The housing boom has been hitting Toronto for the last 15 years, but only since the last 5 has it been speeding like an express train.
Houses that in 2010 were going for $300,000 are now selling for 1.3 million. Along with this are high rise buildings cropping up wherever the eye can see. Old Toronto had its charms. You lived in the city but what you got was a small town experience. Malls were not storied, there were mom and pop stores (owned by people, not corporations) with the owners living on the floor above their business premises. The business districts were just that - populated with businesses and public attractions like museums theatres, restaurants and the like. Then the housing boom hit. Interest rates were low, money easily borrowed and foreign investors piled in to get their slice of what they perceived was a cheap city with a good quality of life in a peaceful and stable country. So the high rises started. The crumbling mom and pops were simply bought out and after Covid with small businesses hit, it quickened the pace. Not satisfied with this, they looked for more to grab. Building in the city like all over the world was profitable business. Next to feed the machine were the sprawling malls with large parking lots that could easily be host to 10 high rises with all outdoor amenities. The mall owners - old wealthy families and corporations sharpened their pencils and discovered that selling out would be far more profitable than the rents they were getting minus the maintenance costs. So more buildings in the city. Toronto didn’t have a great public transport system. The city was planned with car users, not bus and train riders in mind. The developers financed a pro-business party which then came into power and made plans for miles of commuter train and light rail track with convenient stops just next to large housing complexes. This started another round of demand for more housing. Meanwhile prices kept on rising until a stage has been reached now where only professional young people and wealthy individuals can afford homes in Toronto. Others are blocked out of ownership just struggling to pay the high rent levels. Back in the day when the first Goans came to Toronto in numbers, you could rent a large 3 bedroom 1500 sq ft apartment for $1,200. Now a two bedroom 700 sq ft apartment rents for $3,000. The rooms have got smaller, the monthly maintenance ownership costs higher. It doesn’t take a genius to foresee that in 10 years time most detached homes in Toronto will cease to exist. They will be replaced by low and high rises. The Toronto we came to decades ago will be seen only in picture posts cards or old family photographs in a Facebook group like Old Bombay. We are often called the Sandwich Generation. We took care of our parents while taking care of our children. In the city’s scenario our meaning could be that we got to live like free men in wide open spaces while learning to live like robots in confined spaces dwarfed by buildings so tall and close, they block out the sun. Hey, but it’s no different from what I read of the kolis (fishermen) of Bombay who wistfully recall the days they would get plentiful and varied catch just one mile out of the city. Now they have to go 40 miles out to get half the catch if they are lucky. Yet another Toronto mall is now in the crosshairs of developers https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2022/06/jane-finch-mall-toronto/ Roland. Toronto.
