No One Wants to Buy a Condo | The Walrus

"Most of the one-bedroom condo units we saw were quite small, clocking in at under 700 square feet. A number of them featured bedrooms that were just corners of living rooms walled off by clear panels, such that going to bed each night, I imagine, would feel like being a lizard in a glass enclosure at the zoo. In one condo we looked at, the "den" was a small alcove in the wall that was perhaps no deeper than a foot."

"It didn't take long to figure out why there were so many empty units on the market: it turns out nobody wants to rent a condo, and nobody wants to buy one either. Condo rents have dropped over the past two years, and according to a recent report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, condo sales have fallen by 75 percent in the Greater Toronto Area and 37 percent in the Vancouver area since 2022."

Toronto's rental market shows falling condo rents and abundant empty units characterized by very small one-bedroom layouts, corner bedrooms divided by clear panels, tiny dens, one-wall kitchens, and Juliet balconies. Sales of condos have plunged, with CMHC reporting a 75 percent drop in the Greater Toronto Area and a 37 percent drop in Vancouver since 2022. Pre-construction buyers face closing difficulties because lenders appraise properties at current values, sometimes lower than initial deposits. Developers are cancelling projects as market values erode. The oversupply and declining values have reduced both buyer and renter demand for condos.

Read at The Walrus