Funky U-Shaped Toronto House Once Toured by David Bowie Lists for C$14 Million
The late rock star and his wife, model Iman, visited the house after seeing a news story about its unusual design by local architects Shim-Sutcliffe.
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An award-winning architectural home in Toronto that once got the attention of David Bowie is on the market for nearly C$14 million (US$9.79 million) in one of Canada’s most exclusive neighborhoods.
After seeing a 2002 news story about the home’s design, by Toronto architects Shim-Sutcliffe, Bowie reached out to the firm in 2004 for a tour.
The owners, Toronto financial executive David Fleck and wife, Yvonne Domerchie-Fleck, rushed home from an Ottawa trip to meet the star and his wife, model Iman. The Flecks, who had commissioned the home in 2001, are also the sellers.
“I took Bowie and Iman around” the 7,500-square-foot house in Toronto’s exclusive Bridle Path neighborhood, David Fleck said. “He was one of those icons who was beyond fame, so he was easy to talk to and open-minded.”
According to Fleck, Bowie and Iman were scouting architects to build a summer home in Woodstock, New York, where they owned land.
“They were fascinated by the architects and the materials,” including wood and steel, Fleck said. The couple never followed through on the plan, however; Bowie died in 2016 at age 69.
The Flecks once shopped the Highland Crescent home around in 2012, asking C$6.85 million. More than a decade later, it just hit the market for C$13.99 million.
The Flecks have listed it again as they are downsizing now that their two children have grown up and moved out, according to co-listing agent Jimmy Molloy.
“The house won the Governor-General’s Medal in Architecture for 2004. Modern residential architecture can be cold, sterile, and austere.
Shim-Sutcliffe makes everything seem organic, and made the house seem like it’s part of its location,” said Molloy, an agent with Chestnut Park Real Estate Brokerage/Christie’s International Real Estate who is co-listing the home with Lindsay Van Wert.
The home’s exterior, built as a series of vertical panels, is clad in mahogany and Corten steel.
“It’s timeless, warm, and seems to have sprung out of nature―even using steel, the most manufactured of products,” Molloy said. “The house is more than 20 years old, and still looks new. If you visit in a hundred years, it won’t feel dated. Great architecture is about creating something timeless.”
Shim told the Globe and Mail in 2012 that steel “is interactive with the environment. … We think of the steel not as hard and cold, but warm and rich.”
The home has four bedrooms, six bathrooms, two garage spaces and parking for five cars. The sellers are “major art collectors in Toronto who curated and built this house with” the architects, Molloy said.
“We have such mixed feelings about selling the house,” David Fleck said. “It’s an entire environment. Howard [Sutcliffe] shifts ceiling heights, so there is movement in the house to create spaces that are unique. And almost every room looks out onto nature.”
To renovate the kitchen and bathrooms, the sellers retained Kelly Buffey of Toronto’s Akb Architects, “but in conjunction with Shim-Sutcliffe, Molloy said.
The kitchen features a Thermador induction cooktop, Wolf wall oven, Fisher & Paykel refrigerator, and Miele dishwasher.
Upstairs, a skylit landing connects three bedrooms, including a primary suite with a study, custom closet and a balcony overlooking the backyard pool.
The lower level features a media room, bedroom suite, second kitchen and gym. All rooms on the lower level open to a garden courtyard.
The U-shaped house surrounds a lap pool and lily pond. “The house is all about how it responds to its setting and to natural light, with walls of glass,” Molloy said.
Overlooking a ravine, the house also has views of the Rosedale Golf Club, which was founded in 1893.
According to Canadian data site Realosophy, the median sales price for the Bridle Path in February was C$16.2 million, based on three sales. The neighborhood’s highest-price listing is a 13-bedroom estate that’s on the market for C$23.98 million.
Neighbors in its affluent enclave north of downtown Toronto include Drake ; and residents have included Prince, Celine Dion, Elton John and Gordon Lightfoot.
