GTA residential land price trends and impacts - Part I

Altus Insights Podcast Series

Ray and Marlon are joined by Mike Czestochowski, Vice Chairman of the Land Services Group at CBRE Limited, and John Galluzzo, Senior Director of the Land Valuation team at Altus Group to discuss the various factors and the impact on residential land prices and availability of product in the greater Toronto area (GTA). Affordable housing continues to be a hot topic, not just in the GTA, but across Canada, especially with expected record immigration fueling the increase in demand for housing. At the same time, we have seen residential sales and listings drop over the past year due to housing affordability, rising interest rates, changes to government housing policies and concerns of a possible recession.

Panelists in this episode:

· Mike Czestochowski is the Vice Chairman of the Land Services Group at CBRE Limited. Mike specializes in the sale of development land throughout the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Golden Horseshoe Area. His experience and knowledge of the GTA and GGH markets complement his proven abilities for site acquisitions, and dispositions, as well as the marketing and sale of real estate. Since 1995, Mike has been ranked as one of the top ten salespeople for CBRE’s Toronto North Office and CBRE Canada and is uniquely qualified in locating development and investment properties and evaluating their feasibility for landowners, developers, users, and investors.

· John Galluzzo is a Senior Director at Altus Group and currently manages the Land Valuation Team based in the downtown Toronto office of the Altus Group Research, Valuation and Advisory (“RVA”) division providing real estate valuation services to developers, lawyers, financial institutions, accounting firms, pension funds, real estate divisions of national corporations, various levels of government, etc. John is an accredited appraiser and a land economist with over 25 years of experience and has presented at various industry events.

· Marlon Bray is the head of Altus Group's Ontario pre-construction and contract administration services as part of the Cost and Project Management team. With over 25 years of experience, specializing in budgeting, value optimization, and providing visibility on risk through the entire lifecycle from early due diligence through to completion. Marlon oversees a team that leads the way with cutting-edge estimating technology and data analytics, bringing a greater level of transparency, and added value to all projects he is involved with.

· Raymond Wong is the Vice President of Data Operations for Altus Group’s Data Solutions team. Overseeing 60+ researchers across Canada, Ray’s primary responsibility is to ensure data collection is all-encompassing, reliable and accurate and that it adheres to the Altus Group data governance guidelines. Ray works closely with both internal and external clients to ensure the information meets their needs and that it is both accurate and timely. He also regularly presents on key market trends to clients and at industry events.

Key topics:

· 02:14 – The overall view of the GTA land market

· 05:40 – How do you make current land sales prices make sense with existing cost pressures?

· 08:28 – What do condo launches look like for this year?

· 11:01 – Are we going to see a flood of projects one there are signals of lowering interesting rates?

· 12:14 – Is there still an opportunity for land sales in the present market?

· 15:29 – What is the impact of the changes to the green belt policy?

· 17:42 – With current policies for home building, does a land purchase today mean the prices will be heading upward?

· 19:38 – Prediction for greatest costs challenges over the next few years

· 22:22 – Have government policies addressed issues with the land transaction process?