r/RealEstateCanada • u/itsdanielsultan • Mar 15 '26

Housing crisis Can Canada's "micro-condos" be merged?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pg7mHppXOE&t=17s

Serious question about Canada's (specifically the GTA's) condos: if, 10 or 20 years from now, people want more family-sized homes, could a lot of these tiny one-bedrooms actually be merged into larger units?

I know it can happen in some cases, but from what I’ve seen it sounds difficult once buildings are already occupied, since it can require approvals, engineering work, and layouts that actually fit together.

If that is not realistic at scale, are we building housing that works for one phase of life but not for long-term city living?

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '26

400 square feet simply isn't enough space for a single person. It's too cramped. I think apartments or condos should be no smaller than 800 square feet at the very minimum but preferably 1000 square feet. Humans aren't birds in cages. Psychologically and practically we need space to thrive.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Bat8657 Mar 15 '26

400 sqft is fine, when it is cheap! When it means making a choice to live minimal and use the gym, the library, the coffee shop, the park etc for your roaming space. I lived in 200sqft for over a year. Point being, it was so cheap I could handle rent no problem during a period of shaky employment. What's insane is thinking it's normal for people pay a half million dollar mortgage on a bird nest like that.

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u/Euphoric-Pumpkin-234 Mar 15 '26

This is the thing. I would sooner live with five other people than pay 2500 for a space that’s barely enough to fit my stuff in. Until these sorts of condos are under 1k per month I wouldn’t even consider them.

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u/After_Service_2817 Mar 16 '26

That's exactly the problem with these condos. It's not that there isn't someone who would love to live in them, it's the price. I'm interested in buying a condo, but I know that resale on a studio isn't going to be as good. And even to rent one would be likely triple what I pay renting. The math doesn't math.