This Toronto Star article reports on each of the major new home builder award programs in Ontario.

The programs include the Tarion Awards of Excellence, the J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Study, the Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association (GTHBA) Pinnacle Awards, and the Ontario Home Builders’ Association (OHBA) Awards of Distinction.

The Tarion Awards of Excellence are based exclusively on after sales customer service. “We look exclusively at builders’ customer service, not aspects like sales and marketing or factors like price, sales centre or location,” says Janice Mandel, Vice-President of Corporate Affairs for Tarion.

Builders of all sizes from across Ontario are invited to participate in the awards program, based on a set of stringent criteria related to their customer service record with Tarion.  A random survey of purchasers who have bought a home from one of these builders is then independently conducted and scored by Decima Research of Toronto. Decima also conducted detailed interviews with the group of 14 finalists, from which the four winners emerge.

With Tarion’s awards program’s exclusive focus on customer service, “Homeowners really determine the finalists and winners,” says Mandel. 

In 2005, the Tarion Awards of Excellence went to Tridel and Tribute Communities of Toronto as well as Hayhoe Homes of St. Thomas, and Lapico Custom Homes of Windsor.

J.D. Powers, the U.S.-based consumer research firm, introduced their awards program this year. The results are based on consumer input that they gathered by sending out questionnaires to buyers of low-rise homes in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

“Our evaluation is based strictly on the voice of the consumer,” says Darren Slind, a senior director with J.D. Powers. Tribute Communities ranked first in this awards program, followed by Mattamy Homes and Brookfield Homes.

Introduced three years ago, the OHBA Awards are based on the results of a consumer survey and on the assessment of four judges, who do not know the nominees’ identities. This year, the OHBA’s Builder of the Year Award went to Midhaven Homes, who also won in 2004.

The GTHBA’s Awards program was the first to offer a Builder of the Year honour, and for buyers, this remains the most important category. Like the OHBA awards program, builders nominate themselves and are asked to supply input from consumers who have purchased homes from them. This input weighs heavily in the final results. Cachet Estate Homes won this award in 2005.