Mystery foreign buyer purchases Yorkville penthouse for a record $28 million
The 55th-floor penthouse suite of the new Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences in Yorkville has sold for a cool $28 million, the highest price ever for a Canadian condominium. All we know about the new owner is that he or she can be identified only as an “international buyer”—a non-disclosure agreement was signed—so we’re holding out hope that it’s James Bond. The price works out to roughly $3,000 a square foot for the 9,038-square-foot space, causing most market watchers to wonder how anybody (even persons of international mystery) could possibly pay that much.
According to the National Post:
“It’s a stupid price. I could not conceive of anything in the city of Toronto worth $3,100 a square foot today,” said Brad Lamb, founder of Brad J. Lamb Realty Inc., and a well-known Toronto condo broker.
“That price, $3,100 a square foot, competes with the most expensive condominiums in the city of New York. It competes very well. I’m sorry, I love Toronto, I think it’s a great city, and I think the Four Seasons is amazing, I think it’s an amazing property, but someone paying $3,100 or over $3,000 a square foot in Toronto for a condo needs to get their head examined.”
Lamb added that this is clearly a case of somebody comparing prices with other global cities (yay, Toronto!) and then thinking they got a bargain (um, okay). As always, we’re struck by Toronto’s adorable desire to be in the first tier of global cities—even if it might not be all it’s cracked up to be. On CBC’s Metro Morning, Michael Hlinka called the news “a watershed moment,” proclaiming that Toronto had joined the ranks of the global elite, alongside cities like Hong Kong and New York, with the sale. But we’re not sure we’re ready to wave a “fabulous wealth affords absurd price” flag just yet.
• Four Seasons penthouse sells for $28-million [Globe and Mail] • Yorkville condo sells for $28M [National Post] • Metro Morning: Very Expensive Condo [CBC]
NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY
Sign up for This City, our free newsletter about everything that matters right now in Toronto politics, sports, business, culture, society and more.
