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SECTION HSATURDAYSEPTEMBER 10, 2011thestar.comNew in Homes & Condos

Colin and Justin regale us with tales of tanning themselves in the Scottish sun, H16

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Its offices may be 34 storeys in thesky, but the Daniels Corp.’s valuesremain rooted in terra firma.

Though its roster includes an ar-ray of prestigious (Festival Tower,NY Towers) and ultra-luxurious(Kilgour Estates, One Eleven For-sythe) projects, Daniels’ early man-date to create affordable housingremains firmly intact.

What excites company founderand CEO John “Jack” Daniels mostisn’t the sale of a multi-million-dol-lar condo unit, but the launch of aFirstHome project, according to se-nior vice president Tom Dutton.

The FirstHome sites offer afford-able prices and programs to make iteasier for first-time buyers toachieve home ownership. It hasbeen so popular, potential buyersline up days in advance, emotions

run high and the sites sell out quick-ly.

“No matter what he’s doing, Mr.Daniels will change his schedulewhen we go to market with a First-Home community so he can bethere,” says Dutton.

“He will talk to every person inline. He loves hearing their storiesand gets such a charge out of it.”

John Daniels is past chairman ofthe Cadillac Fairview DevelopmentCorp. and was involved in the cre-ation of such Toronto landmarks asthe Eaton Centre and the Toronto-Dominion Centre. He was also a

force behind Erin Mills, the largestmaster-planned community inNorth America.

In 1982, he left Cadillac Fairviewand started the Daniels Corp. withthe idea of building small residen-tial projects.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITYDaniels donated land for the con-struction of 10 Habitat for Human-ity Homes in Etobicoke, the singlelargest donation of land by a pri-vate company in Habitat Canada’shistory. This year, the companypartnered with Habitat Mississau-ga and Citi Canada at FirstHomeDestination Drive Phase Two inErin Mills and arranged for Habitatto acquire a partially completedtownhome at significantly reducedcosts. Volunteers completed theinterior.GIVE A GIFT, GET A SONGDaniels’ president Mitchell Cohenand senior vice president TomDutton have written and recordedsongs to raise money and heightenawareness for some of the organi-zations with which the companyhas partnered, including SecondHarvest, Regent Park and Habitatfor Humanity, with funds going toan endowment fund for engineer-ing and construction technologiesstudents at George Brown College.SECOND HARVESTSecond Harvest is Toronto’s onlyperishable food recovery programand Daniels is in its 16th year aspresenting sponsor of its annualfundraiser, Toronto Tastes. In2009, Daniels’ lowrise construc-tion team helped build an exten-sion on the organization’s ware-house, with suppliers and tradesproviding materials and labour freeor at significantly reduced costs.EVA’S INITIATIVES: This organization develops long-term solutions for homeless andat-risk youth. Daniels has support-ed this cause for a decade, to helpthe organization continue to pro-vide programs, shelter and educa-tion to help these youth developemployable skills.REGENT PARK SCHOOL OF MUSICThis school provides children withan opportunity to study music in asafe, secure environment and,through the study of music, buildconfidence, develop good studyhabits and experience positivementoring. Daniels is a leadingsponsor for the school’s annualfundraising event, “Crescendo.”

DANIELS’ GOOD DEEDS

The Daniels Corp.’s vice presidents include, from left, Don Pugh, Sam Tassone, Martin Blake, Niall Haggart and Tom Dutton, photographed at theCinema Tower presentation centre, which is the sister building to the Bell/TIFF Lightbox and the Festival Tower.

AARON HARRIS FOR THE TORONTO STAR

A builder with a §

BEYOND THE BRICKS

TRACY HANES SPECIAL TO THE STAR

The Daniels Corp. is committed to buildingaffordable housing as well as luxury projects

l PAINTBOX: In Regent Park, H2l GATEWAY: A HIP program, H4l CINEMA TOWER: The sequel, H6l NY PLACE: Rent to Own, H8l FIRSTHOME: Entering the market, H8

DANIELS continued on H8

New homewarranty questions?

