If you’ve been reading my blogs for the past couple decades (originally simplcondos.com) you will already know that I have been one of Toronto’s top producing Buyer’s Agents specializing in condos but also that my success as a buyer’s agent has come because I am first and foremost an investor myself.
I have a very different approach to investing than most academics that I meet. They emphasize the mathematical logistics of “leverage” whereas I simply buy and pay for.
They see my logic as too simple and mathematically challenged, while I remember the condo crash of 1989 here in Ontario Canada where condo values plummeted over night with spiking interest rates that shot up over 10% in days!
Speculators (the majority buyers these days in Condo Land) who bought anticipating mortgage rates in the 5% range couldn’t handle them at 15%+!
Do I think that the same thing could happen today?
Absolutely!
I’ve never seen anything go up forever and Toronto’s condo market has gone absolutely berserk over the past decade and it’s not like it’s letting up any time soon!
I’ve said before that is two critical factor propping up Condo Land Employment and Interest Rates!
Toronto has more condos under construction than any other North America city! Think about it. More than Manhattan, Chicago, Miami! And high net worth Chinese are refocusing on America for investment these days!
I was writing about shadow inventories of unsold and over-priced condo units a couple years ago!
The hysteria buying fueled by off-shore speculators being invited to “flip” units before the buildings are even built has continued, but Revenue Canada has caught on to that income tax dodge (“Assignments” carry minimal paper work and there is no public paper trail) and that will soon dry up a lot of international interest in Condo Land!
It’s not like the price issue is not public knowledge as major lending institutions are pegging the market here as over-priced by up to 4o%!
The only thing keeping all of this afloat is our government paying down interest rates. That’s right, our tax payer dollars are being spent to artificially “prop up” the shell game of Condo Land!
Why? Because without construction industry jobs (and civil servant jobs) our economy “flat-lined” a couple years ago!
Amidst all of this lunacy, what does an investor do?
Investors invest folks!
But not in anything as volatile as Condo Land. I’ve found a new sand box to play in.
I’ve concluded that I’m going to build my own home. Hey, with the constant flow of catastrophe after catastrophe with dealing with developers, building my own home looks like child’s play.
So, I’m on the hunt for a parcel of land in a good area of Ontario. If anyone out there (a good percentage of my readers are Realtors) has quality investment land in quality locations, please let me know.
I am looking for something that I can sever into a few lots or build a small collection of upscale townhouses. If the right opportunity presented itself I would build a large estate home.
I’ll keep you posted and look forward to any help in finding quality locations.
I’m Charles
