Want to solve the housing crisis? Build these, experts say | About That

Drive through most of Canada’s city cores and you’ll see lots of condo towers and even more single detached homes. Urban planners say it’s an inefficient use of land. Andrew Chang hears from architects about a possible solution: 'the missing middle.'

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[jose.austria]

The problem is people in the suburbs are quite misinformed. They want low taxes, low density, and stable city services all at the same time which is impossible. Want stable services and low taxes? You better put up with higher density then. Want low taxes and low density? Better put up with unstable city services. Want low density and stable services? Better put up with higher taxes then!

[_framedlife]

They are all missing local cafes, stores, etc. Something that make walkable neighborhoods truly walkable. More smaller locally owned stores, more local cafes, more local restaurants. Less of major big block chain locations too far to go walking

[NicholasBall]

I believe the retirement crisis will get even worse. Many struggle to save due to low wages, rising prices, and exorbitant rents. With homeownership becoming unattainable for middle-class Americans, they may not have a home to rely on for retirement either.

[Lumberjack_king]

Finally people are waking up to the missing middle problem you can't just keep building single detached family homes and and expect the housing crisis to be solved

[crimsonfoxx]

This is truly amazing, it's such a breath of fresh air to see mainstream media covering this topic

[ubcphysicsyangbo]

There is one issue that people are neglecting to mention - much of the housing stock is snatched up by investors (I read somewhere in BC, more than half of the condos are owned by investors). We have been blinded by the free market to a point where we failed to realize that housing should foremost be a human right, rather than a commodity. Start limiting the number of homes that people can own, and see how far the real estate market will tumble.

[nikeipod]

Living in Montreal, it's great to see and be a part of the "missing middle". Andrew Chang had better and more convincing statements here than the expert he talked to, in my opinion. And that's probably because of him living in Montreal. He mentioned these plex houses in Montreal as a combination of density, walkability, amenities and public transit. I totally agree with that here.

I visited a few friends in Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough and Brampton and saw NONE of it there. Public transit is either next to your house and a large highway, or is miles away. It's either separated houses which are fine, but far away from amenities. Or it's all tall buildings with building management companies, which convert the personal touch of neighbors into a business/commerce-oriented lifeless "home". Amenities are in these HUGE (again) lifeless yards which are essentially large car parks with a few enormous supermarket chains around. Totally UN-live-able!

Even Montreal downtown is basically the same with "missing middle" but that's a very very small portion and I am glad for that. But all around the downtown, there's the Old Port, Griffintown, The Village, McGill Ghetto, Plateau Mont-Royal, Mile end, and few more further out from downtown. All these places are FILLED with these integrated plex houses, giving these neighbourhoods a cute, cozy, safe and walkable vibe. And now we even know that they help out with the housing crisis.

[shanerob]

The city planning in Toronto is an embarrassment. Years of poor decision making has resulted in unnecessary congestion. But even if there was more middle range housing, it would still be overpriced and unaffordable for many people.

[veloaa-montreal]

We live in a 5-plex building and we have a backyard and private parking, but we also have wonderful neighbours who we see all the time! I moved from Edmonton to Montréal and I was amazed by how much the medium density neighbourhoods create so much more interaction between people and a much stronger sense of community. I think about how great it must be for kids to grow up that way instead of being isolated all the time.

[Patolus]

I'm living in very similar building to that on the last picture. 4 stories, around 50 apartments. It's great. Close to the city center, but far enough to be silent neighbourhood. Everything I need in close proximity. I can walk everywhere. It's great living in Europe.

[chrislyonm]

"Higher density developments will reduce property values in my area." I was looking at that trying to figure out how this is not a positive for affordability. Then I realized that was a COMPLAINT 😂😂

[collectivelyimprovingtrans]

Townhomes and Brownstones and duplex/triplexes/fourplexes should be considered in a lot of urban neighborhoods

[annach]

People seem to forget that a of houses in Toronto are no single family dwellings, but instead house roommates or multiple families if they Toronto houses are subdivided into suites by floor.

[TYKX]

Add all the density you want but they still won't be affordable because Torontonian property owners and corporations have cemented housing as commodities and investment rather than places for living!

[tanyapobuda]

About That segments are really, really good. Keep these coming.

[kseniashepel]

Andrew, this new program is fantastic and you're doing great work. This topic is perfect for our times, excellent topic and indeed we need to go from discussion to action. Thank you.

[malaudisa]

Coming from Italian cities, it always struck me how Toronto, and all of North America, has these massive swaths of low rise, detached or semi-detached homes. The avergae height of buildings in Italian cities is 4-5 stories, with most people living in apartments.

[kenny]

Single family home owners feel entitled to what is done beyond their property line. Including what their fellow single family home neighbors are doing in their own properties. This needs to be treated as what it is, entitled privilege.

In a city like Toronto, these owners are the most affluent, with the most political influence. This is why the change in legislation required to increase supply is extremely slow.

[matthewsaunders]

Parking requirements are raising the construction costs and minimizing middle housing.

We need to implement Parking Maximums (a cap on parking spaces per unit) to reduce cost, expedite construction, and build more housing.

[Basta]

Even if we rezone more SFH to mix use, it still won't really have much effect as long as there are minimum parking requirements. Parking requirements creates a huge waste of land for parking. It favors expensive larger units over smaller cheaper units as the cost for parking is the same for both. It practically prohibits the usage of a big portion of the buildable airspace as the parking costs weigh down buildings to be smaller than they could have been. If they do get to build tall by providing underground parking, then the added costs makes it so that only rich people and luxury businesses can afford such places.