Local Businesses Along College Street Between Shaw & Havelock Belong To The College Promenade BIA

Last Thursday the College Promenade Business Improvement Area (BIA) held their Social Media Launch Party at LIT Espresso Bar on College Street. 

This is the BIA that encompasses the neighbourhood where our new Team office and the RE/MAX Hallmark office are located.

The new College Promenade blog  is now online and available to local stores, restaurants and professional offices to add their own information to help promote new business.

The College Promenade BIA Introduces Their New Blog is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Are you ready for Toronto’s Winterlicious?

If you’re new to the city or are thinking of selling your home and moving to a different neighbourhood in Toronto, there’s no better way to get a feel for the offerings of any particular area than Winterlicious.

Winterlicious – along with its warm-weather counterpart Summerlicious – is an annual Toronto food festival that runs from January 28th to February 10th, or during what is normally the slowest time of year for many restaurants.

There are a total of 150 restaurants participating, and diners can get a taste of what each one offers at reduced prices for a specific menu. Currently, the prices are $15, $20 and $25 for lunch and $25, $35 or $45 for dinner, depending on the restaurant. These prices include a starter, entree and dessert.

Chain restaurants are usually not allowed, and participating restaurants are carefully selected by the city. The 2011 Toronto Winterlicious Restaurant list is available here.

Prices for the Toronto Winterlicious food festival and restaurant event.

Andrew Freeman, a restaurant and hotel marketing consultant based in San Fransisco, told CTV this week that some of his bigger predictions for this year’s foodie scene are “Meatless Mondays”, a growing public taste for yogurt and the different varieties offered, an abandonment of the traditional sauces in restaurant dishes to be replaced with futuristic freeze-dried and crumbled garnishes as well as more kumquats and less sugar. His top prediction is that pie will replace cupcakes as the reigning sweet treat across all food trends, including savory snacks or pie-flavoured items like milkshakes.

Head out during Toronto’s Winterlicious and experience some of the culture, food and up-and-coming trends the city’s restaurants have to offer!

Winterlicious in Toronto is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

The Worst Roads List is a survey is released each year by the Canadian Automobile Association. For once, Toronto doesn’t have a road in the top spot but has the top three spots on the Best Roads in Ontario list, another CAA annual survey.

Which roads made the Best Roads in Ontario list?

Last year, Toronto’s Steeles Avenue was voted the worst road in Ontario. This year, it takes the Best Road in Ontario title. In second and third place are Leslie Street and Highway 407. Other Toronto roads on the Best Roads in Ontario list include Islington Avenue, Eglinton Avenue, Lakeshore Boulevard and Don Mills Road.

Sioux Lookout and Sudbury took the top two places on the Worst Roads in Ontario list, but Toronto’s Lawrence Avenue, Finch Avenue, Eglinton Avenue West, Kingston Road and Bayview Avenue still made the list.

The roads are rated on their general condition and drivability. In 2009, Finch Avenue, Dufferin Street, Lawrence Avenue, Victoria Park Avenue, Highway 401, Kingston Road and Eglinton Avenue were all on the Worst Roads List.

The Worst Roads of 2009 are currently being repaired according to the CAA.

The Best Roads in Ontario and Worst Roads in Ontario 2010 lists are available here.

The Best Roads in Ontario and Worst Roads in Ontario 2009 lists (and their current repair status) are available here.

Toronto Tops Best Roads Survey is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

In any Toronto real estate transaction, a land survey is sometimes overlooked. A recent story in the Toronto Star about two neighbours who shared a mutual driveway between them reiterates the importance of getting a land survey and understanding property boundaries before purchasing or selling a home.

The couple who recently moved in next door actually owns most of the two homes’ formerly-shared the driveway and is now forbidding the other couple from using the driveway they’ve used for the past 33 years, which also connects to their garage. According to a land survey from over 50 years ago, the shared space between the home is actually divided 25/75 and the neighbours with the larger share have since blocked the other homeowners’ access to the driveway.

In Ontario, land surveys used to be called a surveyor’s real property report, and these can be fairly outdated as the province slowly switches over to the newer provincial Land Title system. The older Land Registry laws would have allowed the neighbour who has used the driveway for so long to keep using it, however the Ontario Land Title system effectively takes this right away.

