Ugly Canada 2 (Only architecture, planning and design faux pas)

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Harrison

Don't look at photos of the interior if you value your eyesight and sanity, it's baaaaaad.

Red on beige!

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Wigs

I never thought they could make late 90s early 2000s design GTA style suburban homes uglier, but this development in the central Niagara municipality of Thorold managed to do just that.
For those that didn't see all the 2021 census stats, Thorold is the 4th quickest growing in Ontario and 8th quickest growing municipality in Canada

32 Sparkle Drive - wtf is up with this porch overhang





This "wonderful" 4 Bed, 4 Bath home with 3,150 sq feet can be yours for the modest price of *checks notes* uhmmm... $1.329 Million

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2...-drive-thorold

For that price you don't even get a yard or fence or landscaping.

[TownGuy]

Most municipalities in Ontario require a fence to be built by the developer. Judging by the back portion of those yards, it looks there is construction going on nearby. The fences will likely come once the next set of houses are completed.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Harrison

Don't look at photos of the interior if you value your eyesight and sanity, it's baaaaaad.

Yeah it's pretty

Love how they spent a decent chunk of money on what looks to be white marble floors, but then the laundry room has bargain brand Amana (usually the cheapest offered by The Brick/Leon's) washer and dryer

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by niwell

Imagine paying that to live on a place that looks like that on a street named "Sparkle Dr."...

Right
And you could've bought a great house for cheap...in 2015!

Imho: The cities with viable traditional downtowns in Niagara would be Grimsby, Port Colborne, Thorold, Ridgeway (part of Fort Erie).
Niagara-on-the-Lake is too tourist centric, although the most manicured/pretty by far.

Welland, Niagara Falls, and Fort Erie's old downtown (Bridgeburg) are still in not great shape. At least Niagara Falls has a craft brewery downtown

St. Catharines was getting much better with the new arena, performing arts centre, Brock University's school of performing arts, and an indie screen theatre, new restaurants and bars, independent shops... until covid killed its momentum.

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

to live in Thorold to boot.. insane.

I genuinely don't understand why Niagara prices are the way they are...

Because idiots from the Greater Toronto Area will pay full asking price or get into bidding wars with locals that don't have the nest egg GTA people do.

Realtors are literally just making up numbers to see if anyone bites.

Like niwell said, there's a bunch of tiny cottages still for sale in Crystal Beach (Fort Erie) because they are so overpriced.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Yeah it's pretty

Love how they spent a decent chunk of money on what looks to be white marble floors, but then the laundry room has bargain brand Amana (usually the cheapest offered by The Brick/Leon's) washer and dryer

That's actually a pretty sensible allocation of resources...might as well spend the money on something that will stand the test of time like flooring as compared to going big on an appliance that will be sitting broken down in a garbage dump eight years from now. Especially when a cheaper alternative will do the job just as well.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Wigs

I never thought they could make late 90s early 2000s design GTA style suburban homes uglier, but this development in the central Niagara municipality of Thorold managed to do just that.
For those that didn't see all the 2021 census stats, Thorold is the 4th quickest growing in Ontario and 8th quickest growing municipality in Canada

32 Sparkle Drive - wtf is up with this porch overhang





The shit entrance - love the uneven slabs



This "wonderful" 4 Bed, 4 Bath home with 3,150 sq feet can be yours for the modest price of *checks notes* uhmmm... $1.329 Million

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2...-drive-thorold

An extremely banal house made aggressively ugly with that wretched porch overhang. What. The. Fuck. ?

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

An extremely banal house made aggressively ugly with that wretched porch overhang. What. The. Fuck. ?

Based on the setbacks to the street and the fact that the standard place you would sit and interact with your neighbours is blocked by the front wall of the porch, I'm going to say few people would ever sit there and chat with neighbours walking by.

The 905 all summed up in one photo.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Right
And you could've bought a great house for cheap...in 2015!

Imho: The cities with viable traditional downtowns in Niagara would be Grimsby, Port Colborne, Thorold, Ridgeway (part of Fort Erie).
Niagara-on-the-Lake is too tourist centric, although the most manicured/pretty by far.

Welland, Niagara Falls, and Fort Erie's old downtown (Bridgeburg) are still in not great shape. At least Niagara Falls has a craft brewery downtown

St. Catharines was getting much better with the new arena, performing arts centre, Brock University's school of performing arts, and an indie screen theatre, new restaurants and bars, independent shops... until covid killed its momentum.




