Quote:
Originally Posted by isaidso
Toronto builds alot because its absolute population growth is extremely high. In the year before COVID, it added more people than any other city in the western world. More than Dallas, more than Melbourne, and more than London. That's going to fuel alot of demand for housing, office, institutional, and retail. Chalking it all up to multinational investors? If that's what you want to believe that's your prerogative but it misses the mark entirely.
|
The last year before Covid-19 must have been a big outlier relative to all previous years this century. Based on historic data that I compiled a while ago, between 2001-2018, Toronto expanded by 0.5mn, relative to 1.5mn for London. Melbourne is a slightly different conversation due the size of the area, but it grew by 1.6mn, which would still be above the equally broad GTHA area (1.5mn). I’m not sure about Dallas or NYC.
Two pertinent point to the conversation – which are relevant to most cities in the western world – is not the actual volume of new units, but what the composition of those units are, and the level of affordability. Constructing a spate of one-bedroom units when the demand is for multiple-bedroom units, and at prices detached from reality compounds the housing crisis, erodes confidence in capitalism, and generates completely unnecessary economic and social strife that undermines the efficiency of most major global economies.