Real Estate Cheat Sheet: signs of trouble at the Trump Tower; signs of activity in the housing market

The top stories in Toronto real estate this week: Trump Tower buyers aren’t closing their deals, and home sales in the city are bouncing back from a year-long slump.

• Things at the Trump Tower are even worse than we thought
Talon International has only received final payments for about 50 of the tower’s 261 hotel-condo suites, which leaves the company on the hook for over 200 units’ maintenance fees and taxes. Bad news for a first-time developer already facing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit brought by angry investors. [Toronto Star]

• The new mortgage rules introduced last year didn’t slow buyers for long
Toronto’s housing market seems to have rebounded, with the Canadian Real Estate Association reporting a sales increase of 13 per cent in July compared to last year. However, experts caution the numbers may be skewed by the fact that the month had five Mondays and Tuesdays, which are popular days for closing deals. [Globe and Mail]

• CBC looks at three mega-developments that are preserving parts of heritage buildings
We’d almost forgotten that condo towers can be more than glass-and-steel boxes. [CBC]