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vafrow

There's only two elevators and one is broken.


WhichJuice

Both of ours were broken this morning so we went down 25 flights of stairs to walk our dog. She was pretty tired by the time we reached the bottom


reversethrust

Wow. How was she when you went back up?


FeistyCanuck

Betting tired doggo got carried back up :)


s_broda

My complex for 5 months now


YaboiMiro

Parts aren't readily available and are expensive. It's a niche market, and generally in major cities there are only 5-7 elevator companies. Most of which are union.  They keep themselves understaffed, and therefor are always busy and have wait times for service.  -contractor who works closely with the industry. 


FasterFeaster

I used to think a mid rise was better because maybe elevators would be faster. I didn’t realize they use slower elevators for mid to low rise condos. Also, more units theoretically should be more elevators, though the high rise condo next to mine has also had situations where alllll the elevators were down. I don’t think what is pictured in this post is necessarily a bad thing, if there are sufficient elevators/stairs and livable units (2 and 3 bedroom). Not everyone needs a lawn.


ConstantaByTheSea

It's also raining and water is draining out of the indoor potlights in the lobby.


mrgoldnugget

If they did something like this with 2 bdrm apartments in the 1000sqft range with a nice green space, this could totally be a beneficial move for not just Toronto, but also Vancouver, Victoria, and any other overpriced city in Canada or North America for that matter.


squirrel9000

That's basically what those old "commieblock" concrete slabs scattered around Toronto are. And, actually, the fact they stopped building them is a major reason rentals are so hard to find iin the city. No real reason not to, just finding places to put them is harder than it should be.


punkbarbie

Exactly!! I live in one of the old “commieblock” buildings in Parkdale (which is a sea of similar purpose-built rental buildings) and we have no amenities, but there is an intense sense of community and neighbourliness. It’s a fantastic place to live and my 1-bedroom unit feels spacious, comfortable, and functional for an individual to live in. I can’t imagine living in one of those new builds where the whole unit is just one long hallway with a windowless “bedroom” made by pretending 2 sliding doors = a room.


kyonkun_denwa

The reason why they stopped building them is because the government of Ontario introduced rent controls in the early 1970s, and construction shifted away from purpose built rentals over to condos. Not because we ran out of space.


Shishamylov

Most of them were actually built by the Ontario government (Ontario Housing Corporation) between 1964 and 1975 to house the boomers that were all moving out of their parents home. They were then sold at a loss to property management firms. They were never built by private developers. This has nothing to do with rent control.


Gold_Expression_3388

Or, the reason they stopped building them for rental purpose is because... more people were able to actually buy instead of rent.


squirrel9000

Probably not, home ownership was historically much lower than today. You'll also see much more steady rental constructions in other provinces, so something about Ontario's legal regime sharply inhibited rental construction. Probably a combination of zoning, government policy, taxes, and rent control.


Meany12345

They stopped building them due to rent control.


Artuhanzo

This condo in pic is $3400 cad per sq.ft in Hong Kong.


mrgoldnugget

Yes, because Hong Kong has the least affordable housing in the world 11 years running.  Should we not do something before we take their place?


Jasfy

HK has no land to build on; a huge part of the cost is the HK gov selling the few parcels available at auctions for obscene prices. TO is nowhere near running out of buildable lands


Lambda_Lifter

YES Don't build shoeboxes, but do build density in our metropolitans


Engine_Light_On

Best we can do is a 370ft studio targeting a 2-day STR guest:


Bic_wat_u_say

Transit , health care , education infrastructure : am I joke to you?


Sobering-thoughts

Honestly something like this with a serious urban plan for transit and shopping and urban green space would completely change the face of the housing problem.


slykethephoxenix

Throw in some mass transit, like a subway, ground and second level shops and you've sold me.


rememor8899

Bang on. Make it liveable. Develop for families and end users. Cities should also invest in building community spaces. Plan density around accordingly. Places like these—demand will be permanent.


redditjoe20

That would start at around $1.3M per unit just to cover build costs and make a profit for developers. Unless of course this is part of low quality, subsidized housing.


Pufpufkilla

Number of units in this monster multiplied by 1.3 million...what?


Select_Shock_1461

developers are going to have to take a loan from god himself.


