Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity of spending the day at the Island School with a fantastic kindergarten class.
I’ve been to Toronto Island numerous amounts of times but never really took into consideration that this is where 600 lucky people (or so) call home. That was until yesterday of course. The whole small town feel where the bus driver is also the caretaker of the school is incredibly endearing. The fact that the city core is right there, just a ferry ride away and yet feels so removed from the hustle and bustle is so appealing to me.
My hopes of someday maybe calling this little community my home was shattered upon further research.
When a property becomes available, it can't be put on the free market. Rather, it’s offered for a fixed price to the first hundred people on a five-hundred-person waiting list. The list is ranked, so if there are multiple interested buyers, the property goes to the person closest to the top of the list. If none of the first hundred people are interested, the property is offered to people further down on the list, but this is rare. Forty-seven properties have been sold since the system began in 1994.
FIRST you have to get your name on that list. Problem is the list is capped at five hundred, you have to wait for existing people to drop off. About three people get properties each year, and about fifteen to twenty leave for other reasons. After a critical mass of vacancies accumulates, a call for applications is announced, and vacancies are filled by a lottery run by the Trust’s auditors.
It costs $110 to apply to join the list, though you get $100 back if you don’t get a spot. Once on the list, you pay an annual fee of $35 to keep your place. The properties themselves range anywhere from $75,000 to $450,000.
Once you do the math you’re looking at about a 45 year wait.
BUMMER.
I’ve been to Toronto Island numerous amounts of times but never really took into consideration that this is where 600 lucky people (or so) call home. That was until yesterday of course. The whole small town feel where the bus driver is also the caretaker of the school is incredibly endearing. The fact that the city core is right there, just a ferry ride away and yet feels so removed from the hustle and bustle is so appealing to me.
My hopes of someday maybe calling this little community my home was shattered upon further research.
When a property becomes available, it can't be put on the free market. Rather, it’s offered for a fixed price to the first hundred people on a five-hundred-person waiting list. The list is ranked, so if there are multiple interested buyers, the property goes to the person closest to the top of the list. If none of the first hundred people are interested, the property is offered to people further down on the list, but this is rare. Forty-seven properties have been sold since the system began in 1994.
FIRST you have to get your name on that list. Problem is the list is capped at five hundred, you have to wait for existing people to drop off. About three people get properties each year, and about fifteen to twenty leave for other reasons. After a critical mass of vacancies accumulates, a call for applications is announced, and vacancies are filled by a lottery run by the Trust’s auditors.
It costs $110 to apply to join the list, though you get $100 back if you don’t get a spot. Once on the list, you pay an annual fee of $35 to keep your place. The properties themselves range anywhere from $75,000 to $450,000.
Once you do the math you’re looking at about a 45 year wait.
BUMMER.
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