How to buy a home on the Toronto Islands
Potential home buyers who dream of living in the Toronto Islands can now add their names to the buyers list.
It is the only way to own property on the islands as houses here are only sold through a regulated system introduced in 1993. After that, houses are sold at fixed prices, but only to one of the 500 names on the shopping list.
How the process works is relatively simple. Bids for homes start with the first person on the list and then go down until they reach someone willing to bid and the financing is complete. Then the house is considered sold.
The trust typically sends offers to the top 150 to 250 names on the list, and buyers are typically found among the first 100 people, according to the Toronto Islands Residential Community Trust Corporation.
Registration for the buyer list will be open from Tuesday through November 1st, and once closed, it will not open for another two years. The application costs $20.
New members are added to the bottom of the bid list and only move up if those before them either buy a house or stop paying their membership fees.
According to the Trust, an average of 15 to 20 people don’t renew their place on the list each year, but they usually can’t predict how many people will have their names removed each year.
The Trust also reminds candidate countries that they cannot predict how many homes will sell in any given year.
A total of 70 houses have been sold since the list of buyers was drawn up in 1994.
In 2020, a single-family home on Ward Island cost just $160,000, and it didn’t sell for more than a dollar over the asking price due to the regulations of the Toronto Islands Residential Community Stewardship Act.
HOW TORONTO ISLAND HOMES ARE PRICES
All houses on the islands are on public land leased by the province for the next 70 years until December 2092. Homebuyers can retain title to the property until then, but never the land on which it sits.
As a result, the value of the land is determined by law. Before the law, the rental cost was $36,000 on Ward’s Island and $46,000 on Algonquin Island. But now a lease on Ward’s Island costs about $60,000 or $78,000 on Algonquin Island. The rent is a one-time payment.
When it comes to the value of a house on the islands, prices are not determined by lot size and location. Instead, it is valued through a regulated process of appraisal and inspection and based only on the cost of building the house.
According to the Trust, home prices range from about $50,000 to $700,000, with average prices ranging from $150,000 to $400,000 (excluding one-time rental costs). It’s still a far cry from the average prices in the current GTA real estate market.
With files by Sean Davidson of CTV Toronto.