5 Toronto Skyscrapers Under Construction

Toronto Leads in North America Constructing Skyscrapers and High-Rise Buildings

First Published Date: Jan 14, 2012

World class city Toronto is the leader in building high-rise buildings and skyscrapers in North America. A recent chart published by the Toronto City Council’s Economic Development Committee shows (source www.emporis.com) that there are currently there are 132 high-rise buildings under construction in Toronto. Mexico City and New York City are in the second and third position with 88 and 86 high-rises under construction.

In terms of completed high-rises and skyscrapers, Toronto stands in the second position in North America with 1,875 after New York with 5,000. According to Emporis, a high-rise building is 35 – 100 meters tall (12 – 39 floors) and buildings above 100 meters are considers skyscrapers.
Now, let’s look at Toronto’s top 5 skyscrapers under construction.

Trump Tower – Located in the heart of downtown Toronto’s financial district at Bay and Adelaide at 25 Adelaide St. West, this 900 feet (276 meters) glass and steel tower will be the second tallest building and the tallest residential building in Canada. The original plan was to make it a 70-floor building, but later the builder settled with 57 floors.

College Park Aura – Located in downtown Toronto’s Yonge district at Yonge St. and Gerrard St. at 444 Yonge St., this 873 feet (266 meters) 75-storey skyscraper will be completed in 2014 and will tie Ten York condo in floors. Aura will be Canada’s tallest residential condo.

Number One Bloor – Located in the heart of downtown Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville’s upscale neighbourhood, Toronto’s most prestigious address Number One Bloor is located at the southeast corner of Yonge St. and Bloor St. This 777-ft. (237 meters) skyscraper will be completed in 2015 and will have 65 floors.

Ten York – Located in downtown Toronto’s financial and waterfront district at York and Harbour St. at 10 York St., this 787-ft. (240 meters), 75-storey skyscraper is a joint venture between city-owned development agency Build Toronto and Tridel.

120 Harbour – Talks are underway to build a 75-storey skyscraper at 120 Harbour St.

Real Estate in Turkey

Buying Property In Turkey

First Published Date: Feb 16, 2010

Ownership of the real estate in Turkey, comes under the reciprocity principle for a foreign individual. Those countries which allow the Turkish citizens or legal entities to own property in their country, only their citizens are allowed to purchase real estate in Turkey. Those countries are the United States, Canada, Latin America, Africa and most of countries in Europe.

The price for the real estate has increased after the relaxation in the ownership restrictions for the foreigners under the Law No. 5444. a foreigner can purchase a maximum of 30 hectares (74 acres) of real estate in Turkey. More than 73,000 foreigners have bought real estate in Turkey. Buyers who are mostly from England, Germany and Greece have poured US$10.4 billion into the real estate market over five years (2002-2007). The foreign buyer has no restrictions to buy 10% of property and land in officially zoned areas like cities, resorts and towns etc. Ownership of real estate in Turkey, is prohibited for foreigner in the rural areas and also the immediate vicinity of a military zone.

There are many rules and regulations to be followed by the foreigner investor and the process become little tricky to handle. A lot of real estate agents, brokers and also property advisors are available to guide their customers. A real estate agent normally charges 3% from the buyer and 3% from the seller so the total of that becomes 6% of the whole amount. The registration process takes around nine days to finish. The “title deed of transfer” is released in about three to nine months, after the application is processed to the court. The registration and notary fees, title deed charges, and including the agent’s commission is paid by the buyer and the seller is suppose to pay the stamp duty fee along with the commission of the agent. The roundtrip transaction cost around 9.85% = 10.75 % and it also include the fees of the lawyer, notary public, registration, taxes and agents’ fees. The real estate in Turkey is subject to a change of price after one year, five years and ten years according to the latest available data or house price index, inflation is not adjusted here. As for the annual percentage, change in the house price or index from (2005-2006) or the latest data available on the price index upon yearly basis. After five years the annual percentage change in house price index and house prize is from 2001-2006 and then the price change after every ten year is from the index 1996. A landlord can expect gross annual rental income which is expressed as a percentage of price of purchase of the property.

