The Toronto Special triplex’s case as the multi-family dwelling solution: Canadian real estate news for February 2

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Here are The Globe and Mail’s top housing and real estate stories this week and one home worth a look.

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Leon’s Furniture plans to build new neighbourhood with nearly 4,000 housing units

The furniture empire is turning its attention to real estate, as it plans on turning one of its large plots of land in the Toronto area into new homes, writes Rachelle Younglai. Leon’s Furniture Ltd., which owns brands such as Leon’s, The Brick, The Brick Mattress Store, and Appliance Canada, is planning to use the land to build rental apartment buildings, single-family houses, townhouses and condos. Leon’s is following the playbook of other big-box retailers and mall operators, which have been changing their properties into residential units, warehouses and office buildings.

How the Toronto Special triplex is a model to help address the housing crisis

As planners in Toronto and cities across Canada move to up-zone neighbourhoods once reserved almost entirely for detached homes, federal policy-makers have revived the use of so-called “pattern books,” which are essentially catalogues of designs, to hasten the development process, writes John Lorinc. But as renewed interest grows for the use of small-scale multi-family housing – like the triplex, colloquially called the “Toronto Special” – questions arise if housing officials should make catalogues of triplex or fourplex designs to encourage builders to transform a single-family dwelling into something more.

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Toronto’s historic Flatiron building sells for $15.4-million

The $15.4-million price tag of the famous office building is only $200,000 more than what the previous owner paid for the building in 2011, a symptom of the office market’s struggle since employees switched to remote work, writes Younglai. Toronto’s office vacancy rate is nearly 20 per cent due to tenants slashing space and brand new office buildings opening and flooding downtown with more space. The new owner, Lee Chow Group, said it was looking for a unique office building, and iconic buildings like this only “come around once in a generation.” Also known as the Gooderham Building, it was built in 1892 and was the head office for the Gooderham and Worts distillery until the 1950s.

Opinion: Housing policy misses the resale-new homes split, says economist

Vancouver’s housing crisis is exacerbated by federal policies that are creating increased demand for mortgage debt and resale housing, says a senior economist and vice-president of policy for the Business Council of B.C. David Williams. Williams says the current argument that the disconnect between household incomes and the price of resale homes is largely due to a lack of supply is flawed. That’s because it does not distinguish resale home prices from newly built home prices, which are two related but separate markets with different pressures, he says. That difference also reveals the impact of foreign capital on Vancouver’s housing market.

Home of the Week: Rosedale co-op home with a view of the treetops

120 Rosedale Valley Rd., unit 405, Toronto

The two bedroom co-op home is located in a Rosedale heritage building which sits on an ample lot on the edge of a ravine. The space has been reconfigured into a mid-century minimalist style to allow for more light to flow across the space. Blackout blinds sink into ceiling-mounted boxes for ease of access, and partial walls allow for some separation of spaces. A west-facing balcony – which the previous owners covered in Astroturf as a nod to the 1960s style – overlooks the greenery of the nearby ravine.