Toronto’s downtown core is about 7 miles south of the neighborhood. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is about 9.5 miles south.
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A record-breaking $11 million sale at The Centennial Collection has set a new benchmark for luxury apartment living in Bondi Junction.
As interest rates, inflation and market sentiment fluctuate, investors are being urged to focus on data, not panic.
Australia’s housing affordability crisis is being fuelled by chronic undersupply, planning delays and rising development costs, as politicians continue to focus on the wrong solutions.
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Australia’s housing crisis will not be solved by first-home buyer incentives or tax changes alone, with leading property figures warning governments must tackle supply constraints if affordability is to improve.
Speaking at the Kanebridge Quarterly Property Leadership Summit in Sydney last week, expert project marketing specialist Sam Elbanna, property investor and fund manager Paul Miron and property consultant Karla McNeice said that a lack of housing supply remained the central issue facing the market.
Elbanna, Director of CPM Realty with more than 30 years’ experience in project sales, argued that successive governments had focused too heavily on stimulating demand rather than addressing the barriers preventing new housing from being delivered.
“The misconception is that politicians think the way to solve the housing crisis is to drive demand,” he said.
“The reality is that’s not the way. This is a supply-side problem, and it needs to be solved on the supply side.”
Drawing on his experience in project sales, Elbanna said policies designed to help first-home buyers often had unintended consequences, pointing to previous grants that ultimately flowed through to higher property prices.
Instead, he said developers were facing increasing red tape, approval delays and rising costs, which were discouraging new housing supply.
“In the absence of stock, demand exceeds supply,” he said.
Miron, a Co-Founder and Fund Manager of Msquared Capital, said the housing debate had become overly focused on tax policy while overlooking broader structural issues.
He argued that affordability challenges stemmed from a combination of factors, including planning constraints, supply shortages, migration levels and interest rates.
“No-one can be 100 per cent certain on the real reason for property prices is going up,” he said.
“The reason why property prices are higher is a combination of interest rates, lack of supply, migration, vacancy rates and maybe taxes play a role.”
Miron was critical of recent federal housing policy changes, warning they could reduce the number of new homes being built and further constrain supply that was even highlighted in the budget.
He also highlighted the importance of the property sector to the broader economy, noting that residential real estate and related industries employed more than one million Australians.
McNeice, who advises developers on sales strategy and market intelligence, said understanding buyers had become increasingly important as affordability pressures intensified.
While affordability remained a major consideration, she said today’s buyers were focused on value rather than simply price.
“People are looking for value for money,” she said.
She said buyers were increasingly evaluating factors such as transport connections, walkability, nearby amenities and flexible living spaces that could accommodate changing family needs.
“What infrastructure is going on? Can I walk to the shops? Can I meet people at the local cafe?” she said.
The panel also discussed the mounting pressures facing developers, with Elbanna arguing that many projects become financially unviable from the moment a site is purchased.
“The viability of a development happens at the moment the site is bought,” he said.
He said rising construction costs, higher interest rates and overly optimistic feasibility assumptions had left some developers exposed as market conditions changed.
While acknowledging the growing number of smaller and first-time developers entering the market, Elbanna said property development required expertise across finance, construction, marketing and legal disciplines.
“It is actually a business that requires a level of expertise,” he said.
Looking ahead, the panel agreed opportunities remained in the market despite current challenges.
Miron said property should continue to be viewed as a long-term investment and cautioned against trying to time short-term market movements.
McNeice said success would increasingly depend on identifying projects that genuinely met changing buyer expectations.
Elbanna said affordable housing remained achievable, but developers needed to deliver more than just homes.
“We can provide affordable housing in this country,” he said.
“But we’ve got to wrap that affordable housing with the things that people want.”
As Australia’s housing affordability debate intensifies, the panellists agreed on one point: without a meaningful increase in housing supply, demand-side measures alone are unlikely to solve the nation’s property challenges.
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