Toronto has a whole lot of real estate development going on. Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB), a large real estate consulting firm, released their quarterly crane index. The index puts Toronto at the top of the high-rise construction pile in North America. Actually, Toronto is beats the next closest city by a huge margin… that’s not always a good thing.

About The RLB Crane Index

The RLB crane index is a survey to count the number of high-rise cranes currently deployed. Mixed use, commercial, and residential are all counted in the total. RLB only conducts surveys in markets they do business in, so there’s some notable holes in North America. Off the top of our heads, Vancouver and Miami are not included – two spots known for having a lot of construction. We’ll have to pull the data for those cities on another day. Now, let’s look at their survey.

Toronto Leads North America For Crane Count

Topping the list on the RLB crane index is Toronto, Seattle, and Los Angeles – in that order. Toronto had 97 construction cranes at the end of Q2 2018, up 9 cranes from the previous quarter. Seattle had 65 cranes in Q2, up 20 from the previous quarter. Los Angeles had 36 cranes at the end of Q2, the same number from the previous quarter. Yes, Toronto has almost over 40% more cranes than the next city on the list.

North American High-Rise Crane Count

The RLB Crane Index includes high-rise cranes currently deployed, in North American markets.

Source: RLB. Better Dwelling.

Over 400 More High-Rise Projects Proposed For Toronto

Toronto’s construction boom is led by residential projects, and is set to expand. Nearly 86% of the 97 cranes are residential projects under construction. The high crane count could continue to rise as well, since another 400 projects are proposed. Not a huge surprise for everyone that knows Toronto is at record levels of construction. The count confirms a lot of supply will hit the market relatively soon, with even more supply to come.

Toronto’s crane count isn’t a problem right now, but it does indicate some headwinds in the future. Residential real estate prices soared, and led to a rush of new projects to cash in. This rush is typical of the late stages of a real estate cycle. The massive influx of supply is likely to place downward pressure on prices, wiping out significant home equity. No surprise one of the world’s largest banks calls Toronto the “world’s largest real estate bubble.”

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