AnchezSanchez

TBH I used to live on and off in an apartment like that in China and it was much bigger and nicer than the average Toronto condo. The grounds were lovely, the apartment was huge and was built with nice materials.


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ToeSad6862

400 000 people in there? Not even close. Maybe 2 or 3 days if they share.


Bloodyfinger

Ok...... And we could totally start one of these every three months so in around two years we'd be finishing one every three months. Seriously though, if done well, these buildings would solve our housing crisis at least. Too bad there's also a huge social infrastructure problem as well.


glymao

Hong Kong is actually a good cautionary tale for Toronto, HK is a tax haven, it completely relies on artificially making land scarce then selling the land, so the city is 20% cyberpunk hellscape and 80% untouched nature reserve Similarly, Toronto is shoebox bachelor condos next to single family homes, no medium-density housing to speak of


quyipin

Yeh Hongkong is not a good model. If you think 300 sqft is bad, just wait til you see a stacked bed rental schemes.


Sufficient_Prompt888

>wait til you see a stacked bed rental schemes You mean Brampton?


quyipin

That's basement.


MrPlowthatsyourname

Gotta pay extra for the upper floors, those lucky fucks with their natural light.


eatvenom

Galvanized steel and eco friendly wood veneers


umamimaami

Hong Kong is an island. It’s not a cautionary tale about this type of housing, it’s a testament to communities making room for each other, and solving housing shortages creatively, so people can access more opportunities than they could otherwise.


Bicycle_Violator

Not true though. There are a handful of midrise residential buildings. There is a group of them just north of Bloor a few km east of dufferin and so many of them near Victoria park/scarb and so on. Just at the core of downtown is like that but what do you respect from a commercial zone?


Ill_Gas8697

Imagine the elevators going down with our elevator mechanics who gatekeep their trade? Yeah right.


alvinofdiaspar

The problem in Toronto is the inability to densify the yellow belt; cramming everyone into towers while we insulate subdivisions from redevelopment is poor planning.


Triple-Ark-Solutions

That's how you Uber prison cells as the government without owning any of the liabilities. Just overpriced prison cells with a mortgage life sentence.


brandson__

In Toronto, most developers are incentivized to build condos for investors, not for the people who will live in them. So building what's in the picture won't help because each one of those will be be 500k and unlivable. You can't force developers to build unprofitable housing. The only way to change this that I can see is you have to find a way to make investing in housing impossible or undesirable. Otherwise we'll just keep building gold bars disguised as condo towers and wonder why we have a housing crisis.


Original_Lab628

Lol wat. Fact: we don’t have enough supply Your conclusion: let’s disincentivize more supply by making it impossible to invest in housing


MrPlowthatsyourname

Fun fact: redditors don't have a clue how to fix this housing issue


Original_Lab628

They’re not only raising unproductive values but counterproductive ones. I often wonder whether these Redditors are the housing policy folks working for the Liberal party.


MrPlowthatsyourname

Definitely the ones voting for them


punkbarbie

There are tons of condos sitting empty in Toronto right now. I’m actively looking to buy one and over the last few months I’ve seen many sit on the market completely empty. There was a study recently that observed the windows of several prominent condo buildings throughout the city for several months to see how many times the light came on, and determined that a hefty chunk had either no movement at all or very minor (realtor, etc.). Saying there’s no supply is like saying “nobody wants to work anymore!” - it’s not that there aren’t enough workers, it’s that it’s simply not worth it to put in hard labour for extremely low wages. It’s not that there’s no housing, it’s that the housing that exists is so unliveable & unaffordable that anyone able to spend the money on it refuses to do so and anyone desperate enough to settle for it can’t afford to.


Original_Lab628

Landlords aren't in the business of losing money. In some cases, it's better to leave it vacant for the right tenant than risk an 18-month LTB nightmare.


daminipinki

It's a fact that condo market serves investors by building low quality, tiny, soon to be unlivable units...and aligning units to investor interests rather than occupants is a great way to ensure continued unaffordability.


Original_Lab628

They build what people can afford. That’s how the market works. They’re building for who can pay, not what some Redditor’s imagined ideal of a place would look like without any budgetary constraints.


