Fancy Apartment Rentals for Paris Olympics See Poor Demand and Price Cuts
Locals who’d hoped to turn a big profit by renting out their posh apartments are now slashing prices by 30%-60%.
Feb 3, 2017
Toronto real estate too expensive, buy 20 billion Timbits instead
, BNN Bloomberg
Toronto’s hot housing market continued to sizzle with sales in January up 11.8 per cent year-over-year.
The Toronto Real Estate Board reports that 5,800 homes were sold in the GTA in January at an average price of $770,745. That works out to more than $3.9 billion in total housing sales for Canada’s largest city.
To put that in perspective BNN looked at what you could buy for that money.
Investors could buy every share of Quebec-based drug store chain Jean Coutu (PJCa.TO). The company’s market cap is currently about $3.7 billion, which would leave more than $200-milllion for incidentals.
With $3.9 billion real estate bucks in your pocket you could take out Maple Leaf Foods (MFI.TO), or Air Canada (AC.TO) or even the TMX Group (X.TO).
If you are more bullish on energy stocks you would almost have enough to buy a majority stake in Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO). The market cap of the Calgary-based oil and gas producer is hovering at about $8 billion.
If you are feeling generous you could buy a lot of gifts. The $3.9 billion spent on Toronto real estate would buy 253,880 new Honda Civics – Canada’s most popular car. That’s enough for every man, woman and child in the city of Regina.
Or you could buy 4.4-million new unlocked iphone 7s. That’s enough for everyone in the Province of Alberta.
If you have a sweet-tooth you could buy 20 billion Tim Horton’s Timbits. That’s enough for every living person on the planet – three times.
There has been lots of talk about the influence of foreign money on Canada’s real estate market. With that in mind, the $3.9 billion in home sales works out to about US$3 billion. That’s how much Apple paid for Beats Electronics – the online streaming and headphone-company founded by Dr. Dre.
Three-billion is also the same amount Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is donating to the fight to wipe out global disease.
The U.S. originally budgeted US$3-billion as the price tag to build three new Air Force One airplanes for use by the new U.S. President. The planes will replace two existing Boeing 747s that have been in use since 1991.
New U.S. President Donald Trump slammed Boeing when the cost ballooned to nearly US$4 billion.
Toronto’s real estate prices aren’t quite that high – but the busy spring selling season hasn’t begun yet.
