Offering a variety of housing, particularly models that accommodate multigenerational families, is helping Madison Group’s MILA in Toronto navigate a sluggish home sales market, two company executives say.

A master-planned community under construction in the Scarborough district, near the Midland and Lawrence intersection (the first two letters of each avenue lend the project its name), MILA is a two-phase project. It consists of single-detached, semi-detached and townhome products.

“From a brand perspective, we are giving that potential buyer what they’re looking for, because of the different product types and the options that they have,” Kora Pasek, Madison’s director of marketing and branding, said in an interview.

Core to this idea are single-family homes with finished basements that can expand the living space for three generations.

As a result, MILA is bucking a years-long lull in Toronto housing sales, said Yanny Lee, director of sales experience at Madison. Five deals or more are being secured every month for pre-construction and move-in ready homes.

“We’ve been doing quite well considering the market’s like this right now,” Lee said.

Buyers 'looking to buy very quickly'

Phase 1 of MILA was launched in 2021 and consists of 95 townhomes, eight semi-detached homes and seven single-detached homes. Its second phase, which was launched in 2023, is a mix of 65 townhomes and 35 single-detached homes.

The townhomes will range from 1,900 to over 2,200 square feet; they will be three- or four-bedroom units.

The four-bedroom semi-detached homes range from over 1,800 to 2,200 square feet.

The single-detached homes, which will range from 2,000 to 2,400 square feet, are planned as four- or five-bedroom units, with a fully finished basement counting as a bedroom.

Lee explained the townhomes will start from $990,000 and the single-detached offerings from $1.6 million. All the semi-detached homes have been sold and started from $1.3 million.

Located in an established Scarborough neighbourhood, MILA is near Thompson Memorial Park, the Scarborough Civic Centre and Library, Ellesmere Community Centre, the Scarborough Bluffs, groceries, cafes and the David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute. As for transportation, Highway 401 is a seven-minute drive north, and the TTC’s Kennedy Station one bus ride away.

A handful of move-in ready homes are being offered by Madison across both phases of MILA.

“It was phased, so we always hold back a few units here,” Pasek said. This ended up working out as Madison found “buyers looking to buy very quickly or some that are looking to buy maybe six months to a year.”

Construction on Phase 1 of MILA is wrapping up with work on the last few homes underway; construction on Phase 2 is taking place and closings are expected to happen later this year and in 2026.

Basements for multigenerational families and move-up opportunities

Surveying its market before launching MILA, Madison learned many potential buyers were interested in having their parents live with them, Pasek said. More young homebuying couples have been seeking out ways their parents can live with them to combat high housing costs or assist in qualifying for a mortgage, Lee explained.

Additionally, the basements can be turned into rental units to generate income.

It provided an opening the company sought to fulfill with the basements in the single-detached homes of Phase 2.

The strategy has been paying off. Approximately 80 per cent of the units at MILA have been sold so far, drawing in primarily end users, Lee observed. Multigenerational families and young families from the Scarborough area have been particularly interested.

Pasek said MILA is enticing because it gives potential purchasers the flexibility to “select a unit that fits their lifestyle because of the variety of units that we have” and because Madison “can provide those quick closings.”

Another target market is homebuyers wanting to move up from a condo or bungalow, Lee said. As there are not many new low-rise communities in Scarborough, she said MILA presents a rare opportunity for the city’s residents.

“There really isn’t that much happening in Scarborough from a low-rise, new construction perspective, and I think we were able to fill that gap,” Pasek said.

Madison's Brooklin Towns, Wild Indigo projects

As for Madison’s other projects, Pasek highlighted Brooklin Towns in Brooklin, Ont., a community north of Whitby and Oshawa. It is designed as a two-phase project of 159 townhomes, and units are being sold.

A major project that is expected to go to pre-market later this fall is Wild Indigo Homes Breslau, a master-planned community sited in Kitchener-Waterloo. A project of approximately 1,400 single-detached homes, townhomes and apartment units, it marks Madison’s return to the Kitchener-Waterloo area, Pasek said, as one of the first pieces of land the developer started with was in neighbouring Cambridge.

Pasek is seeing the end user “very predominant” from a marketing and branding perspective, rather than investors, a movement she expects will continue. This presents an opportunity for prospective homebuyers to get educated, ask for incentives and seek the best deal, Lee said.