Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 477

Bullpen Consulting just released its latest land insights reports for the Greater Toronto Area. For the period of Q2-2022, Ben Myers and the team identified 46 high-density residential land transactions with an average price of $95 per buildable square foot. This is down from $112 pbsf in Q1.

In the core of the city (former City of Toronto), the average price for Q2-2022 was $135 pbsf. In North York it was $103 pbsf. And in Scarborough it was $50 pbsf. Overall land prices are down about 15% from last quarter (though it's important to note that quarterly transactions can represent a relatively small sample size).

We have spoken before about how land prices tend to be fairly sticky in the face of changing cost structures. But what we are seeing right now is a bit of a perfect storm:

• Development charges (here in Toronto) are set to increase by 49%

• Hard costs have seen double digit increases (with some inputs increasing by 30-40%)

• Inclusionary zoning is on the horizon and will add another additional cost to new housing

• And rising interest rates are both increasing project costs (higher interest charges) and slowing the macro economy

All of this is naturally causing developers to be more cautious when it comes buying new land. And we are seeing that in the above pricing. But at the same time, this dip in pricing is not going to be enough to absorb all of the additional costs that new housing projects now face in today's market.

If you'd like to download a full copy of Bullpen's report, click here .

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3MK6UMaeXd1xxJnSZrPWfD?si=KuuLt7LoQ4eUq4wVZR-ZhA&t=436

This an interesting discussion about Adam Neumann's new startup Flow (which I recently wrote about here ).

More specifically though, the discussion is about venture capital firms backing "failed" entrepreneurs, and whether or not Flow can really be that much more valuable than your typical apartment REIT.

In its simplest form, Flow might just end up being an apartment company with a strong national brand and a consistent resident experience. But maybe that's all it needs to be.

If the link doesn't already do it for you, jump to the 7:19 mark to start with this discussion. After Flow, the podcast moves on to housing policy in the Bay Area, Houston, and Miami. So you may also want to stick around for that.

Thank you Ocean Jangda for sending this over.

One of the most extraordinary things about Salt Lake City is that you can land at its airport and then, in 20-30 minutes, you're in the mountains looking at landscapes like this:

By my estimation, this makes it the most accessible big city and mountain town combination in North America.

Historically though, Salt Lake City hasn't really been known for modern architecture. There is, of course, one glaring exception and that is the work of architect John Sugden .

Sugden was originally from Chicago, had trained under Mies van der Rohe, and is credited with bringing a similar kind of International Style to Utah.

The house pictured above is one of Sugden's projects.

I'm not sure when it was originally built, but it was meticulously renovated by Brent Jespersen , and featured in Dwell magazine back in 2009. If you'd like to take a closer look, click here . (It is again being renovated right now.)

When I was researching who in Salt Lake City and Park City was building cool stuff, Brent's name immediately came up. So I appreciate him taking the time to tour me through some of his projects this evening. Thank you, Brent.

What is now clear to me is that this whole not being known for modern architecture thing is quickly going away.