Find the answers.

Tarion.com

tridel.comPrices and specifications are subject to change without notice. Illustrations are artist’s concept only. Tridel®, Tridel Built for Life®, Tridel Built Green. Built for Life.® are registered trademarks of Tridel and used under license. ©Tridel 2011. All rights reserved. E.&O.E. September 2011. 16161

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DANIELS: A BUILDER WITH HEART

The goal of the immense RegentPark revitalization project, meta-phorically speaking, is to give thattroubled Toronto neighbourhood ablank canvas, a clean slate on whichthe community can create a bright-er future.

So it’s rather fitting what the Dan-iels Corp. — Toronto CommunityHousing Corp.’s exclusive builderand development partner on the69-acre master plan — has chosento name the latest condo in the Re-gent Park megaproject: Paintbox,which is complete with a multico-loured roofline.

The 26-storey Paintbox, currentlyunder construction at Dundas St. E.and Sackville St., is being built atopthe new $24-million Regent Parkarts and cultural centre.

The way Daniels vice presidentMartin Blake sees it, the namePaintbox does a great job of captur-ing the spirit of the cultural centre.“There’s no predetermined routethat centre will take, it can becomeanything,” he explains.

“So we thought about a blank can-vas, and the first thing that came tomind was paint box; you open up apaint box and whatever you want tocreate, this is your paint box — paintany colour you want.”

It’s a message he’s hoping will res-onate with both condo buyers andresidents, old and new, of a refur-bished Regent Park.

Paintbox is the first condo projectin the second phase of the six-phaseRegent Park revitalization; the sec-ond phase will include an addition-al three condo buildings.

The condo’s 284 units range from392-square-foot studios to 925-square-foot two-bedroom plus densuites and a few three-bedroomunits.

The units are priced from the$200,000s to just less than$500,000. With the project now un-der construction, Daniels says buy-ers will be able to move in by nextspring.

Paintbox purchasers can take ad-vantage of the developer’s gradualdeposit payment plan. Buyers pay$3,500 with the agreement of pur-chase and sale, and $1,000 eachmonth until they reach 5 per cent ofthe purchase price, or they move in.

“This allows that segment of themarketplace that has never beenable to buy, because they cannot puttogether the 20 per cent down pay-ment, to now become home-owners,” Blake says.

The Regent Park redevelopmentencompasses lands stretching fromParliament St. to River St., and fromGerrard St. to Shuter St.

The first phase of the revitaliza-tion included OneCole Condomini-ums, at the corner of Dundas andParliament; the building has beenoccupied for a year. Nearby, One-Park West, which sold out earlierthis year, is also fully occupied.There are 51 condo townhouses, aswell.

Together the first two phases ac-count for 50 per cent of the totalrevitalization project.

The Regent Park renaissance will

also include construction of newTCHC subsidized rental housingfor existing residents, which Dan-iels will build, but the market build-ings will be separate from the af-fordable housing stock.

Paintbox will have a 24-hour con-cierge and a Wi-Fi connectedlounge. An amenities space on thefourth floor will include a partyroom that connects with a gamesroom and an outdoor terrace withseating and dining space. There willbe gardening plots on the fifth floor.

At the base of Paintbox sits the60,000-square-foot Regent Parkarts and cultural centre.

Funded 50/50 by the province andfederal government, this three-lay-ered building, operated by Artscape(www.torontoartscape.on.ca), will“showcase the amazing creative en-ergy that permeates Regent Parkand the surrounding neighbour-

hoods,” Daniels material says.The first floor is the “Experience”

level, with a 400-seat theatre andoutdoor performance court. TheCollective of Black Artists and theNative Earth Performing Arts willbe the anchor tenants here.

The second floor, dubbed the“Learning” level, is dedicated to thedevelopment of talent in music, vi-sual arts and film. Groups will in-clude the Regent Park School ofMusic, the Cabbagetown RegentPark Museum and the Regent ParkFilm Festival.

