Toronto’s unsold condo rate has reached ‘an incredible level’: expert
Toronto’s unsold condo rate has reached ‘an incredible level’: expert
In Canada’s largest housing market, the number of unsold condominiums keeps rising.
Butler said there’s been “severe overbuilding” in the Toronto condo market for a number of years, specifically when it comes to smaller units.
“The tiniest of tiny condos,” Butler said. “It’s weird that in a country like Canada where there’s been a consistent housing crisis for the last 10 years that if you build a very bad product, people won’t take it, it’s as simple as that.”
Butler said many of the unsold condos on the market today are ones designed for investors or real estate speculators and are not practical for most families.
“They are roughly the size of large hotel room, only meant to be rented out, and there’s been simply a massive overbuilding of non-family units,” he said, noting that many of the condos for sale in Toronto currently are 500-square-feet or less.
Investors and speculators should have to eat the loss, they took the risk now take the hit.
Yeah, but "risk" is just an empty buzz word that means "ownership deserves all the money". The line has to go up. If it doesn't go up, someone else has to pay for it!
Price them appropriately—like, less than a dollar per month per square foot rent, or maybe the cost of a used RV to own—and you might see some uptake. As things stand, I expect these are unaffordable for the people who might be able to use them.
If the idiot owners won't budge on charging too much for too little, they deserve to go bankrupt over it.
Prices are coming down, it may take a bit of time to shake out.
Students, affordable housing, starter homes, some retirees will see a downsize opportunity, reducing overcrowding in some homes.
Lots of utility at the right price.
The size is not the problem. It's small and expensive. It would be fine if these units were cheap and small.
500-600 square feet is plenty for one person if the layout is good.
The floor plans are also straight up bizarre. I was in the market recently and I saw two en-suite bathrooms in a 2-bed 3-bath. Kitchen/living/dining combos that could barely serve any of those purposes. Dens that were 4sqft corners in a kitchen, or slight recess in a wall. Interior glass walls to compensate for no window in a bedroom.
Then there were just absolutely strange finishing design choices, like a wall mounted intercom in the entrance you had to kneel to read the screen or reach the keypad. I'm not that tall. Some of the UGLIEST post-modern tile work I've ever seen, bar fridges masquerading as kitchen fridges, shallow tubs, low shower heads (again, I'm 5'9 this is not usually an issue.)
Looking in BC and many of the places are built like bowling alleys with windows only at one end. What were these builders thinking?
To make matters worse, many (scummy) realtors are now including patio and decks space in the square footage. No, a 800 sq ft place with a 700 sq ft patio is not 1500 sq ft of living space.
It's reasonable for two people as well as a "first home." My partner and I own a 960 sqft condo and it's all we need. If we wanted kids it wouldn't work but as just a couple it's great.
so prices are cheap with the large supply yeah?
smiles at Queen Amidala
- LAUGHS IN TRANNA *
While it is a bunch of bullshit that so many were built, we should find a way to use it. People without a home don't care how small it is so these unsold condos sound like they would make great transitional housing, student housing, etc.
Agreed.
We should change the definition of 'suitable housing' so that a family of four can be housed in a closet with a toilet.
/s
Agreed.
We should change the definition of ‘suitable housing’ so that a family of four can be housed in a closet with a toilet.
/s
You should find a better hobby.
They're not overbuilt, they're overpriced. I know plenty of people in Canada who would do perfectly well in a 500sqft condo, and I can't imagine there's a shortage of them. I had a time when it was perfectly fine for me. It's also true that such people can't usually afford the asking price and those who can (e.g. >100k/yr) usually expect a lifestyle involving more than a 500sqft home. This is just the free market forcing the prices to meet demand 🤷
Cool. Let the owners go into bankruptcy, then have Druggie buy the units and rent them out as affordable housing ... which is a hell of a lot better than him begging Carney for money for a fucking tunnel.
Everything has a price, no one wants a 500 sqft apartment because it’s probably priced higher per square foot than a 2 bedroom.
If they are glorified hotel rooms then they need to be priced as such. One person in a 500 sqft unit would always feel more cramped than two people in 1000 sqft unit, so idk what these investors were thinking.
You say unsold condo, I say future student housing.
Jokes aside, this is why "build baby build" on its own is not going to solve the housing crisis.
I mean I'd say that "build baby build" implies building houses people can actually live in.
You say that because you're a reasonable person and not a profit maximizing sociopath, sorry, I meant capitalist. So long as our system idiotically conflates a means to satisfy people's basic needs for shelter with an investment vehicle for which line must go up, the implication that we are talking about "houses people can actually live in", is not a given.
Recall, these units are around the $4,000 a month range, condo fees included.
Gonna need some evidence to back that up. I'm right downtown and 1bdrm ~600sqft condos are rented at about the $2500/month mark. There are some $3k+ outliers but they're few.
May need to tweak the filters.
It's not an 'unsold condo market', it is an 'unsold overpriced aiirbnb' hotel room' market. These units are the size of a hotel room, and only useful for short-term accommodation.
noting that many of the condos for sale in Toronto currently are 500-square-feet or less.
Holy crap, that's basically studio for single. I wonder how much they're actually selling
Knock a wall down between them for a door and remove one of the kitchens, and now you have a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo with dual exits for an emergency.
If you can't move between units without going through a bedroom, make that a den or something and put a wall up in one of the 2 living rooms for the 2nd bedroom.
It might be a wonky unit, but it'd still be better than a shoebox
People will rent them for the right price.
About a third of the price that any reasonable rent would be, then you can just get 3 and actually have some decent square footage to work with.
Same thing in Montréal, there is 3000-4000 empty condo, too small and too expensive.
Hire me into Canada... promise I'll be a good citizen.... I've never been military before but if you made me sign up to help defend against with my fellow yanks I'll do it... Canada, if you're listening...
$5 dollas
When the crisis is so extreme, legalised squatting laws help drive down prices.
Has it gotten to early pandemic numbers yet?
I'm sure this is, somehow, the fault of immigrants and Trudeau
Even with our federal government buying half of all mortgage bonds and extending amortizations to further devalue our dollar to gift it to boomers who own multiple rental properties?
I guess our government wasnt deliberate enough, they should just send cheques out to home owners directly.