Buying a home in Canada these days isn’t for the faint-hearted, especially in a market as cutthroat as Toronto.
Now, a new series from Prime Video Canada is pulling back the curtain on luxury home-buying in Canada’s largest city, with help from three of Ontario’s top real estate agents.
While prices for average homes across the country are soaring thanks to inflation, a cost-of-living crisis and sky-high demand for real estate, the asking prices of the mega-mansions featured on Luxe Listings Toronto are beyond eye-watering: upwards of $20 million in some cases.
But the trio of agents followed on the new Prime Video offering — Brett Starke, founder of The Starke Group, and power couple Peter and Paige Torkan, founders of Team Torkan — promise they aren’t trying to rub a lack of wealth in the face of everyday Canadians. Rather, they say, they’re offering up a bit of escapism, entertainment and a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Canada’s most competitive and collaborative home-buying markets.
“We are competitive on the show and we’re doing it in a good nature,” Starke told Global News about the breezy rivalry that plays out between his firm and the gang at Team Torkan.
“I believe that people think this business is all about competition and they’re making a huge mistake, because with collaboration they can be more successful,” added Paige, discussing how helping out a so-called rival can be beneficial in the lucrative real estate landscape.
“Being in competition with other people is like wishing other people to fail and I think that’s a sickness.”
This group of real estate frenemies give an endlessly entertaining masterclass in friendly competition on Luxe Listings Toronto, take audiences behind the (bulletproof) doors of some of the area’s toniest homes and give an intimate glimpse of how they attempt to juggle their personal lives with a demanding and dramatic career.
Hear more about what Team Torkan and Starke had to say about the series, including their advice to anyone wanting to break into the real estate market, in the video, above.
‘Luxe Listings Toronto‘ premieres on Prime Video Canada on April 26.