Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
And yet sales are hitting record lows in some segments. Why do you think that is?
• Video Link
|
This is something I've been saying for years, so this certainly brings me some vindication (and at least a little bit of schadenfreude). But this is the result of investor-driving housing development where homes aren't actually designed with the end user in mind - we've done a really poor job at building livable, high-quality housing that people actually
want to live in. It's particularly problematic with the phenomenon of
"inboard bedrooms" in Ontario - ie. bedrooms without an exterior-facing window. So you get 1-bedroom, or even 2-bedroom condos where the bedrooms have no windows. At least in BC, by code a bedroom requires an external window. This is where some level of regulation is needed to ensure that decent housing is being built.
There's of course a place for smaller, studio apartments within the wider housing stock; but
half a million dollars for a hallway with a kitchen ain't it. And studios can still be well designed with efficient layouts - which most of these are not. Either way, in the context of a housing shortage it makes the problem even worse than it seems at first glance: it means that a significant share of the ~250,000 housing units we
do build each year (if not the majority in places like Toronto) aren't actually meeting people's needs. It also creates a bit of a caveat in the supposed price drops we've heard about it in the market, as the biggest drops are in the worst units. Anecdotally, of the houses, townhomes, and larger/better-designed condo units I've looked at, prices still seem to ticking slowly upwards.
On the bright side, there's probably about to be a whole bunch of relatively affordable homes on the market in the not-too-distant future. Zero sympathy for the investors who lose their shirt in the process. I do feel bad for the buyers who were duped into thinking these were a smart investment, but from the sounds of it they're probably in the minority at least.