“Innovation” is the theme of thethird floor, where Toronto’s Centrefor Social Innovation will haveworkspace for non-profits and so-cial and arts entrepreneurs. “This isgoing to be a magnet for arts andcultural organizations to come toRegent Park,” Blake says.

The arts and cultural centre will

be adjacent to Nelson MandelaPark Public School, which has beenclosed for the past few years as it hasundergone a refurbishment. Andthe city plans to build a communitycentre beside the nearby Duke ofYork Public School.

Along with Paintbox, the secondphase of the Regent Park revitaliza-tion will include the creation of asix-acre community park. Pedestri-an mews will run from Dundas toShuter Sts., and park pathways willconnect residents to area amenitiesand provide space well suited formarkets and street events. “It willbecome the hub,” Blake says.

There will also be a city-run re-gional aquatic centre with a work-out pool, slide pool and diving pool.

Following 50 years of no commer-cial activity in Regent Park, the firstphase of the revitalization intro-duced a host of name-brand retail-

ers, including Sobeys, Tim Hortons,RBC and Rogers.

And the second floor of all newbuildings will contain office space,Blake notes, giving residents a placeto set up shop locally and ideallyattracting workers from elsewherein the city.

With people coming to and re-maining in Regent Park to work,“the animation on the street chang-es completely,” he says. “It goesfrom being just a morning and nightthing to being animated full-time.”

Originally envisioned as a “gardencity,” Regent Park, Canada’s oldestand largest social housing project,didn’t work out as planned.

Parts of Old Cabbagetown weredemolished and in their place wasbuilt a closed-off, inward-facingcommunity that was in theory saferthan city streets. But there was aproblem. “There was almost aneconomic moat that went aroundit,” Blake says. “There was no busi-ness inside and no market housing.It was all social housing.”

Over the years Regent Park be-came notoriously crime-ridden andrundown. By the mid-2000s, theCity of Toronto decided the timehad come to raze the communityand start anew.

During community consultations,residents were assured of theirright to return to the neighbour-hood once the rebuilding was com-plete. This was significant, Blakenotes. “Regent Park has a stigmaattached to it, but the tenants weresaying we want the right to comeback.

“Residents were saying you candisplace us but you have to let uscome back, and I think that speaksto how passionate the people areabout their community.”

Guaranteeing residents the rightto return also helps guard againstgentrification. “I think about gen-trification as being somethingwhere people who used to live in alocation can no longer afford to livein a location,” Blake says. “TorontoCommunity Housing’s tenants willstill be under the rent-geared-to-income program, paying 30 percent of their income to rent. So ifyou talk about gentrification, youhaven’t lost those people; quite theopposite: you’ve guaranteed thosepeople can come back.”

Of course, as projects like thePaintbox get built and sold, therewill be an influx of higher-incomeresidents into the area.

“But the opportunities that comewith that are also coming in,” Blakesays, noting that 400 Regent Parkresidents got jobs thanks to all theconstruction and retail.

The assistant bank manager at theRoyal Bank is a resident, he says, asare the managers for Tim Hortons.And the majority of Sobeys employ-ees are from Regent Park. What’smore, foreign-trained profession-als who live in the area are workingwith engineering companies, andsome residents have gotten jobs inconstruction.

“It all speaks to the opportunitieshere,” Blake says.

For more information, go towww.paintboxcondos.ca.

PAINTBOX

‘Any colour you want’Condo tower sits atop new Regent Park arts and culture centre

RYAN STARRSPECIAL TO THE STAR

The Daniel Corp.’s Paintboxin Regent Park will include amulti-coloured roof.

(Regent Park)residents weresaying you candisplace us butyou have to letus come back,and I think thatspeaks to howpassionate thepeople are abouttheir community.MARTIN BLAKE DANIELS CORP. VICE PRESIDENT

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When Rowena Pierce was lookingfor a place to rent in Brampton, shegot more than she bargained for.

