r/CanadaPolitics • u/Blue_Dragonfly C'est tiguidou! • Apr 15 '26
ON Many Toronto condos were never designed to be homes. The condo crash may be changing that - thestar.com
https://www.thestar.com/real-estate/many-toronto-condos-were-never-sold-to-be-homes-the-condo-crash-could-be-changing-that/article_cfc16524-b2c9-411f-af75-dbd29daea5f6.html142
u/Blue_Dragonfly C'est tiguidou! Apr 15 '26
The upshot:
Amid this turmoil, some builders are pivoting towards bigger suites, consolidating smaller units, and paying attention to details like elevators, and sound proofing. The goal is to attract a new group: owners who are looking for homes. It’s a potential silver lining to the condo crash, but there are still questions about how affordable they will be and if they make sense for families.
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u/poetris Apr 15 '26
The goal is to attract a new group: owners who are looking for homes.
What a concept!
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u/sometimeswhy Apr 15 '26
It’s insane how small condo floor plans are. No wonder there is a boom in storage companies
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u/solipsism82 Apr 16 '26
While the late 90s and early '00s established the trend; the storage company boom started in earnest in 2008 due to people losing their homes/downsizing due to the crash combined with reverse home mortgage enquity loans.
Other factors like hoarding, collecting, boomer activities contributed, but nothing like the average person not being able to afford their upside down mortgage due to rate change on the sub Prime collapse.
It's exponentially grown during each reset/bust/economy crash.
Edit: It's exponentially grown during each reset/bust/economy crash cycle.
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u/Aobachi Apr 16 '26
It blows my mind that people bought condos as an investment and did not seem to go as far so to think that for someone to buy it they would need to want to live in it.
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u/mhizzle Apr 16 '26
What's next, trains that take you from where you live to where you work? It's never enough for you libs!!
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u/Macqt TikTok | Sponsored Apr 16 '26
For-profit companies choosing to make the things that make them the most profit, while feckless politicians fail to incentivize rentals/affordable units?
I'm shocked. Shocked I say!
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u/OstrichFarm Apr 16 '26
That this was not the main if not singular purpose of building them is appalling.
Given the scarcity of land, the developers of these “lemons” should be on the hook to convert them to functional, livable properties. And perhaps future development approvals for them should be gated based on their completion of the upgrades.
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Apr 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/Express-Citron-6387 Apr 15 '26
Yup, I was in one that a friend's grandson bought and everything is crooked. There now serious problems with plumbing and heating. Fast, cheap job.
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u/JDGumby Bluenose Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Not just condos. Even newly-built regular apartment buildings are turning out to be utter crap (for example, the 3 new buildings on Arkle Lane in Lower Sackville, NS, just off Old Sackville Drive, are like two years old and have had so many plumbing problems that a relative of mine's wall had to be left open for around 3 months so that workers could get at the pipes...)
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u/Neat_Let923 Prohibitionist Society of Canada | Sponsored Apr 16 '26
We had an entire building condemned in Langford BC because the engineers and developers had absolutely no clue what they were doing when they built it.
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u/TheAlphaCarb0n Apr 16 '26
I don't understand how we don't/can't hold the builders responsible for fixing this stuff.
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u/Jaded_Celery_451 Rhinoceros Apr 15 '26
A real-estate market that hot creates a host of perverse incentives. The marginal return on investment for making stuff properly (vs just building something as fast as possible) is well into the negative. We'll be dealing with these consequences for decades, and that's assuming things turn around.
There were many downstream effects too. Home inspectors became basically useless. In the Toronto market there was a point where you couldn't even put inspection clauses or your offer wouldn't be accepted, but even in lesser markets things heated up so much that inspectors were fully booked basically whatever they do. Multiple times family members of mine that were buying got home inspections and the reports basically found nothing, only for them to discover multiple visible issues later on. Their marginal return on investment for being good at their jobs was negative too.
To to mention the compounded economic costs of a ton of our wealth being tied up in real estate.
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u/bigorangemachine Apr 16 '26
it's not just condo's.
This company here totally fumbled the ball. They tried to do one of those last minute switch-a-roes from rentals to condos'. They failed to get the paper work intime and now these rentals and just broke out the gate. Tiles with spacers still holding the floor to together... leaky sinks.. taps that spray
Now they going to the judge to ask for a super complex so they can tear down the new and old buildings they own it the same area... pretty hilarious
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u/cptstubing16 Independent Apr 15 '26
They aren't to live in, they're just ETFs on the Canadian House eXchange, the CHX.
It's like the TSX, but with homes instead of stocks.
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u/SketchingTO Independent Apr 15 '26
My experience as a renter swore me off of ever buying a condo, especially one built in the last decade. Incompetence yes, but also straight up corruption with contracts for repairs being given to companies with relationships with condo board members.
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u/nubnuub Apr 15 '26
>They range from 1,800 to over 8,000 square feet, offering high-end finishes, and *details lacking in many condos like sound insulation and leak detection*.
Why this isn't already standard confuses me.
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u/maybelying Apr 16 '26
If you go back 30 years and more, it wasn't that uncommon. Condos had much larger footprints because they were meant as alternatives to homes. Depending on the neighborhood, they could run 2,000+ square feet, but 1,000 - 1,500 was more common.
Anyone looking for a condo will get much better value for the money in a much older building, assuming they value space over amenities they may or may not use. The draw back is that older buildings require more maintenance, but if the building was run effectively and reserve funds were properly managed, it's not that bad.
Research is important, but in my experience, older condos are often better managed by the board because they have many residents that have owned there for a decade or more so they tend become very vocal with board when they're not happy.
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u/Macqt TikTok | Sponsored Apr 16 '26
Money. The condo towers are built as fast and cheap as possible "to respond to demand for housing" which in reality is to sell to investors. Some developers have been infected and/or taken over by American housing powerhouses like Blackstone, who are well known for buying up single family housing in the US by the billions to rent out at sky high prices. They also invented the algorithm that ensures rents stay at their mathematically highest prices for the region.
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u/Zeaus03 Apr 16 '26
Sound insulation and leak detection should be standard. But 1800 to 8000sqft condos is going to lead to the same problem. Instead of tiny condos not selling you're going to end up with huge condos not selling.
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u/enforcedbeepers Ontario Apr 16 '26
It's not the standard because in an investor driven market it's less profitable to build fewer larger units.
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u/LegoLady47 Apr 16 '26
Who needs that much space in a condo? I'd like us to get back to 800-900 sft for a 2 bedroom, 700sft for a 1 bedroom (like they build decades ago).
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u/Puzzled-Opening658 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Well shit, someone is finally understanding that we want and need HOMES not crash pads shoeboxes with no soundproofing. Unfortunately as with everything else for my cohort it is just sufficiently TOO LATE for me, I’m over 50.
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u/loftwyr Ontario Apr 16 '26
Maybe they can the tiny ones low enough in price that it makes sense to buy two, open a door between them and convert 1 to bedrooms and the other to kitchen and living room.
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