Magna | 21m | 6s | Jayman | Integra Architecture

I don’t know if we’re talking about the same Parkdale or Hillhurst, :) Most single-family homes in those neighbourhoods are well over 1 million. I looked in both those neighbourhoods a few years ago and the prices for single detached were out of my reach - other than a few of the older homes, but the ones that were affordable really needed a lot of work.
As far as apartments and condos go, the prices at U/D are pretty similar to Parkdale.

I found my home and I’m going to be here for a while, but if I were looking for a home right now, University District would be a place that I would look at.
 
BKha said:
I don’t know if we’re talking about the same Parkdale or Hillhurst, :) Most single-family homes in those neighbourhoods are well over 1 million. I looked in both those neighbourhoods a few years ago and the prices for single detached were out of my reach - other than a few of the older homes, but the ones that were affordable really needed a lot of work.
As far as apartments and condos go, the prices at U/D are pretty similar to Parkdale.

I found my home and I’m going to be here for a while, but if I were looking for a home right now, University District would be a place that I would look at.
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Sure they are over a million, but so are these condos. There's condos in Magna, 1300+ sq ft for 1.2M. For that price, one could buy a brand new narrow infill 2000+ sq ft in Parkdale/Hillhurst and for less in Montgomery. Just seems like a huge premium to pay for condo living and walkability that is only attractive to a specific set of buyers.
 
Development around universities are magnets for foreign investors. The attraction is not downtown Toronto. It's UofT, Ryerson, the major colleges and fly by night trade schools. University of Calgary has around 9000 international students enrolled.
 
Golfing guy said:
Interesting that UD, SpringBank and West District (plus other suburban centres ) are booming. Can’t get the buildings up quick enough. But the traditional residential areas just can’t get going. It’s like People are still hesitant to buy in the Beltline/Downtown still.
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When you’re spending the kind of money it costs to buy a unit these days, downtown and Beltline is a tougher sell. Especially East Village, you’d have to be crazy to buy a unit there.
 
I'm not sure if the upcoming 6 St underpass, and the Event Centre and future green line station not too far away, will make the EV more attractive or less attractive of a place to live.
 
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The only way to make EV attractive again is to remove the DIC. Having that facility there will only ensure the area remains cluttered with homeless people strewn about all the park benches, druggies shooting up in broad daylight, and undesirables harassing the locals and committing illegal activity. Until this facility is removed, the EV is doomed.
 
Having the DIC in EV will always be a hindrance to EV’s growth, but there’s still a chance for EV to grow. The growth won’t be though condo development of owner occupied units though, but instead through purpose built rental annd affordable housing projects.
 
IThe condo market tanked and the Toronto developers went home. The East Village is still growing. A 40 storey tower is finishing up.
The blocks closest to the DIC have seen more development than the block furthest from the drop in centre. The buffer between the DIC and East Village is completed.
 
trtcttc said:
Sure they are over a million, but so are these condos. There's condos in Magna, 1300+ sq ft for 1.2M. For that price, one could buy a brand new narrow infill 2000+ sq ft in Parkdale/Hillhurst and for less in Montgomery. Just seems like a huge premium to pay for condo living and walkability that is only attractive to a specific set of buyers.
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It comes down to raw pricing, even though the price per square foot is quite high at UD, you can still pick up smaller units in the 300s or 400s whereas it’s very difficult to find that in Parkdale, at least in a new build.
 
maestro said:
IThe condo market tanked and the Toronto developers went home. The East Village is still growing. A 40 storey tower is finishing up.
The blocks closest to the DIC have seen more development than the block furthest from the drop in centre. The buffer between the DIC and East Village is completed.
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There is no buffer between the DIC and East Village. Even though there are buildings in between, they don’t act as a buffer. Also, this last tower that’s finishing construction is phase 2 of a project that started 7 years ago when East Village looked more promising. There hasn’t been any other new towers that have gone up in the past seven years and none on the horizon.
I’m not trying to make East Village sound like end of the world, but its future is concerning, especially when when you consider Calgary is seeing record housing starts and record population growth and a solid economy.
 
Tarsus said:
There is no buffer between the DIC and East Village. Even though there are buildings in between, they don’t act as a buffer. Also, this last tower that’s finishing construction is phase 2 of a project that started 7 years ago when East Village looked more promising. There hasn’t been any other new towers that have gone up in the past seven years and none on the horizon.
I’m not trying to make East Village sound like end of the world, but its future is concerning, especially when when you consider Calgary is seeing record housing starts and record population growth and a solid economy.
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The other part of this story is the construction costs - Calgary's density game bifurcated substantially since the East Village was kicking off. Market, for-sale condo concrete towers have been dead in the water for a long time, despite ongoing growth and demand. Currently it's only purpose-built rental (Beltline + a few random suburban locations) and mid-low rise wood frame (Marda Loop, UD, pretty much everywhere else). That could change in the future if prices escalate and growth continues.

The now decade-long slump in concrete tower for-sale product seemed to cause the EV developments to at first delay and then reposition developments there. As there's only a hand-full of developers and sites in EV, it only takes a few companies to decide to pause and the development pipeline dries up completely. This all happened before we add on anything like the office market collapse of 2015, COVID impacts and delays, DIC adjacent issues.

EV will build out eventually, it just got hit with several waves of changing demands so that it's not as competitive as it once was marketed to be. All the other urban lifestyle clusters have improved in both quality and capacity (Marda Loop, Kensington, U/D, Bridgeland), while Beltline is head-and-shoulders above all others for that "high urban/big city lifestyle" market.

Bridgeland is the one I would look at - as it shares many of the on-the-ground concerns that EV does with respect to the DIC and real and perceived impacts. But Bridgeland accelerated and has nearly doubled in population at the same time EV stagnated - it's not just the DIC, it's EV's overall competitiveness in a far more competitive urban lifestyle market.
 
I'll put it another way. Development didn't occur farthest from the DIC. It happened on the closest lots. That means the toughest lots to sell in regards to the DIC are developed. The bottom fell out on the condo market. It affected the entire city and sent the Toronto based developers that gravitated to the East Village packing. Fram had 3 more building phases after First. Mteropia in collobration with Knightbridge had two more towers planned.The leases on those lots didn't become available until recently. One Properties has a few key blocks as well. I'm not aware of them building anything in the last few years. Alot of it depends on the developers. Arris 2 flew up. I can't remember when it started. It wasn't 7 years ago. You must be confusing it with the separate retail podium.

I can't say who is buying in the University District. It would interest investors and equity partners more than The East Village or The Beltline. It's rapid rise doesn't surprise me at all. People including investors are flocking to Calgary and the condo market is heating up. It bodes well for the East Village to get one or two Rift blocks built firmly establishing the future community.
 
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I'm really enjoying the updates for U/D. It's cool to see a master plan like this come to fruition, and over such a short time.
 
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