A similar case in Nova Scotia was also mentioned, where a driveway was amicably shared between two neighbours, even though one neighbour was only entitled to 3 feet and the other was entitled to 8 feet. Those with only 3 feet built a fence and prevented the other neighbours from using the driveway. This case led to expensive court proceedings and litigation, which can easily be avoided by conducting a land survey.

A land survey is very important as Toronto’s neighbourhoods are filled with homes that share driveways. Professional land surveys use historical records and research as well as measuring to accurately determine where someone’s property boundaries are. This will ensure that both the buyer and seller know exactly what is changing hands during any real estate transaction.

Land Survey: Toronto Homebuyers And Home Sellers Shouldn’t Overlook It is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

If you’re lucky enough to own a piece of downtown Toronto real estate, you can just sit back and watch the waterfront area grow.

A Waterfront Toronto conceptual drawing of Queens Quay, looking east.

Toronto’s new Sugar Beach is just one part of the city’s waterfront revitalization projects. Plenty of thought has gone into it: Pink umbrellas, imported sugar-like sand and well-thought out landscaping.

However, next to Sugar Beach and marring the picturesque landscape is a boxy, uninspired building – the Corus Entertainment headquarters, a generic green glass office building.  While the design is sustainable, it doesn’t quite suit the beachy atmosphere. Locals have been quite critical of the area’s architecture and the fact that it already has the whole no swimming thing going for it, being completely fenced in from the water itself. It’s not a place where Toronto residents can beat the heat unless they want to head towards the giant fountain. Still, the area used to be a parking lot.

Sugar beach is the second urban beach in the city. The Queen’s Quay streetcar line still needs to be extended to get the average biped there, but if you’re on a bike you can get there relatively easily. It’s just one more element in Toronto’s growth as a waterfront destination.

Along with selecting Hines as the real estate company to develop the next great Toronto neighbourhood, Waterfront Toronto has several projects on the go including the Lower Don Lands, the West Don Lands, East Bayfront, Port Lands, the Central Waterfront and the Gardiner area.

Those curious about the waterfront projects can check out the Waterfront Toronto website, which has a listing of projects that are underdevelopment, in the planning stages and recently completed.

Watch the Toronto waterfront area grow! is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

It was announced yesterday that Waterfront Toronto has officially chosen the Hines Toronto real estate firm to develop the Next Great Waterfront Neighbourhood. The new neighbourhood will be on 10 acres of waterfront land between Parliament and Lower Sherbourne Streets, south of Queens Quay Boulevard.

The Toronto East Bayfront area currently.

The currently underutilized land will be turned into a mixed-use neighbourhood with 1,700 homes, retail and plenty of entertainment destinations for the East Bayfront area.

There was heated competition for designers and corporations bidding for bragging rights to help develop the land, which is the largest area ever developed by Waterfront Toronto. Hines won approval from the Toronto city council after putting together a design team that includes a leader who worked on the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lampur and the World Financial Center in Manhattan.

The revitalization of Toronto’s waterfront and putting the city on the map as a true waterfront destination continues! And not forgetting the cold winters, this waterfront area will have a winter garden and intimate nooks and crannies for visitors to escape the weather. Another architect working on the project also mentioned that they are aiming to make the area “the most walkable neighbourhood in all of Toronto.”

An artist's rendering of the future Toronto East Bayfront area.

The entire project is expected to be completed by 2021, but the project will be constructed in phases, with some buildings being ready for occupancy by 2014.

Waterfront Toronto Chooses Next Great Toronto Neighbourhood is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

The Toronto Star recently announced that the bedbug infestation numbers in the city are rising. Bedbugs aren’t limited to low-income apartments or housing, but Toronto real estate that includes upscale houses and condominiums. However, in situations like these as well as in hotels, the problem is underreported because of the stigma attached.

Traveling is one way bedbugs can infiltrate your Toronto home or condo.

In 2003, Toronto Public Health received 46 reports of bedbug issues, while this year to date Toronto Public Health’s bedbug hotline has received over 1,300 calls.

Soon, the city of Toronto will be releasing information to property managers on how to deal with bedbugs properly in apartments and condominiums. Currently, they are not required to disclose anything to future tenants or residents and unless the infestation is extreme, the condo owner will have to pay for extermination himself.

However, homeowners have to deal with the issue themselves in every case. In most cases, someone can get bedbugs by bringing them into a home after visiting an infested hotel or a friend’s house, or if you are a tradesperson who regularly visits other people’s home and then brings them back to your own. Similarly, used clothing and furniture can contain bedbugs.

