Luxe Listings Toronto: Brett Starke reveals 'significant' challenge in Canadian city's prestige market

Luxe Listings Toronto gives viewers an all-access look behind the lavish buying and selling of multimillion-dollar properties in the major Canadian city.

Top real estate agent and president of The Starke Group, Brett Starke, reveals the “significant” challenge faced in Toronto’s prestige market in an exclusive interview with Nine’s property team.

“Foreign home ownership is now banned in Canada which makes up a significant portion (of the buyer demographic),” Starke says.

In 2022, Canada’s federal government passed the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act to ban foreign investors from buying residential properties in Canada. This is to ensure the housing market remains available to Canadians.

Luxe Listings Toronto showcases the most prominent neighbourhoods from The Bridle Path to Forest Hill, Yorkville, downtown Toronto and beyond.

Starke reveals “massive windows” in Toronto’s luxury homes are making a comeback, along with more textured and eclectic materials.

“Leathered granite is making a resurgence. We were always seeing the Italian imported marble for the last decade, but now we’re seeing more raw stone coming out of Canada.”

Leathered granite has a more textured, matte surface than polished granite, and features dips and fissures. It’s easier to maintain and generally has a higher durability.

Since Covid-19, people are now working from home more often, and Starke is seeing “unbelievable” home offices with features such as “aquariums and a TV that comes down from the ceiling”.

Starke, who has watched all episodes of Australian original series Luxe Listings Sydney, admits he isn’t surprised to hear of house prices for the Harbour city’s prestige market.

“I’ve always thought of Sydney as a world-class city,” he says. “If you have a city that’s beautiful and you have cliffs on the beach, of course there will be a property value attached to it.”

The most expensive house in Australia is in Point Piper, a baronial-style trophy estate called Uig Lodge on Wentworth Place that transacted in 2022 for $130 million.

Built in about 1900, the manor was purchased by Atlassian billionaire Scott Farquhar.

Last month, plans were also unveiled for a new development on a $45 million oceanfront site in Tamarama in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Named Lang Syne, the four-bedroom, two-bathroom property blew price records out of the water in May last year when it sold for a record-breaking $45 million after seven months on the market.

It’s not only a suburb record but also a record for Sydney’s eastern beaches.

SOLD - $45,000,000

31 Gaerloch Avenue, Tamarama NSW 2026

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It has since been demolished to make way for the trophy home.

The project is titled Tamarama Headland Sea Change and will see the new build positioned along the popular Bondi to Bronte walk with the Tamarama coastline as its backdrop.

Luxe Listings Toronto is streaming now on Prime Video in Australia and in over 240 countries and territories around the world.

Nine Entertainment Co owns and operates the streaming service Stan.