“Condos are for the newly wed and nearly dead.”
—unknown

“Say hello to the new face of wealth inequality in Toronto, where owning a back yard is a pass to riches, and owning a balcony is a pass to condo fees.”
—Daniel Tencer

"Many buildings that went up during the beginning of this condo boom are already facing high repair costs, and in many cases lawsuits, because they are built so shabbily.

The life cycle is clear. They are okay for the first five years, they gradually deteriorate by year 10 ... and don't even reach year 20 before significant remedial work needs to be done. In 50 years these buildings may well become an urban slum." —Ted Kesik, professor of building science at the University of Toronto    (CBC 13 Oct 2014)

"The Building Code is a joke, the Condominium Act is a joke," said David Fleming, a condo buyer turned realtor. "The City of Toronto relies on the permits, the fees for its tax base, and construction and condos are what is carrying the city. You do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg."
—David Fleming,  Toronto Realtor

"Jason H – I understand your point. But not ALL condos are managed by embezzlers, and if you want to live downtown, you have to 'risk' it."
—David Fleming, Toronto Realtor

“I only took money from the ones I could get away with.”
—Karen Colie, owner Marshland Communities

"I believe that there is an obligation on property managers to act wisely and prudently in their position of trust, with respect to paying accounts, whether it be for the plumber, the roofer and even the lawyers."
—Deputy Judge M. Klein

If you have problems in your HOA (condo), here are some options:
• Sue
• Suffer
• Sell
—Jill Schweitzer

"A lot of us are forced to live in these vertical cities, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're liveable cities."
— Paul Bradshaw

"I know a lot of people don't have an understanding of what development districts are, but it's on the public record. You can't buy and act like you're blissfully ignorant. You can't just undo it because you don't like it."
— David Smith, managing shareholder for Gray Robinson law firm

“An owner questioned what would happen if there was a flood from another units above. [The vice-president for Field Operations of a large property management company] reminded owners that they are living in a condo and this often happens.”
—from the minutes AGM held in Toronto on 03 April 2014

“This law needs to change otherwise why would you ever buy a condo? It's the highest risk I've ever seen.”
Carolyn—Arizona condo owner who was forced out by a termination

"This is a very typical situation in the state of Florida, since the condominium market is Florida's No. 3 business. Because there is no condominium corporate books supervision by an independent governmental body, it is far too easy for the management for forge fake condominium fees, far too easy for the management to 'mismanage' the funds or simply steal the same via kickbacks from the contractors that the condominium owners pay for."

"I would never buy a condominium in Florida." — Peter Vujin, a Miami attorney, responding to a reporter about a condo lawsuit

Real estate brokers are dealing mostly with 10-year investors who want to buy from a blueprint, double their equity during the five years of construction, and enjoy rental income and price appreciation for five more years before selling and investing again elsewhere.

It's all about timing. “We advise most clients to get out before that five-year mark," said Roy Bhandari of Sage Real Estate, which notched nearly C$50 million in Toronto condo sales in 2013, with clients typically from China, Eastern Europe, or the Middle East. "It's the magic number because after five years the warranties are expired.” —Roy Bhandari

"There's kind of a myth about investing in condos about price appreciation. All of my research shows that the only thing that really goes up in value is the land value. When you talk about condos, there's very little land involved."
—Hilliard Macbeth,  author of the book When the Bubble Bursts: Surviving the
   Canadian Real Estate Crash

“First, I underestimated the effects of middle-class stagnation. With wages flat and families squeezed, many people have to return to the boarding house model of yesteryear. They have to rent out rooms to cover their mortgage or rent.”
—David Brooks

“Uber saw something the rest of us only intuited: that while Toronto Council was certainly adept at passing bylaws and regulations, the City of Toronto was woefully inept at enforcing the same.”
—David Nickle

“Old condos while constructed well, are ticking time bombs for costly "repairs.”
—Marian Okada

“Sane people do not go to the Supreme Court of Canada to evict a cat.”
— Mark Arnold lawyer

“That’s the rendering,” he said. “… And in Toronto you build to a budget.”
—Barry Graziani  architect (talking about new development artist renderings)

“Most of the condos nowadays are these huge... buildings like the ones in Liberty Village. You don't know your neighbours, there's already high traffic and a huge amount of turnover in a lot of buildings like that.”
—Lisa Marion   H&P Properties

