Tiny flats in dense buildings, a good idea?
The CTV headline on this CP piece from Giuseppe Valiante is COVID-19 pandemic prompts urbanites to rethink ‘grand bargain’ of dense city living but the story is not so decisive. Some real estate people whistle in the dark about how prices won’t drop, others brag that condo sales have continued through the pandemic. And full return of construction sites here is planned for tomorrow.
david0000 02:34 on 2020-05-11 Permalink
By my read, for what it’s worth, in that article, this is the key takeaway at the macro level:
“The pandemic isn’t providing a magic answer to our housing shortage problems and, therefore, it is not a magic wand that is going to cure housing affordability issues,” Soper said in a recent interview.
“The only thing that will provide more affordable housing in our big cities is additional supply — and there certainly aren’t more homes being built in the pandemic — there are fewer. If anything it exacerbates the problem.”
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And this is the most interesting thing to think about going forward:
Fontaine said he appreciates, however, that many of the residents in his buildings’ smaller units are working from home and will continue to do so for a while. “They are in a space that wasn’t made for that,” he said.
Ie. pandemic could poke the market into providing larger flats . . .
david0000 02:38 on 2020-05-11 Permalink
Larger flats in Ville Marie, of course, would suck up some of the demand that’s not met downtown, and is getting dumped onto the Plateau, with the knock issues we’ve talked about before, with the steady march of unmet demand pushed north and north.
CE 09:33 on 2020-05-11 Permalink
I can imagine the housing shortage being exasperated by a future where more people are working from home. Larger apartments are going to be needed so people can have a separate room for their home office. It might mean that a 5 1/2 that might have previously housed three or four people might just house a couple or even one person. I live in a 3 1/2 with my girlfriend and just converted a chunk of the kitchen into an office for her. This apartment was comfortable before but a 4 1/2 would be really nice these days! She’s going to be working from home until at least September.
EmilyG 10:13 on 2020-05-11 Permalink
I imagine there will need to be more soundproofing as well.
My landlord lives below me and doesn’t even like the sound of me typing on my computer keyboard…
And I’ve had to put my clarinet playing on hiatus because he doesn’t like it, though I’m not doing much performance work these days.
mare 10:52 on 2020-05-11 Permalink
On the other subject of density and supply and demand: Montreal has a very large number of people who are single and still occupy—and can afford—a 4 ½ or even a 5 ½. Or they live-apart-together and can afford two 4 ½ s between the two of them.
Example: of the eight 4 1/2s and three 6 ½s neighbouring me, seven are occupied by people who live alone, two of them in the large apartments. And that’s not unusual in my street in gentrifying La Petite-Patrie. During this lockdown there are many apartments that stay dark all night, presumably because their tenants moved (temporarily) in with a friend or partner. (I don’t think that there are many cottage owners living in my street, and even essential workers won’t have night shifts every night.)
Before you vilify me: I’m not saying that I think they aren’t allowed to live alone, I’ve lived alone for most of my live, even when I was partnered.
But if rents will go up, or employment down, people might move in with each other in larger numbers, driven by economic necessity.
Then The density will go *up*, and not *down*, as many people here think is necessary, and there will be more room for newcomers. If however rents go down—which is unlikely with the way our rent-control system works in Montreal—density might go *down* as well, because even more people might be able to afford having their own appartement.
In Toronto and many other Canada and US cities with much higher rents, it’s rare people live alone; they either have roommates or live with a partner. And not just students, also young professionals with good salaries.