It has been said that a condo fee should go up along with a building’s age and go down as quantity of units in the building increases. While this statement is logically correct, there are surprising numbers related to condominiums of Toronto & GTA showing that a condo fee of one building might be 54 % higher than a condo fee of the same age similar building that has the same amenities and inclusions.
Condo Business Intelligence selected condo buildings of Toronto & GTA that have approximately the same set of amenities, inclusions. All buildings have a pool (indoor or outdoor) and heating is included in owners’ bill.
As we revealed from Graph 1, the trend lines:
Condo Fee vs Numbers of Units and Condo Fee vs Building Age
Condo Fee decreases as number of units increases and
Condo Fee increases as building’s age increases
Building groups divided by quantity of units – Graph 2 and by Age groups – Graph 3 have been analyzed, and completely different tendencies have been noticed.
Number of Units
For 40 – 100 and 101 – 300, 601 and more units’ buildings Max condo fees follow the pattern of the General tendency revealed in Graph 1, but for the group with 301 – 600 units, Max condo fee does not follow that General tendency. Min and Average condo fees for all groups of buildings do not follow that General tendency as well.
Building groups divided by quantity of units – Graph 2 and by Age groups – Graph 3 have been analyzed, and absolutely different tendencies have been noticed.
Buildings’ Age
For all groups of buildings Max and Average condo fees follow the General tendency revealed from Graph 1, but Min condo fees for all groups of buildings do not follow that General tendency.
Condo Fees Year after Year
Average condo fees growth Year after Year – Graph 5, shows that the main condo fee increase was in year 2011, there is a high probability that it was related to thee Reserve Fund requirement. Mainly, average condo fees increase was close to annual inflation rate (2.3 % – 3.8 %).
There are General tendencies related to condo fees vs number of units and building age followed by majority of condominiums. However, there are still a lot of questions related to condo fees’ behaviour:.
- Why is the average condo fee in Toronto and North York ~ 28 % higher than in Etobicoke?
- Why in spite of COVID, some condominiums did not change their condo fees (7.9 %), some of them were even able to decrease their condo fees (10.39 %), but 31.8 % of condominiums increased their condo fees by 10 – 20 % and 7.8 % of condominiums increased their condo fees by 30 % and higher?
- Why do similar buildings have very different condo fee levels and a different condo fee dynamic?
WHAT DO CONDO FEES DEPENDS ON?
Condo Business Intelligence is continuing our investigation step by step and launching a Series of Visual Stories about Toronto & GTA condominiums’ fees “Games of Condo Fees: clear rules or a foggy mystery?”. Stay tuned!