Because idiots from the Greater Toronto Area will pay full asking price or get into bidding wars with locals that don't have the nest egg GTA people do.

Realtors are literally just making up numbers to see if anyone bites.

Like niwell said, there's a bunch of tiny cottages still for sale in Crystal Beach (Fort Erie) because they are so overpriced.

There are people leaving the GTA that will overpay for property elsewhere but, I feel that is more likely to happen in the 600 to $800,000 than for well over a million. This 1.3 million dollar house was probably purchase for too much by a foreign investor and having concluded business and are now feeling the market for bites. (it's not the realtor setting the price)

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

An extremely banal house made aggressively ugly with that wretched porch overhang. What. The. Fuck. ?

I would hazard a guess that it is leftover from the Michael's they built in big box land.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Wigs

It's not going to end well when the party is over.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Yeah it's pretty

Love how they spent a decent chunk of money on what looks to be white marble floors, but then the laundry room has bargain brand Amana (usually the cheapest offered by The Brick/Leon's) washer and dryer

Those marble floors are large tile porcelain with a marble print on them by the looks of it, so actually some of the cheapest tile you can buy as it has low labour costs with the large tiles going down very quickly.

The dishwasher is super cheap as well you can tell, and the kitchen cabinets are also super cheap laminate.

It's always crazy to me to see these massive new build homes that are palaces compared to most other things on the market with absolutely terrible finishes. Like, people are paying $1.3 million for the cheapest bathroom vanities, kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, etc. It's doesn't make any sense to me. It's the same thing even in many higher cost markets.

Places are selling in Thorold for $1.3+ too btw..

https://housesigma.com/web/en/map?zo...KR7P8V0XM7XeLP

This one in a new build subdivision in the middle of nowhere sold for $1.372. The kitchen doesn't even have appliances, upstairs is all carpet, the bathrooms have all the absolute most basic finishes, etc. There is literally nothing luxury about the property other than the square footage.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

It's not going to end well when the party is over.

But the CREA for Niagara market speculates for 2022 it will rise another 10%
Hello $825,000
Locals think it's completely Loony, but then most never saw the avg price reaching 500k, let alone 750k. The median is still just under 700k.

As long as the flow of people from the GTA never stops (and there's no market crash) the prices will keep rising.
Value for your money, Molson.
What's the avg & median price in London?

2. Nationally Home Sales are projected to Decelerate by 8.6% - the pace of the market will be tempered by supply, higher prices, and higher interest rates nationally but because Niagara Region continues to be attractive to GTA centric Buyers there is reason to believe that Niagara may “buck the trend” and that the number of sales will exceed 2021’s record-breaking pace

3. Home Prices will continue to Appreciate - a simple case of supply and demand; increased Buyer demand and low inventory means increased prices, nationally, prices are projected to increase by 7.5 to 7.8 percent with the Niagara Region likely trending higher at 10%.

The Niagara Association of REALTORS® represents over 1450 REALTOR® members

Why do we have 1450 Realtors for a region (according to Stat Can) still under 500k people?

https://creastats.crea.ca/board/stca


My cousin and his wife bought their house about 20 years ago for $109k (according to my Uncle). They raised their kids there and recently sold it this past summer for $700k, full asking price and it sold in one week.

They decided to cash out and move to Nova Scotia where they found a house in a small village/town about 90 minutes from Halifax for about $280k.
It's the only way for locals to have a nest egg unless you have a great pension and were smart with stocks/investments.

I bet people in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI really hate Ontarians now driving up their housing prices

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Those marble floors are large tile porcelain with a marble print on them by the looks of it, so actually some of the cheapest tile you can buy as it has low labour costs with the large tiles going down very quickly.

The dishwasher is super cheap as well you can tell, and the kitchen cabinets are also super cheap laminate.

It's always crazy to me to see these massive new build homes that are palaces compared to most other things on the market with absolutely terrible finishes. Like, people are paying $1.3 million for the cheapest bathroom vanities, kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, etc. It's doesn't make any sense to me. It's the same thing even in many higher cost markets.

Places are selling in Thorold for $1.3+ too btw..

https://housesigma.com/web/en/map?zo...KR7P8V0XM7XeLP

This one in a new build subdivision in the middle of nowhere sold for $1.372. The kitchen doesn't even have appliances, upstairs is all carpet, the bathrooms have all the absolute most basic finishes, etc. There is literally nothing luxury about the property other than the square footage.

