Toronto Building 80 New Skyscrapers, Skyline To Resemble NYC, Tokyo

[homomo 23,883]

I always tell people from Europe traveling to Canada to see more cities than Toronto.

Toronto is basically an American city. It’s like the Chicago of Canada. 

Like, I tell people to see Vancouver for the nature, Montreal for the culture, and Toronto for the nightlife. I tell everyone to skip the prairies  

[Economy 52,854]

41 minutes ago, HotLikeMexico said:

I’m not Canadian and don’t know much of the issues that specifically relate to the housing crisis in Canada. So that might be a completely different thing of study all together  

In LA we are experiencing a housing crisis. And much of the same thing is happening where building more didn’t equate to actually helping. It’s a short term solution.

Thats not to say it won’t work in Toronto. Only time will tell. But as with many cities that have had this issue, a chain reaction will be inevitable. And that’s something we have to be prepared for whatever the outcome is. 

 

A similar thing happened in Tokyo (granted way different than both LA and Canada) but they are witnessing issues with housing and affordability and no matter how much they’ve built, they can’t figure out a proper solution either. 

But there could be a difference here for 2 reasons

 

#1 laws have been put in place like foreign buyers taxes and they are talking vacancy taxes too (although there's hardly any vacancies) to make sure supply is used for people to live in not just to exist as some investment

 

#2 Canada is criticized for having complicated a long zoning laws that make construction projects take up to a decade to get approved slowing construction so supply is definitely an extra issue here

 

In the US there was a surge in construction during the housing boom of 2002-2006 and that in part led to the oversupply that caused a crash (in addition to bad loans and other factors)

 

But that surge in construction didn't really happen here despite high prices and many blame how innefective our laws are for that. 

 

80 skyscrapers (in addition to low to mid rise and individual houses) may seem like a lot but it actually isn't up to part with population growth

 

At the peak of construction in 2012 I believe it was over 110 skyscrapers in the works so this actually isn't even a peak although more buildings now are taller than in 2012

 

Construction slowed after fears of a housing crash as well as measures by the government to cool housing demand but that crash never occured so home builders got cautious for no reason in the end

 

In fact price appreciation and demand kept hitting new highs until 2017...

 

In 2018 there was finally a flattening of price appreciation once the stress test came in

 

The stress test is a 2% interest rate premium qualification. So basically if you apply for a mortgage and the rate is 3.5%, you have to be approved for it as if rates were 5.5% so that ppl have a buffer in case of reduced incomes or rising rates

 

That finally slowed home purchases and prices stayed roughly flat but it caused more heat in rental market as people who were ready to jump into market now have to rent longer to come up with more downpayment to qualify

 

This in turn has caused rents to go up by over 10% annually

 

In extreme cases this happens:

 

 

[JustinTrudeau 2,419]

37 minutes ago, Interstellar said:

I always tell people from Europe traveling to Canada to see more cities than Toronto.

Toronto is basically an American city. It’s like the Chicago of Canada. 

Like, I tell people to see Vancouver for the nature, Montreal for the culture, and Toronto for the nightlife. I tell everyone to skip the prairies  

As a prime minister, I also don't like the prairies 

I would add Ottawa/Gatineau to the list, it is a beautiful place with awesome museums!

[JustinTrudeau 2,419]

Girl, where's the Rogers Centre going go? 

And last time I was downtown, I didn't see a whole lot of space for skyscrapers... unless we have to say good bye to parking lots.

Dang.

[Economy 52,854]

1 minute ago, JustinTrudeau said:

Girl, where's the Rogers Centre going go? 

And last time I was downtown, I didn't see a whole lot of space for skyscrapers... unless we have to say good bye to parking lots.

Dang.

Some old buildings get demolished to make space and there's also a few old factory buildings no longer in use that get demolished

 

Parking lots may be some of the space

 

But most buildings now are not right at the core they are being built cuz as u said space is limited

 

I know young and King Street both have big projects but I think it's outside the core

 

Basically the edge of downtown expands

[DesertWolf 55,214]

Meanwhile Madrid's skyline:

Only 4 skyscrapers with heights of 750-820 fts (230-250 meters) and the local government is discussing for over 20 years to add a few more but still the plan is not approved  

[Economy 52,854]

16 minutes ago, DesertWolf said:

Meanwhile Madrid's skyline:

Only 4 skyscrapers with heights of 750-820 fts (230-250 meters) and the local government is discussing for over 20 years to add a few more but still the plan is not approved  

Yeah European cities are more flat by nature. I lived in Portugal before coming to Canada

