Yorkville!

Toronto’s answer for Manhattan’s “Park Avenue”…

As prices in the area soar out of control with new condominiums and pre-construction developments, 40 Scollard Street still offers “entry level” prices where you would never think it possible…

Remember the television show Sesame Street?

Remember how they had that segment “One of these things just doesn’t belong?”  I never liked that segment; I always found it to be moronically easy.

They would musically chant, “One of these things…..just doesn’t be-long,” as they parade out the letter “A,” the letter “B,” the letter “C,” and then the number “5.”

Even as a small child, my sense of sarcasm was already in rapid over-development as I turned to my mother and said, “Geez….they just aren’t even trying anymore!”

When I hear the terms “Yorkville,” “Condo,” “Parking,” and “two-hundred-ninety-nine-thousand,” I immediately feel like I’m back on my living room rug in 1984 watching Sesame Street again.  Truly, one of those things just does NOT belong, as most people would be surprised to hear that a 1-bedroom condominium in prestigious Yorkville could be had for the tender price of $299,000.

Add in the fact that this condominium comes with an underground parking space, and an over-sized locker, and suddenly this sounds too good to be true.

But you know what?

It’s not.

40 Scollard Street is one of the “older” buildings in Yorkville, and in this case, “old” actually means a whopping twenty-five years.  Originally a small hotel, the building at 40 Scollard Street was converted into condominium units numbering just under 100 in total.

I had written a post a while back about the most expensive buildings in the city of Toronto, and the Four Seasonsproject going in at 55 Scollard Street costs a whopping $1,580 per square foot!  And that does NOT including extras such as parking and locker, the former costing upwards of $40,000.

Unit #804 at 40 Scollard Street, priced at $299,000, is just under 600 square feet in total, and features a very open living/dining space where there was originally a small sun-room or den.  With a quick tap-tap-tap on my calculator, we reveal that the asking price for this unit comes in at $500 per square foot, which is only A THIRD of the cost of the newer Four Seasons building.

Look, I’m not going to try and pass off 40 Scollard Street as being comparable to the prestigious developments going up in the area, but consider for a moment that if this unit were across the street in the other building (which is currently a parking lot but will be a building in 2011), it would be $900,000 instead of $300,000.

Surely that has some value, no?

Think about the people that buys the smallest, cheapest house in Leaside just so they can get their foot through the door.  Once they own that house, they’re living in Leaside, shopping and eating on Bayview, their kids attending Bessborough School, etc.  Similarly, with Yorkville being the most trendy locale in Toronto, this is an opportunity for somebody to enter the Yorkville market without being gouged for $1500/sqft!

The unit itself faces north with a clear city view, and whereas most Toronto condos have a premium for south-facing units, 40 Scollard Street attracts a north-premium since the Four Seasons will soon be directly across the street.

The unit is clean, open, and exceptionally bright, and there is a small solarium off the bedroom that has endless possibilities.

I’ve been absolutely amazed in the last couple months at all the crummy units that sell in the high $200K’s, approaching that magical $300,000 mark.  Whenever I look on MLS and see that somebody has paid $297,500 for a 1-bedroom unit at 3 Navy Wharf, 12 Yonge Street, or 230 Queen’s Quay, I give my head a shake.  You could have a 1-bedroom unit in Yorkville, albeit in an older building, or you could have a cookie-cutter unit in a new development that is one of a few thousand similar units within a 1/4-KM radius.

I tell all my clients the same thing: “If, and when, the market does turn against us years from now, do you want a sought-after, unique, original product?  Or do you want to be left holding a unit that is one of thousands in the area, and when you go to sell you’ll have fifty of the same unit on the market at that time?”

I tell my clients you need to meet one, or all of these criteria: neighborhood, building, wild-card.

Neighborhoodis self-explanatory.  If you own a house in Leaside or a condo in Yorkville for lack of better examples, you’re property will always be in high demand.

Buildingrefers to the condominium itself, and 160 Baldwin Ave, for example, meets the uniqueness requirement for the building.  It is the only condominium in Kensington Market (also hitting on neighborhood), and is a funky loft-style low-rise with approximately 100 units.

This brings us to the wild-card.  I bought a small, 1-bedroom condo of 585 square feet that happened to be one of only six units in the building that had a 450 square foot patio.  THAT is a wild-card!

What separates your unit from the rest?

Do you meet one, two, or all of these requirements?

Could you make an argument that one requirement doesn’t stand above the rest, but you “sort-of” meet all three when you look at them collectively?

Yorkville carved it’s own niche in the Toronto real estate market quite some time ago.

The opportunity to get into the Yorkville market for $299,000 is a dream for most people

So stop dreaming.

As I wrote on the MLS listing: “Gucci, Prada, Tiffany’s, Cartier, Manulife Centre, TTC all at your doorstep!”

Great sales pitch?

Perhaps.

But there are probably twenty-thousand condominium units that can’t use the same sales pitch, because they just aren’t Yorkville.

If you need further convincing, just Google “Manhattan” and “Real Estate”….

You’ll see where Yorkville is headed…

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