Has the Toronto building boom peaked?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by CIA

You lost me at Peak Millenial...

Not everyone's goal in life is to have kids. Even with them, bringing them up in cookie-cutter suburbia isn't universally accepted as the thing to do as it was in the 70s and 80s, especially if the family can afford something better.

What's the population growth of greater Toronto? Even if only 20 percent of the growth choose to occupy non-single family homes for lifestyle preference or financial reasons, that's still going to be thousands of new units every year to meet demand. The typical apartment/condo development has what -- 200 or 300 units? There is literally demand for hundreds of new ones every year.

I'm amazed that building of tens of thousands of single family homes in the 80s was seen as acceptable, but now a small percentage increase in multi-family living and everyone is screaming bubble.

Apparently that old saw about the suburbs dying is just a myth:

....With immigration accounting for two-thirds (and rising) of Canada’s population growth, it’s no coincidence the suburbs are booming. New immigrants may initially settle downtown or in the inner suburbs, such as North York in Toronto or Montreal’s Cartierville. But they will scrimp and save, and soon move to the outer suburbs to places such as Milton, Ont., or Laval, Que.

There, they can still own a little piece of paradise to raise kids, send them to good schools, let them wander on their bikes and have the relatives over for a backyard barbecue. It may or may not mean a longer commute – many already work in the ’burbs. But if so, it’s worth it.

Between 2011 and 2016, according to an Environics Analytics analysis of census data, the population of Toronto’s suburbs grew by 7.7 per cent while the city proper grew by 4.5 per cent. In Vancouver, suburban growth outpaced the increase in the city 7.1 per cent to 4.6 per cent. In Montreal, the suburbs grew 5.3 per cent; the city, 2.9 per cent.

The gap between suburban and city growth was even wider in all three metropolitan areas during the previous 2006-2011 census period. Toronto’s suburbs grew by 12.7 per cent during that period, or at 2.8 times the rate of the city itself....https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/...ere-we-want-to-be/article35139769/?ord=1