Dearest readers, my amazing gentlemen (and the occasional lady haha!). Recently I have been watching the content related to Toronto's condo market, the gloom and doom apparently surrounding it! This gloom and doom is the same across many different major North American cities and other big cities around the world. The average condo sizes have been dropping, the prices have been going up, and there are so many people not being able to close on their preconstruction condos that entire buildings in Canadian cities may go into receivership and then be converted into very nice apartment buildings by whoever buys them for pennies on the dollar! At the same time, not enough new buildings are being built. Now, among a slew of information from different sources, one so called expert said we have too many condos in Toronto. This, dearest readers, is an opinion valid for like two seconds. The long term picture, if you as an individual have any plans related to Toronto or any other major Canadian or American city, is something that you seriously want to look at through dating, the law, and even life expectancy. The premise for this article I am bringing to you today is that we have nowhere nearly enough small units at all (bachelor and one bedroom, maybe one plus den).
Our demand for a certain type or size of living spaces in big cities is based heavily around the law and I guess cultural and moral values (yes, even someone like me can write about some form of morality haha! Look, I am doing it as you read!) So, in big cities, we have a city state type of culture that differs from the suburbs and the small towns around it. Cities like Toronto are becoming cities of majority singles. Dating without moving in together, in 2024, I still consider as being single even if you are exclusive. As people are becoming more educated and more defensive and longevity minded, they are increasingly looking for spaces where they can live alone. We have such a diversity of morals, cultures and then the weird mutations that a big city does to those that many people are now refusing to move in together. People are often too different, you can get screwed over when one person starts being late with their share of rent, or paying less due to this or that reason, and then you do not want to make them leave because they could be homeless etc.... Also, in small spaces and with more people working from home, your live in relationship can become such a pressure cooker that you may one day turn cutlery into duel tools haha (not funny, I know...). The more horror stories that spread online and in legacy media about people paying the price for having taken risk in this department, the more people will refuse to take the risk. So, we need more bachelor and other small units, and people will rotate out of them slower or never. In addition, there is the longevity consideration. We are looking at potential generations of people who will be reasonably fit, muscular and very independent until the day they die. If they stay single forever according to my definition (may be dating but never move in together), they will need a smaller space for their entire life. As for anyone who wants to be a digital nomad or eventually still move to a suburb or a small town, a smaller private unit that costs less to rent (or own) is mandatory in order to generate savings or simply take excess after tax money and put it into TFSA or other ways to grow that money. I cannot stress enough the importance of this. Imagine not paying attention to this and renting a larger unit with someone you do not know very well just because they gave you a few really good hawk tuah's haha, only for you to end up paying most or all of it... That can ruin your life plans faster than you finish after a one week buildup! :P Now, that just happens to not be the end of that story. In places like the province of Ontario, when you have lived with someone for a period of time, they are considered to be common law. As such, if they make less than you and you break up, they are still entitled to common law support payments! They are not as big as alimony tends to be and they do not last as long but they exist and can cut into your savings and future plans, to the extent that it can invalidate any advantage of living together! Oh, and just so you know, when this thing goes to court, if you happen to run your own business and your common law makes less than you, the court will demand to see a lot of your business earnings details and maybe other things too in order to determine what a fair amount is for you to pay monthly. So, for people who may have a skeleton or two in their business closet, this becomes even worse. So, as I have read before, in most cases people settle. You have to estimate how much money you would pay for the amount of time the law says you have to pay common law support, and then you pay it out as a lump sum! Oh, the horror- you better have cash savings or some unused credit card or line of credit limit...
Next, and this one I mentioned before, if you co-habitate with a single parent and interact with the child, and then break up, the parent can go to court and claim that you acted as a parent figure to the child which makes you obligated to pay child support as if you were the biological parent! Again, another instance of the law fueling the need for the local real estate to embrace single living way of life by providing more housing adequate for that purpose.
Finally, we are seeing the case of more and more people becoming digital nomads. Amazing as this seems, it also means more and more people will spend around half the time in some cheaper country with better climate, and for the other half they will still need a small unit in a Canadian city. They will also need to be able to potentially sublet it while they are away.
