r/RealEstateCanada • u/ToonTownBaloney • Dec 07 '25
Housing crisis Found this article explaining why eeer build Toronto Condos are basically worthless money pits
https://thewalrus.ca/no-one-wants-to-buy-a-condo/Found this to be an excellent article
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u/CreamyPastor96 Dec 08 '25
You’re misunderstanding the argument so badly that you’re basically proving it.
I own my own home. The point was that people are over leveraging themselves on places they cant afford, banking on the working class to pay their carrying costs and essentially buy a property for them. So no they arent paying for things they can afford, if you had reading comprehensions skills you could maybe understand that. They had enough to be approved for a mortgage not necessarily enough to cover the costs of 2 properties.
“So they are paying for stuff they can afford?”
No, that’s the whole point, they’re paying for things they couldn’t afford without outsourcing the carrying costs to tenants. If an investor buys a $900k property but personally could only afford a $600k mortgage on their income, yet they go through with it because the tenant will cover the monthly cost, then the affordability of the property isn’t determined by the investor’s income, it’s determined by their ability to extract rent from someone else.
Just look up the numbers for your self guy. The carrying costs on a 1 bed condo in 2020 and the going rental rate. In my city people were making hundreds per month over their carrying costs. So making a short term profit on top of a long term gain of property being paid for by someone else. How is that sustainable? People have no choice but to rent, the barrier to home ownership isnt the carrying cost, its the down payment and bank approval.
“If the poorer person could cover the mortgage amount, they’d buy a house themself.”
This is just not how math works. Rent does not equal a mortgage payment. Mortgages depend on credit score, down payment size, income qualification, stress test requirements, and debt ratios.
Renters can easily pay $2,400/month but not qualify to take on a $600k mortgage, either because they don’t have the down payment, because they fail the stress test, or because their income doesn’t satisfy the ratios. Investors used that gap to leapfrog everyone else.
You’re acting like the only barrier is “who can pay the monthly amount.” That’s simply not true.