Due to COVID-19 and other factors, prospective new-home buyers are more carefully weighing location, housing type, design and amenities – and affordability – than ever before.

To help you understand all the issues to make a better, more informed homebuying decision, we went to some of the industry’s top builders and developers for expert advice, as part of our 2021 Builders' Annual.

What advice would you like to offer new-home buyers, as we approach 2022?

Many forecasted that the pandemic would have created new opportunities for bargains in the marketplace but, despite a slight pause, this could not have been further from the truth. Over the last year alone, we have seen sites that were held off the market in 2020, launch with great success and many even selling out in a short period of time. Pricing has not only held firm, but has increased over the last year, and the rental market is rebounding very quickly as international students return to in-person learning, the hospitality industry reopens and welcomes guests back to their establishments, and as the government slowly reopens the borders to immigration once again. All this points to further price increases in the marketplace, and greater appreciation of any pre-existing real estate holdings, as the issue of supply will continue to be outpaced by the demand. What does this all mean? If you’re considering purchasing a new home, there is no reason to wait.

There’s been a lot of discussion about wellness and new home design, to address emerging needs coming out of the pandemic. What’s your take on this?

The pandemic has definitely forced developers into new conversations and ways of thinking about wellness and design. These types of concerns have actually risen to the forefront of key determining factors people are taking into consideration when choosing their next home investment. On our end, we’ve spent the last 18-plus months looking at our buildings – how we build them, specifically water and air quality in our condo developments. We have examined the shared amenities, turning a greater focus to outdoor living, improving the fitness offerings, examining work-from-home space requirements and ensuring suitable space is allocated to package deliveries in our lobbies.

What is it about your company or projects that differentiates you in the marketplace, that you’d like to stress to prospective new-home buyers?

Our culture at Lifetime is one where we’re constantly looking at how we can innovate. We are always looking at our processes, how we build, and what more we can offer our clients. It’s led to some hard conversations with our consultants and peers, where we have tried to break the mould on many occasions, and it has ultimately led to some incredible advancements between projects.

Lifetime has also been a strong supporter of the arts and culture in our city, and we look to integrate that into each of our projects by collaborating with different artists. Some artists are local, such as George Pimentel, who we worked with on Oscar Residences or Anthony Ricciardi on Liberty Market Tower. Others are international, such as Jun Kaneko and Lenny Kravitz, who we worked with on the Bisha Hotel. It gives our projects a truly unique component that both buyers and investors have grown to appreciate.

Our ties to art and culture have also opened the door to us building out our philanthropic initiatives through Lifetime’s Lifeline Foundation. Our focus, since the pandemic, has been on our See You Soon Toronto initiative, which I launched with eTalk’s Tyrone Edwards, and local artist Ben Johnston. Together we’ve raised more than $425,000 to date, with 100 per cent of those funds going back to the community through COVID relief programs, mental health programming, and meal drops to shelters and our frontline workers. We were also able to support our hospitality industry, especially when they were substantially impacted in the early days of the pandemic.

How is your company addressing the affordability issue?

Several of our developments include affordable housing or rental suites, and we’ve been able to partner with some incredible charitable organizations that have helped us find the right people and communities for these types of units. We also spend a great deal of time on suite designs when we’re planning our developments to ensure that we’re maximizing space as best as possible, knowing that people are choosing to live in smaller units because of affordability. We continue to look for new opportunities to incorporate affordable units in our developments and we have some larger developments coming up, that will offer a substantial affordable component. Ultimately, though, this issue needs to be tackled by all levels of government and our industry together and in a cooperative manner.

We recently had a federal election, and all the major parties promised to address housing supply and affordability. If you had the opportunity to speak directly to the Prime Minister on this topic, what would your advice be?

Our industry and the government need to work much more collaboratively and as partners in tackling this issue. Housing and affordability will remain an issue so long as supply of new homes is low in comparison to demand. If we want to continue to grow as a world-class city, we need to be able to provide housing to all types of buyers. Further, our industry needs to be recognized and supported for its major contribution to the health and growth of our economy. This is a time to come together and work together towards a solution as we all have a common goal.