy grew by 0.6% month-over-month, or 4.6% year-over-year.
This growth was consistent across 14 of the 20 sectors tracked. For good measure, the recently released IMF report on global economic growth indicates that Canada will lead all other G7 countries in GDP in 2017, with growth forecasted at 2.5%.
This is not all good news for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), however. Here’s an explanation of why.
First, more than half of May’s GDP growth was attributed to the Alberta oil sands, representing a 13% rebound in nonconventional oil production.
Second and even more important, rising interest rates (combined with other government intervention) have led to a slowdown in the residential real estate sector.
Third, the high Canadian dollar value is chipping away at the tailwind that manufacturers have enjoyed. This does not take into consideration any potential impact the upcoming NAFTA renegotiations might have on manufacturing.
Nevertheless, given this economic backdrop, the office, industrial and retail commercial real estate markets continue to perform well. The office market has slowed slightly, with vacancy up 20 basis points year-over-year to 6.7%, and the average net asking rental rate down 1.0% over the same period to $18.29 /square feet per annum.
The industrial market is mixed, with vacancy up 80 basis points year-over year to 3.6%, but with average net asking rental rate up 5.2% to $6.30/square feet per annum. The retail market remains the strongest, with vacancy at 3.2%, unchanged year-over-year, and the average net asking rental rate up 6.5% to $25.55/square feet per annum.
These insights are made possible through CoStar, the largest commercial real estate source for property listings for sale or lease in Canada. CoStar enables users to gain insight into the 86,500+ properties currently tracked in the greater Toronto area, which include 2,737 properties for sale and 13,843 spaces for lease.
CoStar conducts constant, proactive research with a team of 60+ researchers making over 12,000 database updates each day.

Source: Costar

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