Olivia D’Orazio
Other
Agents looking for the next trend in the condo market may need to squint: micro-condos are set to take Canada’s densely populated cities by storm.
“[Micro condos] are becoming more common, just simply because of the population,” says David Francisco, a Realtor with Condos.ca. “As more immigrants come in, they’re more used to smaller places. Someone living in Hong Kong or India, they don’t mind smaller places.”
At its Housing Outlook Conference in November, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said increased immigration, especially to larger cities like Toronto and Vancouver, will continue to put upward pressure on demand for condos. Faced with that demand, builders are increasingly choosing designs that maximize space. That means having more lower-priced micro-sized units in a building, increasing their profit.
“As more people come to Toronto, I think the price will be the competing factor, as new homeowners try to get into the real estate market,” Francisco says, adding that not all buyers will be open to the concept.
“It definitely caters to only certain people,” he says. “It’s a micro-organism of a buyer. There are very few people who want to live in 20 by 20 square-feet.”
But, agents certainly shouldn’t discount the option.
“I think it will grow to be bigger, especially as property gets to be more of a commodity,” Francisco says. “It’s a small proportion of buyers, but if they want to spend $400,000 – for agents, the commission is the same.
“It might be a niche to get into.”
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