Condo seekers set up weeklong camp to stake out bidding position

A line stretching about 100 people long has formed outside a Toronto condo office a full week before the units are to be released for sale.

Touted as a prime piece of real estate at Yonge and Bloor, 1 Bloor St. E also holds the distinction of being the first 80-storey residential tower planned in the country. Construction is expected to be completed by 2011.

"The Toronto condo market is booming," said Veronika Belovich, the director of sales and marketing for the builder, Bazis International.

Belovich said she expects the lineup to numbermore than1,000 by the weekend, citingan old real estate adage as the reason.

"Location, location, location," she said of the units, which range in price from $300,000 to $2 million. "There's just so much demand."

Maureen O'Neill, president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, said demand in the Bloor and Yonge area of the city is notably strong.

"October was a banner month, the best the board has seen in real estate," she said. "Of the 8,000 total sales, 1,800 were condos. Of those 1,800,300 were condos" in the Bloor and Yonge neighbourhood.

In July, real estate agents and people they hired to hold a place in line camped out to secure a prime bidding position for the Beyond The Sea condos in the west end of Toronto. In 2005, real estate agents also waited through the night in front of the Ritz Carlton sales office to get first pick.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. in October reported the bustling condo market powered a large increase in September housing starts. The CMHC said housing starts jumped 20 per cent from August to 278,200 units, marking a 29-year high.