• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer

CanuckšŸPost

Critically O Canada

General

  • Home
  • CanuckšŸAI
  • Search
  • Archives
  • Articles
  • Canadian Real Estate News
    • Market
    • Mortgage
    • Toronto
    • Vancouver
    • Legal
    • Improvement
Coming Soon

Categories

  • Archives
    • All Articles
  • Featured
  • Scandal
  • Realty
    • Canadian Real Estate News
    • Market
    • Mortgage
    • Toronto
    • Vancouver
    • Legal
    • Improvement
  • CanuckšŸAI
    • Contact
    • Search

Newsletter

Coming Soon.

* We don’t do spam, just the latest news. Sign up today and get our top stories delivered straight to your inbox.

  • Archives
    • All Articles
  • Featured
  • Scandal
  • Realty
    • Canadian Real Estate News
    • Market
    • Mortgage
    • Toronto
    • Vancouver
    • Legal
    • Improvement
  • CanuckšŸAI
    • Contact
    • Search
Scandal

Bank of Mom & Dad and Developers are master of the universe

November 5, 2013 4:53 pm
Developer

GTA housing buoyed by parents helping young buyers

‘Gift letters’ have become a common form of currency as young buyers struggle to save down payments

Helping out the kids with a home purchase is not new. But the amounts being signed over have reached staggering heights in the GTA, say mortgage industry observers. CANADIAN PRESS

Toronto mortgage broker Jake Abramowicz sees so many first-time homebuyers armed with major money from Mom and Dad, he actually has a little pep talk for those going it on their own.

ā€œI tell them: You guys are really doing something special. It’s really hard to pay rent in Toronto, pay off student loans and save money for a down payment for a home. You should be very proud of yourself.ā€

For almost a decade now, Abramowicz has specialized in helping first-time buyers get mortgages. During that time he’s seen house prices soar, lending rules tighten and more buyers — now at least 75 per cent of his younger clients — armed with ā€œgift lettersā€ or tens of thousands of dollars from their baby boomer parents.

ā€œHow else do you think someone in their 30s can afford a Leslieville semi?,ā€ asks Abramowicz, 36.

ā€œI see deals where parents are contributing $50,000, $100,000, $400,000. The Mom of one of my best friends sold her farm for $2.5 million and gave him $450,000. He bought a condo in Liberty Village for cash.

ā€œHe works very hard and he knows he’s extremely fortunate.ā€

Helping out the kids is hardly new. Nor are gift letters — the disclosure documents parents sign as part of the mortgage approval process that details their contribution to their kids.

But the amounts being signed over have reached staggering heights in the GTA where skyrocketing house prices have made baby boomers richer than they could have ever imagined, while leaving their kids struggling to get a toehold in a market that continues to climb into the stratosphere.

Rea More @Ā http://www.thestar.com/

In Toronto, condo construction is more important than public access: The Fixer

The city allows developers to close lanes on streets around condo sites, if they pay for lost parking revenue.

A developer has a permit to barricade part of Lillian St., next to an Eglinton Ave. condo construction site, which was obtained by paying the Toronto Parking Authority for lost revenue from closed parking spaces.

JACK LAKEY / TORONTO STARĀ Order this photo

A developer has a permit to barricade part of Lillian St., next to an Eglinton Ave. condo construction site, which was obtained by paying the Toronto Parking Authority for lost revenue from closed parking spaces.

Condo developers are masters of the local universe, with rights to occupy precious public space that can be bought for peanuts.

On Oct. 17 we reported on a Roehampton Ave. condo siteĀ where pylons were improperly used to close the curb lane, to create exclusive parking for construction workers.

We asked readers to tell us if they saw the same thing elsewhere, and got several tips, including a note about barricades next to a large condo project on Lillian St., just south of Eglinton Ave.

We went there Tuesday and found concrete barriers running south from Eglinton for nearly 100 metres in the curb lane of Lillian, along the east side of the construction site.

The only thing there to justify the barriers was a garbage dumpster and an SUV parked behind it. A guy jumped into the vehicle and started to drive away, so we stopped him and asked why part of the street is closed.

The developer has a permit from the city, he said, offering to show it to us. We looked closely and found that it authorized hoarding along Eglinton, but said nothing about barricading Lillian.

When we said as much and asked if we could shoot a photo of the permit, he got into his SUV and took off, saying we should go to a trailer on the job site, where other people could provide more information.

What’s broken in your neighbourhood?
Read More @Ā http://www.thestar.com/

You May Also Like…

PETITION: Demand Accountability For CORRUPTION CRISIS — Prime Minister Mark Carney Must Be Investigated For Criminal Negligence & Public Betrayal

PETITION: Demand Accountability For Toronto’s CORRUPTION CRISIS And Mayor Chow’s Resignation For Criminal Negligence & Public Betrayal

PETITION: Premier Doug Ford Must Be Held Accountable For Criminal Negligence And Public Betrayal By Enabling Toronto’s CORRUPTION CRISIS

LAWLESSNESS — Canada’s Moral & Legal Collapse: Carney’s hypocritical complicity in international Law Violations repeatedly has rendered the country to be labelled as a Lawless, Corrupt, Spineless, Pathetic, and Hypocritical Pariah Banana Republic with Zero Sovereignty

Previous Post:Wealthy Chinese gobbling up Silicon Valley homes
Next Post:Real estate sales up slightly in October

Reader Interactions

Whaddaya Say? Cancel reply

Registration NOT required to comment.

Copyright © 2025 Ā· CanuckšŸPost Ā· All Rights Reserved