Add free public transit to the granite counters and stainless-steel appliances on the list of amenities attracting buyers to Toronto’s hot condo market.

Under a new city policy, condo developers will have to include a year’s supply of Metropasses in each new unit they sell.

“This is the carrot that will get people onto public transit,” said Councillor Howard Moscoe (Eglinton-Lawrence), a former TTC chair, who introduced the policy approved by council in November.

But just like spa tubs and lakeside views, the cost of the passes will be reflected in the price of the condo, according to developers.

The rule will apply to development applications made after April 28 on buildings with at least 20 units in the downtown and central waterfront areas, city centres in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke, and avenues defined by the official plan, including the arteries slated for the Transit City light rail plan.

“These units are in strategic locations; these are not condos in the middle of nowhere,” said Rod McPhail, Toronto’s director of transportation planning, urban development services.

The designated areas already have good transit access and many of the avenues are ripe for transit-oriented development.

The new rule is one of the trade-offs for developments in areas where the requirements for residential parking in condos have been lowered, he said. It will be about 18 months before the developments to which the rule applies are built.

McPhail believes other Canadian cities, notably Vancouver, will be watching to see whether the rule helps generate transit ridership.

But developers have made no secret of the fact they oppose the new charge and that costs will be buried in the price of units, said Stephen Dupuis, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

“It’s wasteful because people are going to get those Metropasses whether they want them or need them (or not), and I figure a third of people don’t want them or need them,” he said.

The reduction in parking requirements is meaningless unless the threshold is placed low enough that a developer can eliminate an entire floor of parking, said Dupuis.

But Moscoe says all developers are not opposed. In fact, he claims, the original idea came from a developer. He’s convinced builders will end up marketing the Metropasses the same way they tout their locations and amenities, because people want to live near transit.

For developers it’s a good deal, he said. They can buy the passes in bulk at about a 12 per cent savings and then get 15 per cent back in a federal tax deduction — and they don’t have to pay for the passes until the unit is sold.

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The Goods: Another condo tax?

