The next big thing in condos is actually the smallest?
Slated to open in spring 2013 is the newest small thing to hit Toronto’s condominium market — a 270 square foot studio in Canderel Residential’s DNA project on King St. W.
Touted as one of Canada’s smallest condo spaces, it’s hard to know how the market is going to respond to super small condos. Although they average only 350 square feet in size, you can call it a micro-condo! It's a new buzzword in the once hot housing markets like London and Manhattan. Hundreds of them exist on (blueprint) paper right now, but very few of them have actually been built yet.
Why big investors love small spaces
- Prime locations that stoke tenant demand
- Lower purchase costs
- Higher rent per square foot
- Smaller units in larger buildings often mean lower condo fees
- High resale demand driven by investors and end-users
While Toronto has a ways to go to rival Tokyo where folks cram themselves into “capsules” as little as 96 square feet, these studios are a sign of the times. In the past three years alone, unit sizes have dropped significantly, especially in the downtown area, as developers look to keep prices affordable — but profitable — in the face of the HST, as well as escalating land and building costs.
Ten years ago the average condo in the Greater Toronto Area was just over 1,000 square feet. By this spring, it had shrunk to 921 square feet, says condo research firm Urbanation. Downtown, the average new unit is just 749 square feet.
Builders warned the province that smaller units would be an inevitable outcome of adding the HST to new condo construction, new mortgage rules and rising cost of condos in the downtown core.
Its location close to transit, shopping and the bustling downtown office towers will make it perfect for a student or young professional. Not so much for empty nesting baby boomers.
“Downsizers can’t wrap their heads around anything less than 800 square feet. Their universal reaction is: ‘How can people live like this?’ I have closets that are bigger.”
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Posted by: Web Site | Tuesday, September 03, 2013 at 05:04 AM