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Thursday, May 6, 2010
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36 metro homes
Interested in more BILD Awards? For a complete listing of the winners in all 46 categories, please visit bildawards.ca.
Monarch comes up big PHOTO SUBMITTED
RooftopSurfing Stephen Dupuis metronews.ca/rooftopsurfing
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ast Friday marked the 30th anniversary of the annual BILD Awards — an evening of recognition for the excellent work our Association members have done throughout the year. This year, more than 950 homebuilders, developers, design professionals and sales & marketing gurus gathered to see who would come out on top in 46 different award categories. When you put that many Type-A personalities in the same room, you don’t hear the buzz, you feel it! The Monarch Corporation was named Home Builder of the Year as the builder who is setting the standard for the rest of the industry by excelling in
Monarch Corporation won the “Oscar equivalent of best picture,” said President Brian Johnston (seated centre-right) at this year’s BILD awards. Seen here are some of the companies executive as well as BILD president Stephen Dupuis (seated centre-left).
quality, service and customer commitment. The award is based on BILD’s independent survey of Monarch’s homeowners. As an elated Monarch President Brian Johnston quipped, “this is the Oscar equivalent of best picture.” Tridel took home the Green Home Builder of the Year award for the third time since its inception in 2007. The developer was
the inaugural award winner, repeated in 2008 and narrowly missed the “threepeat” last year. This is a company that truly gets it when it comes to sustainable development and green building. On the low-rise side, the Green Home Builder of the Year award was bestowed upon Mason Homes, who also happened to capture the inaugural award in
2007. Ironically, Mason took this particular award away from Monarch Homes, but Monarch was more than happy as Home Builder of the Year. Next on the awards hierarchy, The Daniels Corporation won the Places to Grow Community of the Year, high-rise award for its huge and very promising Regent Park project. Lifetime Developments and Great Gulf Homes captured the High-Rise Project of the Year award, plus three marketing awards for X2 in downtown Toronto. Niche Development Limited picked up the Project of the Year award in the lowrise category for Edgemere Private Residences. This year’s show saw the rare natural hat-trick as Concord Adex made three consecutive trips to the stage sweeping all three Best Suite Design awards for its Concord CityPlace project in Toronto. Stephen Dupuis is president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). He can be reached at president@bildgta.ca.
Concerned over the advent of HST? LegalMatters Jeffrey D. Cowan jeff@cowanlaw.ca I am considering purchasing a home and have heard entirely contradictory information with respect to the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) that is being brought into place on July 1, 2010. Will I have to pay HST if I close after July 1, 2010?
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The first step is to determine what type of home you are buying. If you are purchasing a resale home that has not been substantially renovated then HST does not apply to the purchase price (nor does GST). This is probably the most misunderstood portion of HST. If you are selling an existing home then you would be subject to HST
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on the commission paid to your realtor. The real tax hit is if you purchase a new home/condo, or a substantially renovated home and it closes after July 1, 2010. The basic premise is that you pay an additional eight per cent on the purchase price, which results in $8,000 per $100,000 of purchase value. Even then, if you are purchasing for under $400,000 then you will qualify to an enhanced rebate that will result in only a two-per-cent charge on your purchase price. However, if the purchase price is over $400,000.00 then the amount of the purchase price over and above this amount is taxable at the full eight per cent of the HST and five per cent GST. Jeffrey Cowan is the principal with Cowan Taylor and McGee, Barristers & Solicitors. The information in this article should not be relied upon as legal advice.