They can and do bite, leaving the victim with itchy red welts or even more serious allergic reactions. Aside from the bites, signs of bedbugs include rust-coloured specks on bed sheets, an offensive smell, shed skins as well as spotting the bugs in the crevices of your mattress or other parts of your home. They are visible to the naked eye and are about the size of an apple seed.

Bedbugs typically require professional attention, and a pest control company can go over your next steps with you. Clothes, furniture and any other soft surfaces that may be infested will also have to be quarantined, specially cleaned at a very high temperature or thrown away.

Bedbugs In Toronto Homes – What to do? is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods. No matter where you live, or where you’re planning on buying a home, getting to know all of the hidden secrets of each of these neighbourhoods is a bonus. Find the best local coffee shop, book store or gelato dispensary. Learn about the nearby park bench and why it’s the best people watching spot in town, or how lucky you are to live near the restaurant that offers the best dim sum in the city that’s perfect for Sunday brunch.

Get to know your neighbourhood a bit better. Take advantage of Toronto's guided walking tours.

Toronto has several different tours that are off the beaten path:

Art and architecture: Every Saturday, tour the city’s art and design district with local art writer Betty Ann Jordan of Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Canadian House & Home, Canadian Art and pretty much any other worthwhile publication. Meet the artists and gallery owners along the way as she takes you down West Queen West.

Relics of Toronto past: Local historian Bruce Bell offers walking tours through notable Toronto buildings like St. James Cathedral, St. Lawrence Market and King Edward Hall. According to the Toronto Star, Bruce Bell is, “The most entertaining historian you’ve ever met, is an engaging story teller who knows more about the history of Toronto than possibly anyone.”

Toronto hotspots: Did you know Toronto is home to the first Hard Rock Cafe in all of North America? The Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area has trained guides that will take visitors down to Maple Leaf Gardens, Massy Hall and that famous Hard Rock Cafe in 9 different languages.

Take Some Time And Get To Know Your Toronto Neighbourhood A Bit Better is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Toronto is one of the largest real estate markets in Canada, and the biannual Global Real Estate Transparency Index study conducted by financial and professional services company Jones Lang LaSalle has found that Canada’s real estate market is the second best in the entire world with regards to transparency.

Canada is only behind Australia with regards to real estate transparency in the world.

The transparency of a real estate market is determined by how well real estate debt is monitored by banks and the amount of information that is freely available on real estate debt.

Canada came in second place out of 81 countries just under Australia, because according to the study Canada has “relatively low vacancy and rental volatility, stable property markets, well-developed commercial real estate lending standards and a sound banking system with strong deposit bases and high capital reserve ratios going into the global recession.”

Transparency is important because it shows the fair and consistent application of local law and the availability of free-flowing information. Key issues with real estate transparency include that transactions have been compromised by challenging market conditions and that the transparency of legal and regulatory environments in the real estate industry have slowed in countries that remain less transparent.

The studies have been conducted since 1999, and the most recent was in 2008 where Canada ranked number one. Canada is still considered to have an edge because of its soundness of banks and strength of investor protection, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness report. The United States came in 6th in the study, with one-third of the countries studied either declining or static.

Toronto among the second-most transparent real estate markets in the world: Canada is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Consumer research firm J.D. Power and Associates announced last week that the recession may have led to fewer home sales in the Greater Toronto Area, but less sales meant one positive development for builders and their customers.

Consumer confidence in Greater Toronto Area home builders shot up this year.

Less sales meant fewer closings, and builders has more time to spend with their customers, allowing them to better concentrate on their product.

Satisfaction sharply declined in 2009 but rose 25 points to 699 on a 1,000-point scale this year because of home readiness and the level of warranty service after moving in.

Improvements in other areas were also apparent, such as responding to homeowner concerns and cleanliness of the home after service visits.

“Following up with a customer after move-in seems like such a simple gesture, but ultimately it reflects the conviction of the builder to deliver on the promises made to the customer at the time of sale,” said Adrian Chung, senior manager and Canadian real estate practice leader at J.D. Power and Associates in a press release.

The J.D. Power and Associates Canadian New Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study follows the customer satisfaction levels of homeowners throughout the new home-purchasing process, including construction, service/warranty staff, quality, physical design and price.

The Greater Toronto Area Consumer Satisfaction Survey results.

Fewer Toronto Home Sales Meant Better Relationships With Builders in 2010 is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale