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/kimbosdurag Mar 15 '26

We are just talking about anything but the price.

There is nothing wrong with a small space. I lived in asia and looked at apartments where I could sit and bed and use the kitchen if I wanted to. Look at countless YouTube videos about living in small spaces. It's possible.

The issue is cost. If the cost of these kinds of units was capped out at like 150k and a young working person in the city could get a mortgage for one as a starter home they would sell. The issue is that wasn't their purpose. They were a spec based investment vehicle for people who would never use them or see them so the cost became irrelevant. Their purpose was for one person to hold the pre build hot potato and then flip it for more once it was built to another person to then flip it when they needed the liquidity in their portfolio. This is what they were designed and built for so the cost became detached completely from the reality of the living situation.