Expectations vs. reality: The state of single-family homes in Toronto

In a recent survey on the preferences of prospective home buyers, the Toronto Region Board of Trade (TRBOT) found that the actual state of starter housing in the city is radically different from what these buyers are expecting.

Fully 69 per cent of the respondents—most of which are young professionals—indicated a preference for houses with at least 3 bedrooms, while 81 per cent do not want condo. This is in stark contrast to the proportion of mid-rise and high-rise housing units built between 2011 and 2016 (83 per cent).

Toronto’s chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat noted that these aspiring home owners dreams’ will run aground on the harsh reality of the decline of the single-family home, now cripplingly expensive in a market suffused with foreign investment.

“They are now competing with global capital. They are in entry-level positions making entry-level salaries, sometimes working more than one job and they are competing with capital from around the city that wants the same housing that they do,” Keesmaat said, as quoted by the Toronto Star.

The trend is showing no signs of stopping, and Keesmaat herself is already raising her children on the expectation that they will establish their own families in apartments.

“If they choose to stay in the city those are the odds — that they’ll raise their family very differently from how they were raised, just as I’m raising my family very differently from how I was raised,” she explained.

MBN

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