Mississauga is known to many as a city of shopping centres but the latest City Plan document takes dead aim at several malls.
At a City planning and development committee meeting yesterday, councillors learned about future plans for “de-malling” the municipality. That involves taking older, tired and struggling shopping centres such as the Meadowvale, South Common and Sheridan malls and transforming them into special development “nodes.”
They would feature six to 12-storey condos for empty nesters and a commercial presence at street level in a bid to create the old village atmospheres that make Port Credit and Streetsville so attractive as tourist areas.
Two major community nodes around the Erin Mills Town Centre and the “uptown” area around Hurontario St. and Eglinton Ave. could include buildings as high as 25 storeys.
Planners think there is a ready-made population anxious to inhabit these new mini-community nodes: long-time residents who have raised their families, are retiring and don’t want to leave the city they know and like.
They would be closer to mass transit in a setting less isolating than a single-detached home.
Younger families moving into their traditional homes nearby would also benefit from being close to public transit and pedestrian-friendly community nodes where they can take care of daily shopping and other needs.
“We think it’s a great option for (developers) to make more intensive use of their properties, as well as create a very desirable urban form,” said City planner Angela Dietrich.
The nodes will help Mississauga meet provincial guidelines to provide denser development and support transit. The malls are already located in strategic locations for moving people.
Mississauga’s growth plan projects an injection of about 100,000 more people into the city in the next 20 years under provincial population targets.
The “de-malling” plan is an acknowledgement that what’s been done can be undone as Mississauga enters its second phase of development.
“You have to dispel the notion that Mississauga is built out,” planning policy director John Calvert told councillors. “We’re far from that.”
Yesterday’s presentation on the proposed framework of the Mississauga Plan Review is the first step in development of a new Official Plan for the municipality to guide future development. The draft of that document will be presented early next year.
Price: $313,990 to $575,990 (including furniture packages)
Sales centre: 220 Forum Dr., Suite 109, north of Eglinton Avenue West and east of Hurontario Street. Open Monday to Thursday, noon to 7 p.m.; weekends, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
To save buyers time and money, Castle Communities is offering fully furnished suites at its Tuscany Gates condominium development in Mississauga.
The builder has joined with Toronto furniture store Decorium to create a trio of packages for the remaining suites in the 236-unit building on Forum Drive, north of Eglinton Avenue and east of Hurontario Street.
Priced from $313,990 to $575,990, units can be furnished with classic traditional, contemporary or ultramodern pieces. The styles can be seen in three model suites. (A 2-per-cent discount will be given to buyers who forgo the furniture package.)
“We understand that for many singles, couples and young families, buying a new home involves a lot more expense than simply a down payment and closing fees,” Castle Communities president Mona Bhamani said in a recent press release. “There is always the added expense of new pieces of furniture, new drapes - all those things a new home needs.”
There are immediate occupancies available in the 20-storey condo, a contemporary neo-classical structure with a podium that wraps around a circular piazza and fountain. There will be landscaped gardens, an outdoor pool and a sundeck, along with a children’s playground, barbeque area, putting green and jogging track.
Recreational amenities, located off the lobby, will include a party room with a bar and kitchen, a lounge with a fireplace, and a library with a card room. A fitness centre will offer spa and yoga rooms.
“There is an especially strong draw here for professional couples and active adults,” Ms. Bhamani said in the release. “The innovative designs appeal to their sense of style while the amenities support a healthy, active lifestyle.”
Interested parties can still select from two-bedroom suites and three-bedroom penthouses with two balconies. There also are ground-floor villas with two-storey plans.
Suites generally feature floor-to-ceiling windows, combined living and dining areas, open kitchens with breakfast bars, sliding doors to the balconies and master ensuite bathrooms. Also included are kitchen and laundry appliances and one parking spot.
The monthly fee is 37 cents a square foot, including all utilities except hydro.
The area offers the shops, cinemas and restaurants at Square One Shopping Centre.
Mississauga Transit and GO bus and train services, as well as the major highways, are a short drive away.
Pretty much like everyone else in the soft economy, real estate agents are taking a pay cut and that’s giving sellers some bargaining power.A recent Consumer Reports survey of more than 9,000 home owners, found that among 46 percent of those who, from 2004 to 2007 sold or attempted to sell their home for sale and attempted to negotiate the commission, 71 percent succeeded, often netting a 3 to 4 per percent sales commission for the effort.
The deals didn’t come from discount brokers or reduced service outfits, but traditional brokers including Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Prudential, Keller Williams, RE/MAX and other companies, as well as independent company agents. RE/MAX agents were most likely to lower commissions, followed by independent agents, but none of the companies were far behind the leaders.
Just as buyers are strapped for cash and credit, sellers’ real estate agents are likewise willing to find some financial middle ground and, when it comes to the 6 percent commission, that’s about a 3 percent commission.
This price break is no raw deal. Home sellers who netted a commission discount also enjoyed the same kind of satisfaction enjoyed by those paying full price, Consumer Reports said.
Service satisfaction scores that home sellers gave all the companies revealed “no statistically meaningful difference among the rated companies” the study found. Among one of the “most surprising” findings, the lower commission “rarely had any effect on the sales price,” Consumer Reports found.
Remarkably, something else did: 82 percent of those who sold with the help of a real estate agent received $5,000 less, on average, than their original asking price. However, virtually everyone of the 17 percent who sold their homes without an agent (called “FSBOs” for “for sale by owner“) said they received about what they originally asked.
The majority, 54 percent of sellers not seeking a discount are missing out on fat extra cash that could help with move-up costs, foot the bill for concessions to lure buyers off the fence or finance a vacation around the world.
On a $250,000 home, a 6 percent commission amounts to $15,000. At three percent, that’s only $7,5000. The extra $7,500 is a lot more economic stimulus than the federal government provided earlier this year in tax rebates. On a $500,000 home, a price not uncommon in high-cost housing areas, you are talking a sweet $15,000 savings — or five $3,000 a month mortgage payments!
And here’s the deal. Because real estate listing marketing services appear to be uniform across all real estate companies, according to the study’s consumer satisfaction scores, you can take your sweet time ferreting out a top-notch real estate agent. Concentrate not on which company to choose, but on referrals to specific agents from family, friends, co-workers and others you trust who’ve recently enjoyed satisfactory service.
A lower commission rarely had any effect on the sales price.”
To make the reduced commission deal fly fastest and highest?
• Negotiate from a position of power. Let your agent set the price. If you’ve been professional about choosing a professional, he or she will be dead on with the price. Agents are more apt to give you a discount if you follow their lead.
• Roll up your sleeves. Pitch in as you would with a discount broker in a hot market. Host your own open house, for example and give the agent some time off. Just refer unanswered questions, bids and tough questions to the agent. Likewise, if you are selling to a family member, friend or renter and don’t need the agent’s marketing expertise, a discount is typically a no-brainer.
• Sell in the off season. Winter in the Northeast. Pre-back-to-school doldrums in the West. Put your home up for sale when fewer sellers are making the move and you’ll get your agent’s attention in terms of lowering the commission.
• Get your house in order. Consider spending some of that commission break on a professional stager and make it easy on your real estate agent who will have to work harder on a distressed, disorderly short sale, auction or foreclosure property. Curb appeal gets shoppers inside. A spiffed up interior keeps them there.
• Go to the top. Get your discount from the broker, rather than his or her real estate agent. The broker is the boss. He or she has the power to pull strings, negotiate his or her cut with the agent and get you want you want and the agent a viable listing.
