There's the unassuming blue-doored cottage. The tidy mid-century bungalow. The sprawling new build, two storeys of stone and brick.
They're all on the same Banburry/Don Mills area street, just north of the Shops at Don Mills. At each of them if you knock you will find no one at home. All of them are owned by buyers who have never moved in.
This week NEWSTALK 1010 is bringing you "Real Estate Reality", a series of stories focused on selling, buying and renting homes in the Greater Toronto Area.
The Ontario government plans to try to discourage foreign investors from snatching up Toronto homes with no intention of building a life in the city with a 15% "non-resident speculation tax". Officials have not been able to say how many houses and condo units in the city are vacant. Mayor John Tory has speculated the number could be as high as 65,000.
Steve Skandalis, a real estate agent with Royal LePage who lives on the vacancy-dotted street says an unprecedented five homes have sold there since January. Two of them remain vacant. A third has been leased out by its new owners.
"It's terrible," says Irina, motioning with her cigarette to a vacant home two doors down from her own. "It doesn't feel like a neighbourhood...it used to be very friendly."