Not only did she find a spaciousnew three-bedroom townhouse inPleasantview Walk surrounded byparks, but $200 of her monthly$1,250 rent went into a savings plantoward a new house.

Now, that’s HIP.The Daniels Corp.’s Home Invest-

ment Program gives renters a leg upto get into the real estate market.Renters can contribute up to$6,000 toward the purchase of anew Daniels home.

Over a two-year period, Piercesaved roughly $5,000 towards atwo-bedroom townhouse in Dan-iels’ FirstHome community inBrampton.

Pierce says she loves the freedomthe program gave her — and the factthat she had her own washer/dryer,so she could do her laundry athome.

“It’s roomy; it’s mine,” she says ofher 1,350-square-foot home. “Two

bedrooms is just perfect for me.There’s no lawn to take care of.”

She also has a balcony.“This will suit me for now,” says

the registered nurse, who is in hermid-30s. “It’s just right for me atthis time.”

Daniels has eight purpose-builtGateway to Home Ownership com-munities in Mississauga, Bramp-ton, Markham, Oakville and Toron-to, says Don Pugh, vice presidentwith the homebuilder.

With about 870 units — mostlytownhouses — ranging in size from550-square-foot one-bedrooms to1,800-square-foot townhouses,Daniels aims to satisfy three typesof clients: people who rent as a life-style choice; those who may havemoved here for a job; and peoplewho want to buy a house.

For many, the biggest obstacle tohome ownership is the down pay-ment, says Pugh.

So, he says, Daniels asked them-selves what they could do to makethe experience better.

Daniels gives customers HIP cer-tificates so they know exactly how

much they have accumulated.When they come into one of our

communities to purchase, “we al-ready know who they are,” he says.

The program is about 10 years oldand started with the Annex com-munity, at Glen Erin Dr. and Thom-as St. in Mississauga.

The project, with about 80 units,took off right away, Pugh says, asvacancy rates were very low at thetime.

“To have brand new rental accom-modations was very unique,” saysPugh, who has been with the com-pany about 20 years.

“We watched (the program) ma-ture, understood the business, anddecided we wanted to be our ownmanagers, which is very important.We manage all our communities,”he says.

“When you rent from Gateway,you’re getting a level of servicewhich is commensurate with buy-ing a new home,” Pugh continues.

Renters have a 24-hour emergen-cy hotline and a 48-hour serviceguarantee.

Daniels also has its own handy-men and painters, so they can offerquick turnover service when peoplemove out and in.

“It’s very important to us that they

understand and they’re comfort-able and they know they’re beinglooked after as a client, because it’sgoing to make them feel comfort-able buying a home from us in thefuture.”

During the past five or six years, 72families from various communitieshave moved from a rental unit to anownership position, he says.

One couple lined up for threeweeks to buy a 1,375-square-foot,three-bedroom home for their

growing family of two children anda dog.

Pugh says the Gateway experiencehelped Daniels to learn how tobuild its FirstHome communities,in which homes are built before be-ing put up for sale, so people knowexactly what they’re getting.

As well, Daniels’ experience asrental managers came in handy forthe rent-to-own program at NYPlace Towers in the Sheppard-Bay-view area, he says.

GATEWAY

Moving from renting to ownershipThe Home Investment Program gives renters a leg up to get into the real estate market DONNA LAPORTE STAFF REPORTER

H4 H TORONTO STAR H SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 ON ON2

DANIELS: A BUILDER WITH HEART

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DANIELS: A BUILDER WITH HEART

Mitchell Cohen was working asdirector of development for the Co-operative Housing Federation ofToronto. In 1984, when the BrianMulroney Conservative govern-ment cancelled funding for afford-able housing projects, Cohen calledDaniels in search of a new job.

