Suburbs add semi-detached to the mix

As new-home prices creep upward in the outer suburbs and land supply dwindles, the writing is on the wall: semi-detached houses, townhouses and other compact dwellings are going to be an increasingly important component for buyers looking for value.

The attached home has traditionally been a favourite of infill builders attempting to squeeze multiple properties out of a smaller space.

But the so-called "master planned communities" -- the large tracts of 250 homes or more on former farms or greenfield -- are incorporating more and more attached properties into their mix.

It's not just market forces that are bringing out the semis and towns.

Municipalities are requiring developers to build a mix of homes into their new planned communities, partly out of a concession to make more efficient use of virgin land, but also to address the need for more affordable housing for families who might not be able to crack a $300,000 mortgage.

Builders are also aiming to attract young couples and single people, particularly to the townhouses, in the hope that they'll move up to a semi or detached home in the same community when children enter the picture.

Great Gulf Homes have been very active building semis in their recently launched Wyndam Manor development and The Meadows, established 2½ years ago. Both are in northern Ajax in the midst of a booming field of master-planned communities featuring mostly detached homes on 40-foot or wider lots.

"Our semis have done phenomenally well in the Meadows," said Sandra Frasson, Great Gulf's sales and marketing manager. "The average purchaser is young couples or first-time buyers from the local area and Scarborough."

There are other attached developments angling for the empty-nest buyer in Durham Region, and they can usually be found in the waterfront areas in Pickering or Whitby, generally near a golf course or marina. Ajax, however, is a long-established industrial bulwark of the region on par with Oshawa, and its planned communities tend to attract those still toughing it out in the work force.

The Meadows' semis start at $212,990 for 1,210 square feet of space, while Wyndam Manor's townhouses start at $209,990 for 1,255 square feet. Detached homes at the same developments generally start at least $25,000 more. Semis make up about 25 per cent of the 300 homes sold to date in The Meadows. At Wyndam Manor, about 900 residences are planned over the next several years, with 50 having been sold in the past six weeks since the development was launched.

Ms. Frasson adds that Great Gulf isn't trying to market a particular home, but the community itself. "Within each community, there's going to be different needs in terms of price and size," she said. "Very rarely do buyers come in for a detached home and buy a semi. It usually goes the other way."

On the resale front, Ajax had the third highest number of sales of freehold townhome and rowhouses in the eastern region of Greater Toronto in April with 18 for an average price of $219,367. This was also the highest average price for this type of home in all of Durham Region, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board. It was an increase of 6.2 per cent over the average townhouse price of $206,542 in April, 2003, for Ajax.

In terms of semis, the average resale price in April for Ajax was $232,738, up 17 per cent from the same month in 2003 when it stood at $199,000.

Market facts - Ajax

As at April 30, 2004