Quote:
Originally Posted by TOexpat
Because it would be crappy. Who wants to live in some shit hole? Already a lot of places in Ottawa are so cheap and crappy that they end up not being maintained. Better to build something decent that people want to live in. Bringing back 1980s pricing would not be progress.
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Agreed 100%.
First off, builders can't afford to be in business if they charge 80s prices - especially now with the increasing costs (price of land/real estate increasing, development charges increasing, etc...)
Second, if they some how could charge 80s prices, the materials used in the construction would be extremely cheap, as would the labour, which in the end would result in a very poorly built project that would need continuous maintenance. That would just drive the condo fees up and up and up, and the project would be a total failure. And the idea of "affordable living" would vanish.
Like most larger cities, you can't build new affordable housing in popular or trendy neighbourhoods - it's just not economically viable.
As gentrification continues in Ottawa, you'll see the shelters and other cheap housing projects that around found in and around downtown be bought up by developers.