June 25, 2008
For Sale in … County Cork, Ireland
This four-bedroom four-bath restored Victorian Gothic country house at the edge of Kinsale Harbor in the village of Summercove is offered for 4,500,000 euros ($6.9 million)
The house, set 40 feet above Kinsale Harbour, has 180-degree views to the southwest. Kinsale is a medieval town known for its seafood dining and recreational activities like golf, sailing and fishing. The inland side of the house faces a narrow village street.
High gothic windows bring in light and emphasize the views. The kitchen has a two-story ceiling, and on the mezzanine above is an office space with a wide view of the harbor. A conservatory looks out over the garden and the water. The ground floor is heated by hot water piped under the oak parquet floors. The bathrooms are tiled with limestone, and all four of the bedrooms have harbor views. The house’s terrace walls are all that remain of an old garrison that stood in this spot before the current structure was built in 1905. The walled garden has potted plants and a lawn bordered by granite paths. Below, at water’s edge, are a private jetty and a small, rocky beach. A blocked-off smuggler’s tunnel runs underneath the house. The lot is three-quarters of an acre.
During the recent housing boom, Ireland saw an influx of expatriates from Britain, Northern Europe and the United States. The Irish countryside attracts golfers, sailors, and others desiring an active lifestyle.
The country’s property market has been climbing steadily since the mid-1990s, but recently economic pressure has pushed prices lower. In May, permanent tsb, an Irish bank, and the Economic and Social Research Institute reported in their monthly House Price Index that national house prices were down 9.2 percent in 2008 compared with the same period a year earlier.
BUYING BASICS
Buyers should hire an estate agent, or auctioneer, who is licensed by the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers. Fees for agents can vary widely, and should be agreed upon in writing in advance. Sellers’ agents include their commissions, usually about 2.5 percent, in the price of the property.
Other expenses include stamp duty, or transfer tax. For properties worth more than 125,000 euros, stamp duty is 7 to 9 percent of the purchase price.
When an offer is accepted, the buyer makes a refundable deposit of 2 to 3 percent. At closing, the buyer pays the balance of the deposit, typically at least 10 percent of the purchase price.
June 24, 2008
The road (or subway) to riches
Will your new home one day find itself near a subway or major transit line?
The old real estate axiom about location, location, location has a well-known addendum: being near a subway or major transit route can instantly increase what your home is worth without you having to do anything at all.
But can you tell where they’re going to build or if the place you’re looking to buy will one day find itself on a subway or major transit line? The answer is yes, if you believe government plans about where officials hope to put the new routes. Adding transit takes years of planning and a commitment of millions of dollars and all of it has to be done well in advance. That means the powers-that-be know where they’ll be putting the new tracks and trains as much as a decade or more before a shovel actually hits the ground.
One of those locations could be along waterfront-adjacent Cherry Street, which would make the folks on Condo Row lick their collective chops at the thought of bulging resale values.
“Streetcar access is phenomenal in terms of adding to value and presence … people want to be on a streetcar line,” said David Jackson, a Toronto urban planner.
Plans for the new tracks could start as early as spring 2009, while the underground expansion of the Don Mills subway line all the way to Morningside could have homeowners on the north side of town dreaming of dollars, though there’s no official date for that project to commence.
So just how much of a bottom line difference are we talking about here?
“Easily thirty to fifty thousand dollars,” confirmed Toronto realtor Janice Mackie. “Thirty thousand dollars is a parking spot … you don’t have to purchase that.”
What’s more, given the constant rise in gas prices and the GTA’s traffic volume, the Better Way may soon be looking even better still.
And while the two mentioned above are among the more central and immediate transit expansion schemes in the works, there are dozens of others being hatched around the GTA and Ontario as well.
June 23, 2008
Boomers at home in Forest Hill
Older age group is growing fastest in luxury Toronto neighbourhood
For decades, analysts have been talking about the impact of Baby Boomers on everything from consumer preferences and health care needs, to labour markets and housing demand. The strength of the condominium market, in particular, has been a testament of this process as adult children of Baby Boomers have been leaving home as first-time condominium buyers or renters, and as the empty nester parents themselves have been trading in their large homes for a condominium lifestyle. However, the challenge for many empty nesters has been to find luxury condos in their current neighbourhoods where they have lived for decades.
A look at the Forest Hill and Chaplin Estates neighbourhoods in midtown Toronto, generally known as the area south of Eglinton, between Bathurst and Yonge Street, and north of Lonsdale Road (census tracts 129, 130 and 131), provides a good snapshot of an ageing population whose housing needs are changing. According to the latest 2006 census data, there were 13,965 residents living in the Forest Hill and Chaplin Estates area — only 0.7% higher than 2001 when there were 13,870 residents living in the area. The population is distributed relatively evenly by age group — 29% are children and youth (under 24 years); 30% are young professionals (25 to 44 years); and 29% are older professionals (45 to 64 years), reflecting the predominance of families. Seniors over 65 years make up 12% of the population, which is slightly lower than the city of Toronto. However, compared with the 2001 census, the leading edge of Baby Boomers (55 to 64 years) were the fastest-growing age group increasing in numbers by 25.9%, followed by their younger children aged 15 to 24 years (17.5% increase). Not surprisingly, the largest decrease in population (-12.4%) occurred among the 25-to 34-year-olds who moved out of their parents’ homes during this period.
The prevalence of families living in Forest Hill and Chaplin Estates is also evident in the marital status data (of individuals over 24 years), which showed a 10.9% decrease in the number of single residents, compared with a net increase in married and common-law couples. Even the number of separated and divorced residents fell by 4%, compared with a city of Toronto trend toward more “marriage casualties” (6.2% increase from 2001 to 2006). Similarly, the number of one-and two-person households fell, while the number of three-plus person family household increased — again, contrary to the city of Toronto trend toward smaller household sizes.
Forest Hill and Chaplin Estates are also very stable neighbourhoods in terms of housing stock, with virtually no new residential homes constructed from 2001 to 2006, apart from some new homes built to replace older teardowns. More than 60% of current residents were also living in the area during the 2001 census, so it is not surprising that only 22% identified themselves as immigrants, compared to nearly 50% for the city of Toronto, and only 3% of residents immigrated most recently from 2001 to 2006. The majority of immigrants living in Forest Hill and Chaplin Estates originally emigrated from Europe (30%), United States (18%), South America (16%) and Southeast Asia (15%).
The latest census data also reports that Forest Hill and Chaplin Estates are relatively affluent neighbourhood with a lower-than-average unemployment rate, around 2.9% in 2006. Its residents are well educated — 70% have a university degree (including 19% with a post-graduate degree), and most are working in higher-paying occupations such as: management (21%); business, finance and administration (20%); and law, education and government (17%). As such, more than 46% of households reported earning over $100,000 per annum in 2005 and the average annual household income was around $246,000 — among the highest in Toronto.