Lofts
Lofts originated in New York during 1970s and early 1980s. At that time New York had many unused industrial and office buildings, which were transformed into condominium apartments. That trend migrated to Toronto in the early 1980s, when the first Toronto loft conversion took place at 41 Shanly Street.
There are two categories of loft apartments. Authentic loft conversions, or hard lofts, are created from existing industrial or commercial buildings. Such units are considered renovations, and are not covered by Tarion warranty. Their attractiveness is due to, in part, old features that these buildings retained: incredibly high ceilings, wide staircases, multi-paned metal framed windows, huge wood beams, concrete or old wood floors, to name but a few.
There is, though, just a limited number of these old buildings available in Toronto, and some of the locations are not really very attractive, or not handy to the public transit system. For an almost complete list of Toronto loft buildings please check TORONTO LOFTS.
Because of the popularity of lot apartments, as the older buildings have become harder to find, some brand new lofts are being built in Toronto since 1995. There is a distinct difference between the old and the new. New loft buildings have more modern facilities, insulation in the walls, double-glazed windows, but usually lack the great ceiling heights of the old buildings and their old rugged charm.
Lofts attract the urban home buyers, and, as their prices tend to be more expensive than the traditional condominium units, majority of loft buyers are professionals, with good income.
From the outside, many loft conversions look reassuringly solid. A good loft conversion is one where the developer acted with minimal intervention, revealing the building, rather than transforming it, to allow the owner to create their own environment.
The shape of an apartment in a big factory building may be unconventional. Buildings that were not designed for habitation present a challenge to bring into satisfying proportions. Most of the time, however, we find that tall doors, large windows and high ceilings increase our feeling of space, even when the actual footage is restricted.
If you are on a lookout for a loft space to call your own, you can request information to be e-mailed to you as soon as one that meets your criteria becomes available. Please fill in my request form and we will set-up an MLS search for you.
Loft sales in Toronto and Mississauga
Loft sales in Toronto constitute a small percentage of the total condominium sales. There are few industrial buildings available for conversion, and the price per square foot is higher by, on average, 12% for lofts. In 2004 TREB recorded 775 loft sales. That number was much higher in 2005, at 824, but was down to 768 in 2006. In the first quarter of 2007 TREB recorded 202 loft sales.
In 2006, the highest number of loft sales, 302, was recorded in C01. That was followed by 187 sales in C08 and 93 sales in W06. Most of the time quarterly price averages were close to (but below) 100%. These averages exceeded 100% only in 9 instances, none of them in the last quarter of 2006. The highest average, 108.3% above asking, was in the second quarter of 2006 in W02. One of the three lofts sold in the district in that period of time went for 121% above asking. One must ask oneself whether the list price was fair.
For more detailed statistical information on loft sales in Toronto, please e-mail us.
