Realty Is Unreal ?
Pioneer purchasers have tried to flip their units practically at cost with no success …
Toronto Trump Tower is not selling at all
After watching listings for about a dozen similar units in the beleaguered luxury project languish on the MLS for more than a year without a single taker, the owner of the 12th-floor suite — himself a veteran realtor — has turned to Ritchies Auctioneers to try to sell off his $1-million-plus hotel-condo suite in Toronto’s Trump hotel like a piece of fine jewelry or aging farm equipment — by auction.
Purchasers Sued, But Donald Trump said: “It’s none of my business”
Owners of 25 units in the 65-storey hotel-condo project at Bay and Adelaide Sts. have launched a lawsuit for more than $40 million against developer Talon International, alleging they were victims of “an investment scheme and conspiracy.”
Many have found themselves unable to get mortgages on units that lenders consider commercial rather than residential real estate. Or they have been crippled by maintenance fees and commercial property taxes averaging thousands of dollars per month.
Talon has launched a countersuit, saying buyers were warned that real estate, and hotels, can be risky investments.
Read More Here: Toronto Trump tower: Hotel-condo owner goes auction route
Any “Moronic” Buyers Out There ?
“There will be two kinds of potential buyers for this, and they are likely to be international buyers. It’s either going to be a purely ego thing — somebody who likes the novelty and wants a place to stay when they’re in Toronto on business — or a bargain hunter who’s willing to take the risk of holding it for a few years to see where it goes.”
Bendit
The unit also comes with a million dollar view of a construction site and the air conditioning units atop another near building. And yes, no kitchen. The current owner is also a real estate agent!! Cant make this stuff up.
It is extremely hard to feel bad for people who decide to gamble and speculate on real estate of this type. They were blinded by the fake glitter that the Trump name carries with it convinced that they would make a killing by flipping the property some time later. Well, some one was flipped on this one, and it surely was not the property.
Buyers at Toronto’s Trump Tower say they were suckered into deals by “scamsters”
It turns out that the hotel had nothing to do with Donald Trump and that it isn’t a good investment after all
Herbert Crockett, a 75-year-old retired human resources director at the World Health Organization, said he bought a $904,000 hotel-condominium suite at the Trump International Hotel & Tower, Toronto, attracted by a presentation that showed he could make as much as 27% a year on his investment. Crockett is now suing Trump and the hotel’s developers for $2.6-million, and says he’s losing $7,000 a month because the unit he rents out is occupied on average about a quarter of the time.
Buyers at Toronto’s Trump Tower say they were suckered into deals by an ‘investment scheme and conspiracy’
Talon International directors Alex Shnaider and Val Levitan are at the centre of an escalating legal battle, in which buyers allege they were targeted by “an investment scheme and conspiracy based upon reckless and negligent misrepresentations” of the luxury hotel’s financial prospects.
“We bought into the Trump name and what we were being told was a hot real estate market in Toronto for this kind of project,” Crockett said in an interview. “It turns out that the hotel had nothing to do with him and that it isn’t a good investment after all.”
“When people buy units purely as an investment and not to ever live in, it’s a sign that the Toronto market is on thin ice,” John Andrew, a real-estate professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, said in a phone interview. “The luxury market always feels the cracks of a housing market first. Here we have the canary in the coal mine.”
Tallest Building
The Trump Toronto, the tallest residential building in Canada when it opened in January, is suffering from low occupancy and its residents are unable to get the financing promised to them, about two dozen buyers allege in their lawsuits against the Trump Organization and the tower’s developer Talon International Development Corp.
Donald Trump was not involved in selling the properties, said Alan Garten, personal legal counsel for the New York-based Trump Organization Inc. “These allegations are completely without merit,” he said in an email. “Trump was not involved in the sales process and Talon, the developer, made no representations to buyers regarding return on investment.”
Billionaire Donald Trump was featured on advertising material for selling the hotel suites, his photo and comments praising the building appeared in magazine advertorials that highlighted the investment potential of the suites. He sold rights for the hotel to use his name and trademark via Trump Marks LP, his company that owns the Trump brand. He attended the tower’s opening in April. Donald Trump declined to comment through his attorney.
The sales agreement is with Markham-based Talon International, the closely-held real estate development firm, according to the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, the document signed by buyers. The company is led by CEO Val Levitan and chairman Alex Shnaider, the 43rd-richest Canadian with a net worth of $1.5-billion last year on Canadian Business magazine’s Rich 100 list. Talon markets, sells, and manages finances for the units. Trump Toronto Hotel Management Corp. takes care of the suites.
Read More Here: Trump Tower woes signal Toronto’s condo market ‘on thin ice’