“Mr. Daniels hired Mitchell asgeneral manager and that was hisbiggest mistake — after that, therewas no way he was going to be ableto retire because Mitchell had allthese great ideas,” says Dutton.

Cohen, now company president,didn’t want Daniels to be a typicalbuilding company; he wanted it toprovide affordable home-owner-ship opportunities. His new bossagreed wholeheartedly.

“Mr. Daniels is very low-key buthe’s an amazing visionary and has aterrific philosophy and generositytoward other people,” says Dutton.“He’s the first one to say we shouldbe giving back.”

Daniels developed a credo of“Love Where You Live” and valuesbased on the belief that shelter is abasic human need and the right ofall Canadians.

“Right from the beginning, thecompany took on a persona of in-ventiveness and innovation andhad a different slant on things,” saysDutton. “It had a major social agen-da and a commitment to providingaffordable home ownership andsupporting charities.”

Until 1986, Daniels relied on gener-al contractors to do its building. Asthe market heated up, Cohen be-came frustrated with the decreasingquality and the lack of care aboutpurchasers. In October 1987, Danielshired Dutton, who had trained as anarchitect but “was a builder atheart,” to head up construction.

“When I joined, the company hada couple of townhouse sites in Mis-sissauga and a single-family homesite,” recalls Dutton. “We startednegotiating and working for variousnon-profit groups and in 1988 webuilt our first public non-profithousing for the Region of Peel.”

Daniels’ reputation for buildingquality turnkey social housing ontime and on budget brought it plen-ty of repeat business and allowed itto survive the market crash of 1989.

Daniels also set other trends: in1988, it was the first builder to bringfront verandas back to new houses;in 1990, it devised a “healthy village”master plan for Springdale inBrampton based on New Urbanismprinciples (then resoundingly re-jected by the city); and it executedone of the first urban renewal pro-jects in Toronto at Lakeshore Vil-lage, on the site of an old Goodyear

tire plant. Brick was recycled, tim-bers shredded and the mulch givento landscape companies, and 862co-op housing units were built.

In 1995, the newly elected MikeHarris Conservative provincial gov-ernment pulled the plug on socialhousing. That’s when the companygot involved supporting charitiessuch as Second Harvest. It alsostarted building retirement homesin conjunction with Amica MatureLifestyles that were pleasant andinviting places to live, marking adeparture from “warehouse”-typeseniors’ residences.

About a dozen years ago, Danielsbecame the first developer in morethan 20 years to build rental hous-ing. It introduced Gateway commu-nities, offering a Home InvestmentProgram (HIP), where a portion ofa tenant’s monthly rent could bedirected to saving a down paymenttoward the eventual purchase of anew Daniels home.

“The notion was if we could findways to help people into home own-ership, there was a tremendousmarket we could tap into and itwould be very gratifying to be partof the solution,” says Dutton.

Then came FirstHome projects toprovide the new homes for thosepeople to buy, offering graduateddeposits and special financing.

DANIELS’ FIRST CONDO projectwas NY Towers at Bayview Ave. andSheppard Ave. E., where four tow-ers went up at once in 1999.

“It was an enormous success andour construction team was runningfull tilt,” says Dutton. “We were put-ting a floor in every four or five dayson each tower and had concretetrucks lined up on Sheppard. Wekept finding more opportunitiesand our team got bigger every yearand we started to understand thecondo business.”

Daniels’ portfolio now includessignature buildings in MississaugaCity Centre (Chicago, Limelight,One Park Tower), the upscale OneEleven Forsythe on the Oakvillewaterfront and the Festival Tower,which sits atop the TIFF/BellLightbox, built in partnership withdirector Ivan Reitman’s family.

Daniels was also chosen to partnerwith Toronto Community HousingCorp. for the massive revitalizationof Regent Park. Some of Daniels’current projects include Paintbox, acondo atop the Regent Park Arts andCultural Centre, and Cinema Tower,the follow-up to the Festival Tower.