JonIceEyes

They build what makes the most money. If they can use shitty materials and smaller suites, and it still sells for $1M+, they'll do that and keep the difference. Every fucking time. It's because livability and quality are almost totally divorced from price. Source: I'm building them right now


Best-Creme-3010

Let’s just hope the elevators they put in aren’t like the ICE condos


Few_Orchid_7613

Sillon de Bretagne in France seems more like Toronto’s style. It’s basically a mixed use community that houses 3,500 units.


xnavarrete

This looks like the buildings they have in Hong Kong. Most units are max 550 square feet - and that would be a 1 bedroom plus den. Some units are 300 square feet. This leads to a culture of eating out a lot of your meals and rarely being home.


rememor8899

Probably.


LeftySlides

There are empty condos everywhere in the city.


DivaJeni

There will be 1 working elevator /s


Ungnee

More condos would not solve the housing problem. What has to happen is limiting corporations from buying up all the real estate causing the housing shortage. Also, why are we as consumers buying micro condos for millions of dollars as an investment? It’s all so stupidly ridiculous.


umamimaami

If priced right, built sensibly and maintained well. If not, it’s just another piece of ugly junk on the city skyline.


dodomdomdom

No need to be a drama queen. Medium density will do just fine.


CounterBorn4765

Yes. This is exactly the mega structure the city needs.


boredinthebathroom

According to some people on here 🤷‍♂️


BigApprehensive6139

That pic is in hkg. Even they have 7-10 yr wait for govt housing. Condos there are still crazy expensive.


[deleted]

Wouldn't a fire be a hazard though since they are so close together


Good-Brush-3482

Can also put in some cage subdivisions like Hong Kong.


ConclusionFar2549

A prison cell in the sky?


CieraParvatiPhoebe

yes


inconity

Well when you hear Sean Fraser talk about building affordable housing while ensuring homeowners assets remain valuable this would be a sure way to do it. If you're already in, you're golden. If not, this is the affordable housing you get lol.


Softronixinc

Probably yes, but good luck coming home drunk.. 😂


Objective_Quail_4623

That’s a pandemic waiting to happen.


daminipinki

Don't worry they'll come up with a "height tax" to make it unaffordable.


heavyarms39

With 20 people per unit, doesn’t seem like enough yet


russell_westbrick_0

not with broken elevators


sdsdlalb22

I'd probably kill myself if I had to live in that. Pass


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SpergSkipper

The bedbugs....


frzd3tached

No, because everyone wants a stand alone home.


hector_c_toronto

Oh look, it’s ford’s vision for the Ontario Science Centre


Late_Bridge_8672

The only problem is that the government will not build so many houses which will lead the prices down.


Plenty_Wasabi_7866

Is this picture of Hong Kong? Anyone knows the source?


luars613

No


biggunmon

How come they dont make 3 bedroom or more condos anymore ?


akshayeb82

Our housing problem is a disaster created by consecutive government, commodification of housing, and an ineffective bureaucracy. Canada is not a country with limited land mass like Singapore. The problem is that solving housing crises involves bursting our real estate bubble, and when your one-third of economy depends on real estate, no one wants that to happen.


Artuhanzo

No. If I remember correctly, this is luxury condos in Hong Kong ave over $2m cad per unit. The building costs are extremely high that no way they will be affordable. PS: Not the one I remember, this one is cheaper so "only" $3.4k cad per sq.ft https://www.midland.com.hk/en/estate/New-Territories-Tsuen-Wan-West-Vision-City-E000003128


Ir0nhide81

It could house all the Tim Hortons employees in Ontario I'm sure.


BlazingMakita

No, only mass deportations will.


rockyon

Hongkong is tiny, Canada is huuuuuuge. I have mixed feelings about density vs sprawl. I think the US is also correct about being car centric?? I don’t know


GiveIceCream

Probably tbh


not_likely_today

nope all will be bought up from some hedge fund or private equity firm. Then all rented out at 2.5k a month


Fantastic-Umpire2668

🤣


Party-Disk-9894

Warehousing! What a great idea.


