They recently bought Greenbelt land that was undevelopable. Now the Ford government is poised to remove protections — and these developers stand to profit.
The Ford government recently purchased $750,000 of land in Greenbelt for a future park that would be designed to meet the growing demand for urban spaces in Toronto. The government will take the land and leave it undeveloped, so that builders can continue to use the vast empty space for commercial purposes, says Ford.
Yet once the government takes back the land, the developers are poised to profit. That’s because the government sold the land to the developers for way less than market value.
For the developers, the land sold last Tuesday was worth $750,000, meaning that they would get a maximum of $50,000 per square metre of land that they have sold.
So if the development of the park is successful, those developers stand to make off like bandits. And yet, as the Toronto Star reported, the Ford government has yet to define its plans for the land.
So how did the government sell the land for less than what it was worth?
The Star reported that the government had given the developers access to land for a minimum of $1,000 and then charged them a $7,000 per-square-metre fee.
The developers say this is normal. The land is sold to developers for minimum price, then the government charges “exorbitant” fees to access it.
But this is the first time that so many people have heard of a practice so common within the urban real estate sector.
We’ve heard of real estate firms charging more for better access to the land they are negotiating with developers, but now it’s being confirmed by the Ford government.
The government itself did not respond to repeated requests for comment on how the government bought the land, for what they were going to put on it and how much