“We always tried to be inventiveand not always follow the samepath as others,” says Dutton. “Welook at each site as a separate entityand say, ‘How do we want this com-munity to work?’ ”

But Dutton says he and his co-workers derive their greatest satis-faction not from the bricks andmortar, but from the human con-nections they’ve made, from thepeople of Regent Park to the buyersat FirstHome sites to the familywho received the keys to a Habitatfor Humanity home. And Daniels’ongoing commitment to charities isanother source of pride.

“Our main emphasis is hungerand homelessness with a healthydose of the arts,” says Dutton. “Ifwe’re doing okay, we feel it’s ourresponsibility to assist people whomay not be as well off. It’s part of ourpersona.”

‘The companytook on a personaof inventiveness’DANIELS from H1

Mr. Daniels is . . . an amazing visionaryand has a terrificphilosophy andgenerosity towardother peopleTOM DUTTON DANIELS CORP.’S SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

“For Uchechi Ezurike, home owner-ship was a dream, but coming upwith the hefty bundle of cash re-quired for the down paymentproved a challenge.

“I knew I had the income to carry(a mortgage),” she says, “it was justthat whole obstacle of trying to saveup for the down payment.”

So she was quite drawn to Chelsea,an eight-storey condo in the Dan-iels Corp.’s NY Towers communityat Bayview Ave. and Sheppard Ave.E. It was here the developer firstintroduced its innovative Rent toOwn program back in 2003.

Now, eight years later, Daniels isbringing the program back at NYPlace, a 135-unit midrise buildingthat’s currently under constructionand slated to go on sale this fall.

Suites at NY Place range fromone-bedroom, to one-bedroom-plus-den, to two-bedrooms. Pricesstart in the mid-$200,000s and goto about $450,000.

Here’s how Rent to Own works:Buyers select a suite, sign an

agreement of purchase and sale,and can move into their new condowhen construction is completed.

Once they move in, buyers renttheir condo from Daniels for a year,with rents starting at $1,489. Thedeveloper credits nearly half of thatrent toward the purchaser’s downpayment, which, given that the con-do is already under construction, isonly 5 per cent (versus the normal20 per cent down payment re-quired for pre-construction pur-chases).

At the end of the one-year period,buyers simply top off the down pay-ment and can then close on theproperty. “They’ll be able to accu-mulate somewhere between 40 and50 per cent of the down payment inone year,” explains Daniels vicepresident Martin Blake, who notesthat his company is the only devel-oper in Toronto to offer this deal.

“The program helped,” says Ezu-rike, adding that she and her twosisters ended up buying condos atChelsea because of Rent to Own.

Units at NY Place have nine-footceilings and engineered bambooflooring throughout, with four-inchbaseboards.

Kitchens have stainless steel ap-pliances, granite countertops andceramic tile backsplashes. A cul-tured marble countertop with in-tegrated sink, soaker tub with ce-ramic wall tile surround and tem-pered-glass shower stall are some ofthe highlights in the bathroom.

Each suite will have stackablewasher/dryer combination.

About 40 per cent of NY Place willbe part of the Rent to Own program.While the goal is to help more peo-ple become homeowners, Blakestresses that Daniels is not sellingcondos to folks who can’t managethe mortgage payments.

“The qualification process is verystrict,” he says. “We don’t want tofool you or have you think you canbecome a homeowner when youcan’t afford it.”

Nor does Daniels let buyers walkinto their deals oblivious to the re-alities of home ownership. “Youcome to one of our seminars and weexplain the whole process to you,”says Blake.

“The last thing we want to do is putyou in there and then find out lateron that you just can’t afford to be-come a homeowner,” he adds.That’s rarely an issue, though. Themajority of the time, Blake says, theRent to Own program has succeed-ed in making home ownership areality for people like Ezurike andher sisters.

Once someone gets into the prop-erty market and can start accumu-lating wealth in a home, he says, “itchanges everything.”

For more information call 416-221-3939 or visit www.nyplacecondos.com.

