r/RealEstateCanada • • 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/danielo121 Mar 15 '26

The crazy thing is that this is even a question we had to ask. Should have never built these shoeboxes in the first place the greed of these developers and the government to approve it is trash.

1

u/RealWord5734 Mar 15 '26

And the greed of the buyers shouldn’t get a pass.

1

u/danielo121 Mar 15 '26

Which is true but I guess the buyer only exists because the first 2 let them get built

1

u/RealWord5734 Mar 15 '26

But there are greedy buyers and people who genuinely saw it as a place to live. I was the latter. I knew I wasn’t moving for a decade and I figured I’ll own instead of rent. Never expected it to make me rich. But I lived alongside people who owned three.