That's completely nonsensical.
If one pays $1.3M for anywhere outside the GTA/Vancouver you would expect the fit/finish to be high quality.
Not bargain basement Home Depot house-in-a-box

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Wigs

I bet people in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI really hate Ontarians now driving up their housing prices

There's a shitload of Ontario plates in PEI driveways. There are just as many empty driveways owned by foreign investors.

[megadude]

When I was in Brantford a few months ago, I was surprised by the number of dealership plate frames in driveways I saw from Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington and Hamilton. Only reason I noticed this only in Brantford was because I was buying something used from someone and so I ventured into a typical newer housing development and not just the downtown or older parts of cities that one would stick to when visiting somewhere.

I must say, if I were leaving the GTA to be able to afford a house in a much, much smaller city with much less to do, it would not be in a boring new neighbourhood on the outskirts of said city or town. It would have to be in the downtown or a very mature neighbourhood. Plenty of that mindless suburbia in the GTA. But, you know, most people don't care about those things. They just want a house. Like 95% of people I know (friends, family, coworkers), when they bought a house in suburbia or the outskirts of the city, they went with classic snout nose or the newer stuff like the above example. No thought whatsoever on neighbourhood, greenspace, walkability, character, lot size, etc. What they saw was a bigger house with more modern looking furnishings.

Only two of those more than one hundred people have ever expressed regret to me. One was my cousin's husband who would much rather have been in a 70s neighbourhood like the one he grew up in in Old Markham than the incredibly bland neighbourhood in Stouffville that they ended up in becuase it was a new build. To this day, I hate going there. And then there's my Malaysian friend who came over with his wife as she got a transfer here. They bought a newish town just west of Mississauga Rd that still didn't have the fences built in the tiny backyards. The fancier (but ultimately cheap material) furnishings caught their eyes but he soon realized that he would much rather have been in a neighbourhood with some vitality and you know, actual trees. That's the first thing he said when he came to visit to me. He's the kind of guy that actually likes to go on walks, observe flora and fauna and stop by interesting places and talk to people and all that. You ain't doing that in those utterly banal subdivisions. And he knew that I worke in mortgages/real estate, yet he met a realtor at an open house, got her card, she sent some listings and they bought not long after. All without talking to me first even though for months before he used to ask me about what cities he should live in based on commute to YYZ area and demographics. If he ever told me was ready and serious about buying, I could have broken places down by neighbourhood characteristics and gotten him a much more pleasant place to be for the same price.

I know of two people that moved from amazing neighbourhoods to new subdivisions to upgrade the size in house. One who was three houses from Oakville Golf Club on a court. And he only had two kids so the existing place was manageable. The other were actually a couple in their late 40s or early 50s with an empty nest who went from Downtown Burlington to a new build in The Orchard at Uppder Middle and Appleby. Bigger place too. They like the idea of having new and not having to worry about fixing anything. Well, let me tell you. I visited a house in the Orchard that was 5 or 6 years old during my search and the basement had a big crack already and was leaking.

As for the porch overhang, I prefer that be there than say just steps, when it comes to aesthetics, but for function, it's very annoying. My friend's house in Burlington is basically a carbon copy of that and my cousin's rowhouse in Sauga has that. True, most people don't even use it. They'd rather sit in the backyard. It's not like sitting on a porch in the city where you're closer to the ecclectic every day life happening in front of you. In these places, you see a car passing by once in a while and sometimes a couple of kids throwing the ball around.

The annoying part is that it essentially reduces the width of the driveway because you can't park beside it without fear of banging your door into it. A gust can catch your door on a windy day. Not to mention if your kids are in the car. You have to be careful and strategic how you park.

[WhipperSnapper]

Investors with six properties is rather going to have a property in six different Canadian cities than all six within the GTA. These investors get lost among the homeowners, other types of investors, etc. given the sheer size of the GTA. Their force stand out in much smaller markets. Of course, flight from Toronto is growing. It's still very niche.

I purchased one of my cars in York Region. I have never lived anywhere near York Region. I think that could give a dangerously false impression. It does say how lazy people are that so many of these ugly advertisments survive.

[O-tacular]

Sharing this here for its severe fugliness.

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

1

[Harley613]

Oooh I'm with you on that one.

[Proof Sheet]

https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/c..._buildings_in/

These must have spawned from Princess Towers in Kingston