SERIES EXPLORES TORONTO'S LUXURY REAL ESTATE MARKET

A new reality television series, Luxe Listings Toronto, will explore the high-stakes multimillion-dollar listings in Canada’s largest city.

Based on Luxe Listings Sydney, a real estate lifestyle reality show that premièred on Amazon Prime in 2021, the Toronto-based edition will follow Toronto’s hyper-competitive luxury market.

Available on Prime, the series will debut on April 26 and features realtors Peter and Paige Torkan, founders of Team Torkan, who have sold over $1.6 billion in luxury real estate in the Greater Toronto Area, and Brett Starke, founder of The Starke Group.

“Toronto, we will make you proud,” Starke shared in an Instagram post announcing the show.

The series will focus on listings in some of Toronto’s most prominent neighbourhoods, including The Bridle Path, Forest Hill and Yorkville.

“The Toronto luxury market has blown up,” Peter Torkan said in the trailer for the series, which gives viewers a sense of the type of properties that will be featured. Think sprawling wine cellars, state-of-the-art home theatres and gyms, and panoramic views of the city skyline, Lake Ontario and surrounding landscapes.

Tension in the series will revolve around the competition among realtors as they vie to secure listings for properties worth millions of dollars. Team Torkan is a family business that has been in the industry for almost two decades, while Starke is depicted as the upand-comer, who faces challenges due to his youth.

“Honestly, you’re too young to be selling this kind of house,” one potential client tells him in the trailer.

According to the Team Torkan website, the business has sold more than 300,000 properties. Starke Realty, on the other hand, is known for its social media presence and for using a “triple bottom line” approach, valuing both financial performance and the social and environmental impact of its operations.

According to the 2023 Year-end Luxury Real Estate Market Report by Engel & Völkers, sales in Toronto’s ultra-luxury market for properties exceeding $8 million surged by more than 50 per cent compared to 2019, despite challenges posed by a ban on foreign buyers and pessimistic market predictions.