“There are a lot of psycho cyclists out there, and the majority are becoming psycho cyclists. It’s not the cars that are going crazy — not the pedestrians — certainly not the motorcyclists. It’s the psycho cyclists.”
—York Centre Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti

“The large assessments and maintenance fee increases that many condo associations levy are inevitable. It’s pay me now or pay me later. Nobody wants to pay more now.”
—Richard Emery

“The proliferation of gigantic and grindingly impersonal high-rises with tiny apartments clearly doesn’t constitute an effective and sustainable alternative to the single-family home. Yes, these buildings in the short term are very efficient from a land use perspective. But everyone understands that many are little more than short-term investment vehicles targeting first-time buyers looking to generate equity and then get out.”
— John Lorinc

“The Liberals, in my view, haven’t really woken up to the political implications of an out-of-control real estate market where re-sale prices are jumping by 16% annually.”
— John Lorinc

“The general message should be that enforcement will be expected and exceptions will be rare. This is to foster the result that people only move into the condominium if they are prepared to live by the rules of the community which they are joining. If they are not, they are perfectly free to join another community whose rules and regulations may be more in keeping with their particular individual needs, wishes or preferences. The provisions of the Condominium Act and the declaration, bylaws and rules are “vital to the integrity of the title acquired by” unit owners.  Unit owners are not only bound by the rules and regulations but are “entitled to insist that other unit owners are similarly bound.”
—Justice Penny

“No ones interests are served by open discussion”
—University of Birmingham in a letter to staff about planned job cuts.
   (Private Eye #1412)

“There are very few people who tell me they want their taxes raised.”
—John Tory (Mayor of Toronto)

 “Ninety-seven per cent of the voters in 2014 voted for a candidate who supported a property tax increase no greater than the rate of inflation.”
—Mayor John Tory

“Don’t be frightened about the money.”
—former Ontario premier David Peterson on Expo 2015

“I'm the commander—see, I don't need to explain— I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president.”
—George W. Bush

Our advice? Cash in on the rising home values and move out as soon as possible. HOAs are hives for busybodies with nothing better to do than gripe about how other people live — and they’ve never been a good place for the cannabis-friendly.
—William Breathes

“The interest of the landlord is always opposed to the interests of every other class in the community.”
—David Ricardo: 1817

“I'm very harsh on real estate agents. I'm not sure why. Maybe its because of how they call every small house "charming" and every run-down house a 'great fixer-upper'. Just once, I'd like them to show me a house and declare' 'This one's a piece of crap.'”
—Stephan Pastis

 “In this day and age of greed, it’s ‘Let’s build it fast and get it up and running and sell it fast.’… But if you build too fast and don’t pay attention, things happen.”
—Rick Gonzalez, West Palm Beach architect

“There’s long been a shortage of decent housing—one of the reasons it is only now being called a crisis is that today it affects the middle classes, too.”
—Eva Wiseman

“When you protest, you want the government to do something, but now they expect me to do something for them. It’s no longer the government to blame but you who will be responsible for the mess. It’s a very different feeling.”
—Boniface Mwangi, Kenyan political activist

“You have so little control over the many negative things that can happen to you and then you become trapped in a situation beyond your control that only continues to deteriorate.”
—Bill Brauch
—head of the Iowa Attorney General's consumer protection division on why —he would never buy a home in a homeowner's assocaition

“The problems are so enormous, and so many people are profiting from those problems, that it becomes almost impossible to get anybody to do anything until there is a complete disaster.”
—Evan McKenzie,  The Privatopia Papers

“Undemocratic Gulags ruled by unaccountable boards and for the enrichment of those who profit from owner ignorance or impotency.”
—Edward R. Hannaman, "Homeowner Association Problems and Solutions"

“In China, they build whole cities in less time than it takes to approve a block [in Canada.]”
Yuan Hua (Mike) Wang
founder of Times Development, a condo development company

“I just don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze.”
—Better Condo Life on retiring the Blog

“Construction projects in Toronto are cool because tehy give the rest of us a glimpse of what it would be like to be given infinite time and space to complete our jobs.”
—Chester Scoville

“I do think that we need to recognize that any society’s idea of truth is always the product of an argument, and we need to get better at winning that argument. Democracy is not polite. It’s often a shouting match in a public square. We need to be involved in the argument if we are to have any chance of winning it.”
—Salman Rushdie  (on truth & facts)

“Fun things happen when you earn dollars, live on pesos, and compensate in rupees.” 
—Tim Ferriss author The 4-Hour Workweek

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