Expert homebuying advice from Jordan DeBrincat, Vice-President, Altree Developments

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?

Function is everything – whether you are looking for a detached house, townhome or condominium, the layout and functionality of your home are everything. It is one thing to look at a 2D plan and think it looks great, but another to mentally walk through the plan and comprehend the functionality of each room. This is the process I personally take when we are designing each of the floorplans for our buildings, and it’s something unique for each purchaser to consider, when they are purchasing.

In any building, there are multiple floorplans that come with various sizes and pricing. Once the price point is determined, there are normally a few floorplans that fall into that price point that can be very different. By taking the approach of understanding the functionality of the plan, it can be the difference of just purchasing a unit, or purchasing a home.

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?

One of the biggest needs we are seeing from purchasers coming out of the pandemic is a definition of spaces within a unit. There are always two approaches to take when designing a suite – “open-concept” or “separate room” – and people are looking for suites that have more defined separate spaces. There has been a huge shift to working from home during the pandemic, and it is hard to do so when you have an open-concept space.

The idea of setting up a den or second bedroom as a home office has become much more prevalent, and is one of the only ways to be able to separate work and home. If there is no clear definition of these spaces, people tend to always feel “connected” and as though they aren’t able to have a break or disconnect from work.

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?

Whether the buyer is an investor, end user, first-time homebuyer or empty-nester, we really do think about each want and need to these respective groups, and we try and incorporate that into our development. When designing individual suites, we always have a few that are more geared towards investors, and those that are geared towards end users. The main component of being able to offer different types of housing is that each buyer type is looking for something different; an investor is looking for a comfortable plan that they could rent out to either one or two different individuals, while an end user is looking for space and functionality.

We also try to tailor the amenities to all buyer demographics. Offering amenities, such as a pool, kids centre, gym or co-working space, is something that can speak to all buyer profiles.

How is your company addressing the affordability issue?

Living/working in one of the best cities in the world comes with its perks and its downfalls; the perks are self-explanatory, and the downfalls sometimes harder to understand. Living in a city such as Toronto, you really have the best in class when it comes to architects, interior designers and construction managers, and all of these benefits come with a price. While it is our job to provide housing to everyone in the city of Toronto, and do so for the most cost effective/efficient price as possible, sometimes there are certain items we cannot control.

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?

One of the main issues with the supply and affordability of housing in Toronto is the timeline it takes for our applications to be processed, reviewed and approved at the city level. There are so many entities that need to provide their approval on development before developers are able to start. As a result, there is a considerable amount of time that we have to allocate for our approvals process. The longer our application takes to be approved, the more money we spend on carrying the land, which ultimately affects the price we need to sell at to make these projects feasible.