Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 892

I am excited to announce that Junction House is a 2019 finalist in the 39th Annual BILD Awards . The project is up for the following 4 awards:

1. Best Signage (it was probably the neon that did it)

2. Best Suite Design (large suite)

3. Best Innovative Suite Design (it's a suite from our unique 2-storey House Collection)

4. Best Mid-Rise Building Design

This last one is a "Pinnacle" award, but I'll be honest in that I don't know what that means. It sounds impressive though.

BILD received some 850 submissions this year, so kudos to the project team: Superkül , Dialogue 38 , Vanderbrand , Unique Urban Homes , DTAH , WND Associates , and others.

We spend an inordinate amount of time on our floor plans -- they are people's eventual homes. So it's nice to see a bit of that effort reflected above.

This week two new office buildings were announced in Toronto and Vancouver by Allied Properties and Westbank. Both are being designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). As you would expect, Alex Bozikovic of the Globe and Mail has done a proper writeup, here .

The building in Toronto (called Union Centre) is generally located at 171 Front Street West. It is a revision to a previous proposal for the site that was originally submitted back in 2014. That project got approved by Council, but the implementing by-laws were never enacted.

My favorite image from their rezoning resubmission is this one here:

It clearly shows the big idea behind the project, which is to push all of the building's elevator shafts to its north elevation. This opens up its large floor plates to the south, but also allows for a kind of elevator equalizer show on the outside of the building. The cabs are intended to be lit and the shafts are intended to be built using clear glazing. That's what you're seeing above.

I don't think we have enough fun with building lights here in Toronto. So I was pretty pumped to see this get proposed. What are your thoughts?

Rendering by Bjarke Ingels Group

This week's federal budget announced two measures that are intended to improve housing affordability.

The first is a modification to the Home Buyers' Plan . This is a plan that gives first-time home buyers the ability to do a tax-free withdrawal from their RRSP (it does, however, have to be repaid within 15 years ). The withdrawal limit was increased from $25,000 to $35,000.

The second measure, which is the one that got everyone's attention, is the new First-Time Home Buyer Incentive . Through this program, CMHC will offer first-time home buyers (who have the minimum down payment required for an insured mortgage) the option of a "CMHC shared equity mortgage."

What this effectively means is that CMHC will give first-time buyers an interest-free contribution for 10% of the purchase price of a new home (5% in the case of a resale). There's no interest, but it does need to be paid back at the time of a sale. The higher percentage for new build homes is intended to stimulate housing supply.

It is still not clear whether CMHC will be expecting to participate in any increase (or decrease) in the value of the properties. But presumably, yes, since it's called a "shared equity mortgage." All of this is expected to come into force by the fall.

Here's an example of how this program is intended to work.

If a first-time buyer purchases a new home for $400,000 with a 5% down payment, the insured mortgage amount would normally be $380,000. This is the highest loan-to-value you can get with CMHC mortgage loan insurance . With this new measure, the mortgage size would reduce to $340,000 and so the purchaser's monthly debt service would drop accordingly, thereby helping with overall affordability.

The caveat to all of this is that this incentive will only be available to first-time home buyers with a household income under $120,000, and the insured mortgage and incentive amount cannot be greater than 4x the participants' annual household income.

What this means is that this program really only touches the sub $500,000 market. And in highly desirable cities like Toronto and Vancouver, that market isn't all that big.