It is highly recommended to have a solicitor to do the conveyancing, though legally there is no such requirement. For buyers of the real estate in Turkey, the government authorises an interpreter for the notarization of the property. The buyer and the seller’s presence is mandatory at the entry of the title. The economic recession has hit hard the Turkey’s exports manufacturing sectors and the logistic market is badly affected. This has resulted into the real estate in Turkey slowed down in the line with the rest of world. The consumer confidence is again picking up and retail turn over is growing although the growth rate is slower than the last year. Most of the buyers or occupiers of Turkish real estate are re-locating themselves mostly on the less expensive locations like Asian side of Istanbul.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Feb 13, 2010.

How To Make Money In Global Real Estate In A Bad Economy

Making Money In Global Real Estate

Published Date : March 11, 2010

The current state of the global economy may seem gloomy to most of us, but there are still many opportunities to make money in every industry, including in real state. As some would say, there are always going to be successful and unsuccessful business ventures. This is true wherever there is a marketplace, as it is a necessary fact of a healthy market. But there are ways of maximizing your chances of being successful, and paying close attention to these key points of interest is even more necessary when the economy is in a slump. And this fact applies to real estate as much as any industry.

Part of the problem facing real estate developers in the current state of the economy is the increased difficulty in getting consumers to spend their hard earn money – not just on you, but at all. In order to be successful, in order to out-compete the competition and secure more profit, real estate developers are going to have to become just as innovative in the marketing of their products, but also in developing them. Those who manage to become more innovative will find success; those who do not, will not.

There are several specific areas that real estate developers can focus in on in order to get ahead of the competition. The first area is information. Real estate developers that are going to be successful around the globe are going to have to become more informed and demand more information throughout the industry. As a directly related point to that, successful developers will want more information, and more transparency in the industry – and not just for themselves, but also for their clients. Another related area to information is vague promises and hyperbolic information on developer websites and in brochures. An increased skepticism must come with a deeper focus on information, and this will be a good thing as fewer empty promises will result in better professional relationships.

The next area that future successful real estate developers will want to improve on is understanding the health of the overall financial systems before entering the market in the first place. This means exploring financial data and trends, and analyzing the stability and appropriateness of regulation within the financial system. The current economic crisis reaffirmed something that many businessmen and women have forgotten: without a healthy financial system supporting the economy, no industry is going to be safe from a bust. Therefore any successful real estate developer is going to need to keep an eye out on the health of the financial system.

Another area where developers will want to focus in on is specific pricing trends in real estate throughout the recent bubble and burst. The successful developer will not just want to seek a substantial discount over 2007 pricing highs, but will also want to pass on that discount onto potential buyers. This increases the buying rate of properties, and will most certainly help in the recovery. The new global real estate developer will also want to negotiate on prices that seem still too artificially high, especially when it comes to high-end, high-risk properties. And as a related note, any developer that wants to be successful will increase his or her chances by avoiding areas that run the risk of either an oversupply of real estate or copycat developments. This has a direct effect on pricing instability and unfairness at a very local level.

There is one last key area where developers will want to focus a lot of attention on as global real estate recovers from the current crisis, and that is real estate associated with larger global concerns. The most prominent of the larger global concerns right now is probably environmental in nature. Therefore the more successful developers will want to focus on developing and marketing real estate that offers a more environmentally sound or sustainable approach to living. And as an added bonus, environmentally friendly businesses are likely to receive added regulatory support or even subsidy from government agencies around the world.

There is a lot of information to be understood in these areas by real estate developers, no doubt about that. But the changing landscape of both our financial and regulatory sectors as well as the real estate industry as a whole will effectively demand that real estate developers be very cognizant of these areas. It is therefore a good idea for developers to start working on exploring and understanding these areas, as well as making what they learn a vital part of their development and marketing plans. Remember, in the end, a global real estate recovery is a necessary aspect in the broader global economic recovery. Anything that helps global real estate helps the global economy. And vice versa.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Mar 11, 2010.