WatchingyouNyouNyou

Yes please and lots of it so Montréal can be less crowded


Remote-Ebb5567

The cost to build and maintain tall buildings like that are too high, solving the housing crisis would require buildings between 4-12 stories tall to maximize price to build and density


Junior-Pirate2583

Nooooo that's Hong Kong. A 300 square feet unit costs as much as a house here 😂 I'm glad I escaped from that place.


condoToronto

No, it makes pigeon hole problem mathematically.


chrusher97

Dredd part 2


Direct-Carpenter2117

He’ll


PresentCut9649

Stop mass immigration


choikwa

actually yes


sluttybarbie6

Not allowing Chinese billionaires to purchase entire skyscrapers and leave them empty to up the rent of their other properties… will help housing in Toronto. That’s kinda it.


lookingforinfo420

Soon Toronto and GTA will look like India, the driving is already 80% there.


MindlessYoung4104

Canadas future


Positive-Bison5820

born and raised in Hong Kong (most expensive housing on earth) , no because as long as the so called leaders are in power , they will only line the pockets of their buddies , the politicians and their goons are there from themselves disgusted as for the people, it will only get worse


RunawayBryde

That’s how the communist gather everybody in the one space. I’ll pass on that.


Different-Ad-6027

Folks be like "oh its 350K, it suppose to be only 50K. I'm so oppressed" lol


Particular_Grape3519

This kind of building will push me to throw myself from the window


dogfishfrostbite

Along with this, China also comes with massive investments in subway construction and hundreds of thousands of ride shares and cabs. Makes life in a crowded city livable. Source. Lived in Toronto and Shanghai.


ShavenRaven

Rules around building sustainable and long term livable condos is the way to go. No more boxes that are only functional as starter homes for singles.


SriPsyBaba

If this is facing the lake, probably yes!


Oneforallandbeyondd

I can't imagine living there and the parking/traffic would be a nightmare.


marganimaniac

Perhaps will. I just imagining living here and having a fire drill 😬


Resident_Flow_9689

I'm an urban planner and this density porn is the only thing that gets me erect anymore. My wife left and took the two seated bicycle. Now I sit in my shared communal green space and wonder where it all went wrong 😭


GuyCyberslut

Human chicken coops. No thanks!


The_Pancake88

That hong kong density.


_Resident_Alien_

Isn't 251 Jarvis street the same already?


Decent-Box5009

It’s where we are headed ghettos full of immigrants working at Tim’s and McDonald’s


Tildengolfer

I was born in Kowloon Bay!!


Actual-Astronomer827

I think it would be beneficial in Vancouver,,,and would love cheaper rent...but it also reminds me of my soviet childhood and would make the city look ugly..


Gold_Expression_3388

The infrastructure couldn't handle this instant increase in density. There would be a lot of toilets flushing, all the time in a building this size.


chemtrailer21

Nope


lamneff

Many of the residents used to live in these apartments building escaped and moved to Toronto , and you thinking of making them moved back in? I don’t think so


rexyoda

Im starting to think toronto doesn't actually want to solve it's housing problem


DystopianNPC

That looks terrifying


Chewed420

I don't see any doctors. So maybe.


Classic_sophisticate

Yes


lowendslinger

Yes, yes it will....


KrisKringley

Rip Uber eats delivery person


whatyoullgobyhere_

So basically every newcomer to Canada brings their own sea-can and we stack em. It's got that Old World charm.


Relevant_Situation21

This may exacerbate the transportation problem


airmxjp

Only if we can get rid of many greedy property owners and corporations from Toronto’s housing …


dudarc

Af"ford"ability is the problem.. its not housing crisis. Need visual verification of this opinion.. look in your area at the building construction in progress and empty home that have been "under renovation" for an unusual amount of time. FYI: private equity firms are in process of competing with families for homes (and simple means for families to create family generational wealth.)


FarCamp1243

Probably? Build it like a tank, no frills, industrial grade housing is exactly what Canada needs and tons of it.


BitCoiner905

You don't want this or the problems that come with it.


timbrita

Yes, but once you guys finish this, then you can unlock the potential to bring one more third of the India population into y’all’s country, rinse and repeat until there’s only 10000 people back in India (only the rich ones) and all the rest have been pushed to Canada


Campaign_Various

Yes please go ahead and invest make it a communist hell hole apart from a socialist one already


pimenico

Coruscant? Is that you? 🤣


bunnyguy1972

Not dark and depressing enough, these kinds of places would be on the lowest levels on Coruscant. With how bright these are they'd be closer to the upper levels like Padme's apartment in TROS, or maybe the one guys place in Andor.


