Cumberland Terrace Tells The Story of Yorkville at a Glance. While most time capsules are buried in the foundations of buildings, their contents to be revealed at some future date, Cumberland Terrace is a living (if barely breathing) piece of Me Decade retail architecture frozen in time. Promoted as "the nicest way from Yonge to Bay" when it opened in October 1974, the mall's resistance to modernization - orange and brown tiles, large banks of phones, signage for... [read more]

It would be easy to mistake the lobby of the One o One condos in midtown Toronto for a nightclub or graffiti-splashed alley. Instead of the muted colours and cookie-cutter designs that fill many condo buildings, developer Camrost Felcorp hired Toronto artist Anthony Ricciardi to create seven murals splattered with bright paint and a rainbow of drip marks. The flashy pieces put the building in a growing group of condo complexes whose hallways, lobbies and outdoor grounds are being... [read more]

ONTARIO TRIED A SPECULATION TAX ON PROPERTY AND THE MARKET COLLAPSED OVERNIGHT For decades, Barry Lebow has kept a scapbook of one of the most traumatic business days in his life. There are some dates you always remember, and for the Ontario real estate industry it's April 9, 1974. That is the day the province shocked the sector by announcing a 50% land speculation tax.  "We had no wind of this," said Lebow, now 69. "I was 27 years old and I owned 53 houses... [read more]

CHINESE INVESTMENT IN CANADIAN REAL ESTATE SET TO INCREASE IN 2016 Chinese investors are getting hungrier for real estate in Canada, where foreign demand has fuelled record price gains and made million-dollar homes the norm in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver. Inquiries for Canadian homes on Juwai.com, a property search engine that lists real estate around the world for Chinese buyers, jumped 134% in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the Shanghai-based company.... [read more]

HOT REAL ESTATE MARKETS  Driving Canadian Household Wealth Canadians grew wealthier in 2014 as they saved more money while slowing their pace of borrowing, leaving many households better prepared to weather falling oil prices and recent economic downturns. Household debts climbed 2.9% on average last year while assets grew 5.5%, pushing average household net wealth to $589,511 in Canada, according to the latest WealthScapes analysis by Environics Analytics. The latest report... [read more]