Canadian Luxury Real Estate Market Soars

Toronto and Vancouver Are Luxury Real Estate Hotspots

First Published Date: September 27, 2015

In a recent report, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada mentions that luxury real estate in Canadian cities, especially in Toronto and Vancouver, will rise for the rest of 2015. This is mainly due to strong international demand.

Sotheby’s predicts that Toronto and Vancouver will see rise in sales for luxury condos worth more than $1 million, but the highest gains will be over $4 million category homes.

In Montreal, the real estate market is balanced but luxury property demand will continue to increase.

In Calgary, luxury property sales declined in the first half of 2015 due to the declining gas and oil industry and likely will continue to decline.

There are several factors driving the demand for luxury properties. Low interest rates, increased international demand (due to stock market turmoil and slowing economy in foreign markets), and limited inventory are only a few to mention.

Although there has been a lot of speculation in the Canadian real estate market (that it will meltdown), Canada is still considered a place with economic and political stability that makes global real estate investors flock to the nation.

A Brief History of the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers

Tallest Skyscrapers in the World

First Published Date: Mar 27, 2010
 

Skyscrapers are essentially a 20th century invention, and while tall buildings have existed for thousands of years, they reached new heights when skyscrapers began to pop up around the world. Each time a skyscraper was built; there was the drive of the builders to have the tallest building in the city, country and in the world. Since the early part of the 20th century, the drive to have the world’s tallest building has been a constant battle between cities within a country and among countries around the world.

Things started off with the Flatiron Building, which was built to 87 meters and became the tallest skyscraper in the world when it was completed in 1902. The new steel structure of the building allowed the building to reach such a high vertical height and it was not long before other buildings in New York City began to copy the style and build to new heights. The Singer Building and Metropolitan Life Tower both succeeded Flatiron as tallest buildings within the city and the world.

The height of skyscrapers really increased with the Woolworth Building in New York City, which was built overlooking City Hall. Built to 241 meters, it became the world’s tallest building in 1913 when it was completed. It would keep this title until 1930 when the building was surpassed in its height by 40 Wall Street.

The newest world’s tallest skyscraper only had its title for a few months before the Chrysler Building took over title. Built to 319 meters, the Chrysler Building became an icon of New York City, but even its title as world’s tallest skyscraper did not last long. In 1931, only one year after the Chrysler Building was finished, the Empire State Building would rise to 381 meters and become the world’s tallest building. Unlike other buildings that held onto their title for a few years at most, the Empire State Building would remain the world’s tallest building for over 40 years.

In 1972, New York once again built to new heights with the completion of the World Trade Center, which consisted of two towers reaching to the equal height of 417 meters. Their title as world’s tallest skyscrapers would only last one year before the Sears Tower (Willis Tower) was completed in Chicago. This building reached up to 442 meters, or nearly half a kilometer and it would keep the title as the world’s tallest building until 2004. Currently, it remains the tallest skyscraper in the United States and the last, so far, of the American skyscrapers to be considered the tallest in the world.

America’s dominance of the tallest skyscraper category ended with the building of the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which took over the title as world’s tallest skyscraper in 2004. This building reached to a roof height of 448 meters, but the title of world’s tallest building would not last long for this new skyscraper. Over in the Middle East, the tallest building was about to be built and it would be unlike anything ever built.

In 2010, the title of world’s tallest building passed from Taipei 101 to Burj Khalifa. This building did not beat the Taipei 101 building by a few meters for the title, it beat the building by nearly 400 meters, which amounts to almost half a kilometers in height! Burj Khalifa stands at 828 meters, making it nearly one kilometer high and by far the world’s tallest skyscraper and building. To put it in perspective, this Dubai skyscraper is half-a-kilometer higher than both the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building.  The Burj Khalifa also took over the title of world’s tallest free-standing structure over from the CN Tower, which for decades held the title.

Of course, this does not mean that skyscrapers will stop increasing now that the previous tallest record has been shattered. Many buildings are currently building to immense heights of over 500 meters, and in the future there will be some that challenge Burj Khalifa for its title. In fact, the Mile High Tower, proposed to be built in Saudi Arabia, would stand at an astounding 1,600 meters, or double the height of the Burj Khalifa. Whether or not it will be built is a question that cannot be answered quite yet.