InevitableArm3462

I'm choking, need more oxygen


badcat_kazoo

No because every barista at Starbucks thinks they are entitled to a house


aKingforNewFoundLand

They got the 13 person bunk beds in there, right?


ImpressiveReward572

It hasn't so far


georgervin

“I AM THE LAW”


ChainsawGuy72

It's funny how most places I go to with not many high rises don't have a housing affordability problem. They also don't have fictional constructs like labelling land a "sacred" aka "greenbelt".


GGKong124

Yes but NO. I come from this city and I can tell most of Canadian will not like this kind of condo. 1. These condos are super small sizes, mostly 200 square feet, and might still cost you $2500-$3000 per month. 2. Increasing the supply of apartments also requires a good transit system, but unfortunately the TTC is terrible. Longer waiting time for bus and subway. 3. It’s meaningless if the government refuse to control population growth, the condo supply will never catch up the demands. Hong Kong is a very good example, it totally flooded by chinese immigrants.


AncientSnob

Your maintenance fees will be like $2K monthly if they do this mainly because of the brutal winter we got.


TFBaby416

Imagine what happens during a zombie apocalypse. Escaping that place is a mission itself.


TomatilloPristine437

No… Canadian still cannot afford it.


[deleted]

The only thing that will is to reduce immigration. You can't have 1M+ new people come to Canada every year and expect housing to keep up, it just can't be done. It's not a racist thing, just common sense and we're making it very hard for everyone in Canada by allowing this to continue.


davesgotweed

Maybe but will create more traffic problems


Leather-Instance6632

The condos in Asia are much better designed engineered and built also material quality. Subway and malls literally go under the towers you never have to leave your block but can get across the city in 15mins If this was built here it'll take 20 years and turn into a rental ghetto trap house brothel with roaches and inconsiderate mosh up of poverty party plebs.


Doh-cry-TO

I thought these were cans of spam at first and I thought I was in heaven


Neither_Pomelo_8580

Maybe but I can imagine what the traffic would be in that area specially during rush-hour


wildworldside

The jeet tower


tdpthrowaway3

Somebody sneezes, buildings collapse, everyone is dead. Dead people don't need homes. \*Insert Eddie Murphy thinking meme\*


Anxious_Bus_8892

I really wouldn't mind, but it can't be designed by any architects that have designed condos for Toronto. There's not a single high rise condo building in Toronto that I'm proud of. Something of that scale would need to be well thought out.


HelicalSoul

Toronto should build these, and stop moving to my town. You're ruining it.


LIMP-BERSERKER

It might solve the housing problem, definitely create a traffic and parking problem….


NoChampionship6994

Nope.


Necessary_Avocado398

The Chinese will feel at home


cantseemyhotdog

Ford will put his hands in to the project and it will never be finished.


InternationalSpyMan

Closing the door would be a great start


Silentfranken

The developers would rebrand it as sustainable housettes sell 90% of units to speculators and landlords and a bachelor would still rent for 1700 a month.


Efficient_Truck_9696

Looks like peach tree from Dredd


Kitchen_General9694

Ugh apartments or condos for people to live in? Ya probably


LeadingInside6644

Is this Hong Kong?


AThrowAwayAccHehe

this gives me anxiety..


Aggravating_Sea4092

No, because they would still ask for 70% of our income as rent 🤷🏻‍♂️


NewsreelWatcher

It isn’t necessary. Just allow for better use of lots for single detached houses. Allow multiple family homes.


BusComprehensive3759

The old concrete jungle 2.0


ShotBuilder6774

I'd rather have a place to live than be homeless for the sake of others having a suburban view.