 

Every city had apartments mostly 4-8 floors that was the standard. They were dense with mid-rise buildings

 

London in UK same thing. Very populated city but pretty flat

 

In North America many of our larger cities don't have many mid rise apartments

 

We have sections that have regular houses but then the buildings we do have are taller

 

That's how Toronto mostly is... Half the city is actually individual houses but then most of the buildings are tall

 

There's a few mid rise but not many

[DesertWolf 55,214]

2 minutes ago, Economy said:

Yeah European cities are more flat by nature. I lived in Portugal before coming to Canada

Every city had apartments mostly 4-8 floors that was the standard. They were dense with mid-rise buildings

London in UK same thing. Very populated city but pretty flat

In North America many of our larger cities don't have many mid rise apartments

We have sections that have regular houses but then the buildings we do have are taller

That's how Toronto mostly is... Half the city is actually individual houses but then most of the buildings are tall

There's a few mid rise but not many

That's the thing and I find it annoying that here we preffer to use more terrain to expand the city instead of going higher with taller buildings that occupy less space, but well, hope that things will get a bit better  with a few new skyscrapers in here, even tho there are many complains about the project  

Good luck to Toronto with all those projects, hope I'll get to visit the city one day 

[Economy 52,854]

3 minutes ago, DesertWolf said:

That's the thing and I find it annoying that here we preffer to use more terrain to expand the city instead of going higher with taller buildings that occupy less space, but well, hope that things will get a bit better  with a few new skyscrapers in here, even tho there are many complains about the project  

Good luck to Toronto with all those projects, hope I'll get to visit the city one day 

Well we waste a lot of space with houses too

 

U should see the new houses they build in all the Toronto suburbs. It's all big houses

 

New Homes with less than 1800sq feet is pretty rare now unless it's a section dedicated specifically to townhouses which are smaller

 

Condos of corse Is a different story. Most condos your looking at 450sq to 650sq feet so that's much smaller

[RemovedPerRequest1 124]

3 hours ago, Economy said:

Yeah... If u wanna work overtime to pay rent or a mortgage

 

Im making plans to move out of here cause I can't take this cost of living anymore

 

My grandparents street in Toronto is all townhouses 110 years old and they all sell for $1.4M or more

 

Last month one sold for $1.7M but it was newly renovated

Sorry to hear it’s so crappy in Toronto, where else are you considering moving?

[RemovedPerRequest1 124]

1 hour ago, JustinTrudeau said:

As a prime minister, I also don't like the prairies 

I would add Ottawa/Gatineau to the list, it is a beautiful place with awesome museums!

Rude! 😓

[Economy 52,854]

10 minutes ago, JSwystun said:

Sorry to hear it’s so crappy in Toronto, where else are you considering moving?

There's a city called London that is about 2 hours drive southwest of Toronto.

 

 

It has about 400,000 people so it's a nice medium sized city, big enough to have all the conviniences and the unemployment rate there is not too bad

 

A new house there is about $400,000 but u can buy an older house for $250,000 to $350,000

 

If we rent a basement for a while to save money many are around $700/month while in the Toronto area it's $1200 to $1600 for a small basement depending on the neighborhood

 

Car insurance is also cheaper there

 

We've looked at many options. When it comes to cost of living in relation to employment prospects we think it has the best bang for the buck in Ontario

 

Some cities are even cheaper (like Winsor) but lack employment. Others have employment but are too expensive

 

London is a healthy balance of the two. I've known other people who moved there cuz they've had it with the high cost of living of the entire Toronto area and the horrible traffic

 

A few years ago it was even cheaper but prices went up a bit as people running away there for cheaper houses is starting to raise demand there. Were hoping to find work there and move there and hopefully buy before it starts getting expensive there too

 

5 years ago a new house was around $300,000 in London so it went up like $100,000 in just 5 years!

 

But that's still amazing compared to Toornto area. In Toronto area $400,000 only gets u a small condo in a bad neighborhood

 

 

[gabeoz 7,915]

People here taking about how they’re not fans of the skyline with more skyscrapers but I absolutely love it  I have a big thing for impressive skylines tbh. Another to note is that it’s a horribly made render so it looks like crap regardless. 

[Economy 52,854]

2 hours ago, gabeoz said:

People here taking about how they’re not fans of the skyline with more skyscrapers but I absolutely love it  I have a big thing for impressive skylines tbh. Another to note is that it’s a horribly made render so it looks like crap regardless. 

Render? What do u mean ?

[FATCAT 60,888]

Y'all's traffic is about to be f*cked.