Feel free to fact check me on some or all of this stuff, but honestly I think that anyone who says the condo market is in trouble is looking at it with a very, very short time frame in mind- a time frame which only serves those who have cash and credit and are ready to dip buy when we see a major correction. For everyone else who agrees with my premise, these things are the future.
Wishing you a great weekend and, to my Canadian gentlemen an amazing long weekend.
Mwah! :)
Our demand for a certain type or size of living spaces in big cities is based heavily around the law and I guess cultural and moral values (yes, even someone like me can write about some form of morality haha! Look, I am doing it as you read!) So, in big cities, we have a city state type of culture that differs from the suburbs and the small towns around it. Cities like Toronto are becoming cities of majority singles. Dating without moving in together, in 2024, I still consider as being single even if you are exclusive. As people are becoming more educated and more defensive and longevity minded, they are increasingly looking for spaces where they can live alone. We have such a diversity of morals, cultures and then the weird mutations that a big city does to those that many people are now refusing to move in together. People are often too different, you can get screwed over when one person starts being late with their share of rent, or paying less due to this or that reason, and then you do not want to make them leave because they could be homeless etc.... Also, in small spaces and with more people working from home, your live in relationship can become such a pressure cooker that you may one day turn cutlery into duel tools haha (not funny, I know...). The more horror stories that spread online and in legacy media about people paying the price for having taken risk in this department, the more people will refuse to take the risk. So, we need more bachelor and other small units, and people will rotate out of them slower or never. In addition, there is the longevity consideration. We are looking at potential generations of people who will be reasonably fit, muscular and very independent until the day they die. If they stay single forever according to my definition (may be dating but never move in together), they will need a smaller space for their entire life. As for anyone who wants to be a digital nomad or eventually still move to a suburb or a small town, a smaller private unit that costs less to rent (or own) is mandatory in order to generate savings or simply take excess after tax money and put it into TFSA or other ways to grow that money. I cannot stress enough the importance of this. Imagine not paying attention to this and renting a larger unit with someone you do not know very well just because they gave you a few really good hawk tuah's haha, only for you to end up paying most or all of it... That can ruin your life plans faster than you finish after a one week buildup! :P Now, that just happens to not be the end of that story. In places like the province of Ontario, when you have lived with someone for a period of time, they are considered to be common law. As such, if they make less than you and you break up, they are still entitled to common law support payments! They are not as big as alimony tends to be and they do not last as long but they exist and can cut into your savings and future plans, to the extent that it can invalidate any advantage of living together! Oh, and just so you know, when this thing goes to court, if you happen to run your own business and your common law makes less than you, the court will demand to see a lot of your business earnings details and maybe other things too in order to determine what a fair amount is for you to pay monthly. So, for people who may have a skeleton or two in their business closet, this becomes even worse. So, as I have read before, in most cases people settle. You have to estimate how much money you would pay for the amount of time the law says you have to pay common law support, and then you pay it out as a lump sum! Oh, the horror- you better have cash savings or some unused credit card or line of credit limit...
Next, and this one I mentioned before, if you co-habitate with a single parent and interact with the child, and then break up, the parent can go to court and claim that you acted as a parent figure to the child which makes you obligated to pay child support as if you were the biological parent! Again, another instance of the law fueling the need for the local real estate to embrace single living way of life by providing more housing adequate for that purpose.
Finally, we are seeing the case of more and more people becoming digital nomads. Amazing as this seems, it also means more and more people will spend around half the time in some cheaper country with better climate, and for the other half they will still need a small unit in a Canadian city. They will also need to be able to potentially sublet it while they are away.
Feel free to fact check me on some or all of this stuff, but honestly I think that anyone who says the condo market is in trouble is looking at it with a very, very short time frame in mind- a time frame which only serves those who have cash and credit and are ready to dip buy when we see a major correction. For everyone else who agrees with my premise, these things are the future.
Wishing you a great weekend and, to my Canadian gentlemen an amazing long weekend.
Mwah! :)