Purchaser Uchechi Ezurike, with Daniels’ vice president Martin Blake, at the sales centre for NY Place.SARAH DEA FOR THE TORONTO STAR

NY PLACE

A place to call your ownCompany brings backRent to Own program RYAN STARRSPECIAL TO THE STAR

Don Pugh has taken great satisfac-tion in overseeing the launch ofLong Valley, the Daniels’ 10th Fir-stHome community in the GTA.

Located at Winston ChurchillBlvd. and Thomas St. in Erin Mills,the development includes a mix ofstacked townhouses with garagesand midrise condos.

Units range from 500-square-footstudios to 1,300-square-foot three-bedroom-plus-dens. Prices start at$145,900.

Daniels’ FirstHome program —which helps make home ownershipsimpler and more affordable forfirst-time buyers through specialprograms and incentives — hasbeen a big hit since it was first intro-duced by the developer in 2004.

The communities invariably sellout at lightning speed; the most re-cent FirstHome development, Des-tination Drive Phase 2, also locatedin Erin Mills, was snapped up in asingle day. Ample evidence, Pughsays, “of the great need for well-built, well-designed homes thatpeople can actually afford.”

At the Long Valley FirstHomeproject, homes are already underconstruction, so purchasers havethe comfort of knowing they canmove in 30, 60 or 90 days, depend-ing on the arrangement.

FirstHome offers a number ofprograms and incentives to makefirst-time ownership more feasible.

Purchasers at Long Valley can

take advantage of a gradual depositpayment plan: they pay $2,500 withthe agreement of purchase and sale,another $2,500 within 10 days ofthe purchase and then $1,000 everymonth until they reach 5 per cent ofthe purchase price or they moveinto the home.

There’s also the Live Free pro-gram: Daniels waives interim occu-pancy fees until the condominiumis registered, so purchasers at LongValley can move in, and not pay rent— only the deposit payments eachmonth until they reach the 5 percent down payment (versus the 20per cent normally required for pre-construction purchases).

Because the developer has alreadygot the project under construction,“we know exactly when we can trig-ger registration; we know what thatinterim occupancy risk is, so we canjust forego the fees,” Pugh notes.

He likens the arrangement to aguy living in his parents’ basement:the parents charge him $400 amonth, which they put into a bankaccount. When he’s ready to buy ahome, they give it back to him forhis down payment.

“We give 100 per cent of that mon-ey back to you,” says Pugh.

The developer has also workedwith RBC to cap mortgage rates atLong Valley. “We’re trying to nego-tiate mortgages for everyone in thecommunity, or negotiating the abil-ity for them to buy bulk,” Pugh says.

FirstHome communities are tar-geted at single buyers or youngercouples, as well as new arrivals tothe GTA.

Daniels safeguards against inves-tors buying up blocks of these prop-erties by selling one home to eachperson in the lineup; no homes arepre-sold. But there’s nothing stop-ping buyers from subsequentlyrenting out their units, says Pugh.

Marta Cichocka is a FirstHomefan.

The Mississauga resident, whoworks in the logistics industry,bought a one-bedroom condo at thesecond phase of Destination Drivein May and moved in this past June.

Cichocka says she was attracted tothe FirstHome community by theincentives, citing the 5 per centdown payment in particular. “Put-ting up 20 per cent of the purchaseprice, that’s kind of hard,” she says.“It was easier for me to do it monthby month and that way I was able tosave more.”

The living rent-free part was nice,too. Though she moved into herplace in June, her closing datewasn’t until September. But Ci-chocka hasn’t had to make any add-ed payments. “All I did was pay mydeposits toward 5 per cent and Ihad no extra rent to pay. It goestoward your purchase.”

For more information visitwww.danielsfirsthome.ca or call905-814-0123.

FIRSTHOME

First-timehomeownershipmade simple RYAN STARRSPECIAL TO THE STAR

The FirstHome project in Erin Mills is Daniels’ 10th such development.

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