Condo growth is good, but we need 3-bedroom units

You could say a tsumani of growth has engulfed Toronto, a building boom that the central city has not seen since the late 1960s.

To get a handle on the extent of growth, I added up the number of applications for new condo buildings. A block either side of Yonge Street, from Eglinton down to the waterfront, there were applications to build 39 condo towers in the last two years.

Of course, other proposals exist in other parts of the city, but the number of those centred on the Yonge Street area are quite extraordinary.

Some of these proposed towers are more than 80 storeys high, but the average is about 35 storeys, and if you added up the total number of storeys you would be in the range of 1400. It’s an astonishing figure, and it far exceeds anything happening anywhere else in North America. A report last year said the number of buildings under construction of more than 14 storeys in Toronto was 168; in New York City, about 40.

Not all applications will result in a decision to build. Some are just speculation, and some won’t get approved even in Toronto where you can usually assume that if city council won’t say “yes” then the Ontario Municipal Board probably will. But many of them will most likely proceed.

This growth holds out significant opportunities for the city. Certainly there is the opportunity for jobs—construction jobs— and then jobs needed to serve the new residents in a million different ways. There are opportunities for city-based companies to find educated and skilled younger people looking for interesting work who will move into these buildings, and that means a stronger and larger economy for the city. That’s the message of
Coca Cola moving its head office from Leaside, where it had been located for 50 years to King Street just east of Sherbourne. Companies located Downtown can expect to find interesting talent ready to take jobs.

This growth also means the city can set the rules that will benefit society more generally – that’s one of the opportunities of a growth spurt. The city can decide that developers wanting to participate in growth will be required to meet city demands otherwise be hard to put in place.

For example, one thing the city is very short on is new family housing. Most of the condos built in the past 10 years consists of small units—studios, one bedrooms, one bedroom and dens. Very few units with three bedrooms have
been built, and that’s surely the minimum for a young family with a child or two. The demand for building permissions means the city could set a rule requiring that half the floor space of any new building had to contain
units of 1000 or more square feet—that is, large 3-bedroom units.

That kind of rule applied to all condo applications would give the Downtown the supply of larger units that we’ll need to be a healthy city in the next few decades. The key is to put the rule in place—the 1000-foot rule for half the floor space—is just a suggestion. A realistic rule would need to be worked out by councillors, city staff and the development industry while the building boom is still young. A rule like this can’t be effective as the building boom tails off.

Let’s hope that once the casino debate has cooled down some councillors will begin to address this issue. It’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be lost, but it is one that must be seized quickly.

John Sewell is a former Mayor of Toronto.