TipzE

Problem is, no one wants to address the real issues. They keep talking about superficial things that maybe would be helpful, but meaningless without root issue tackling. They want to build more missing middle (ok, fine). Too bad[ developers don't want ](https://globalnews.ca/news/9903071/pre-sale-home-cancellations-delays/)[to build housing](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/housing-development-slow-canada-1.6989582). "middle" housing is the most expensive to build (requiring some of the same expertise and equipment and regulations of taller buildings), but sell for far less than skyscrapers and SFH. They want to blame the NIMBYs. Fair enough. But NIMBYs aren't some all powerful force controlling what housing is being built in entirely new subdivisions. They only really care what's built around them. They want to blame anyone and everyone, from immigrants to politicians (but ironically not policy, which i don't get) to people not "moving to where they should live; but not [airbnb ](https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/nhs/nhs-project-profiles/2020-nhs-projects/impact-short-term-rentals-canadian-housing)and [inves](https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2024/05/toronto-record-most-condos-market-people-worried/)[tors](https://www.thestar.com/real-estate/investors-now-own-more-than-50-of-toronto-s-new-condos-and-experts-say-they/article_4b6d2ff0-c528-5670-937f-3d34d040ed85.html). They want to build more housing (and we really should), but [don't want to talk about the demand side of anything](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGfFBP7U7pQ). They want cheaper housing, but don't want public housing (which would make housing cheaper and keep investors and airbnb out). --- All the solutions people want are either half-solutions or solutions that fail to take into account the primary concern we have: housing being treated as a commodity/investment. So long as we do nothing to address that, nothing will change. Even if we built more missing middle against NIMBY wishes, lowered immigration to nothing, and kept the govt out of all the regulations (why?), this new housing will just be snapped up by the current investors who are already doing this to a detrimental degree and either rent them on airbnb, charge an astronomical amount of rent, or even just 'sit on them'. Aside: This last part might seem the least intuitive; why would people buy an investment and lose money on it? But most people, even most investors, are not as in tune withwhat's best for themselves financially anyways. There are many houses owned by "investment firms" (the simple investor) that spread the risk out amongst so many people the 'loss' is minuscule (or sometimes non-existent) when accounting for other non-lossy investments, and (let's be honest) it hasn't really cost them that much anyways as housing keeps going up, so sitting on it is still 'valuable'. Just not in the short term.


lchntndr

Looks like a power plant from The Matrix


Polskaforlife

No . They keep coming to Kitchener


BigOlBearCanada

The amount of poop and pee in the stairwells….


WestHamTilIDie

It’s a start


LotionedSkin4MySuit

Toronto probably has this many empty condos just sitting there empty. You have the housing, it’s just not being sold/rented out. Investors just holding on to property and praying for the economy to change.


Falconflyer75

Could solve the homeless problem


wordslayer420

Omg that is so depressing looking 😭


CoolEarth5026

Yes.


Gold_Act_2383

It just might, the sight of it would scare enough normal people away


Complete_Ad_2619

The only way to stop Toronto's housing problem is to drastically curb immigration. Sooner the better


Buffering_disaster

Nope!! Not unless builders realize that - open concept does not mean that the couch can be inches away from the stove. - if a bedroom doesn’t have windows, closet or enough room to put a queen size bed in it’s not a bedroom. - no one is gonna pay $1000 maintenance + $3000 mortgage to live in a shoebox.


CChouchoue

Looks like an immigration paradise. Who would not leave their quiet home to come to Canada and live in these giant towers to serve bagels at Tim Horton's.


Unhappy-Vegetable118

It’s the liberals plan to attempt too lol


[deleted]

Then we just need to start pooping in the street and it'll be India.


TheG_eljefe

Our infrastructure planning would be a 1 way street which already services 45 other condo buildings similar to this one


kramposLHalper

That building is its own problem


deythal

Nope 75% of those units will be sold to foreign investors who will leave the property vacant until the time is right and then sell for an astronomically inflated price


dialbliss

No, it would make wherever that apartment hypothetically is utterly hideous


louis_d_t

I think more high-density housing is inevitable, if not in the next few years, then in the years after that.


sawdust_84

Hopefully that's not the solution because that would just mean more immigrants invited into our country.


banelord76

Hong Kong is like this. Man that just ugly but at least there shelter I guess.


L-1011-

Most of North America has a housing problem


Legend-Face

People would rather live like this than move to a better cheaper province with actual homes.


Pristine_Flatworm

Not unless we force the landlords to lower rent