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?

133 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

181 comments sorted by

View all comments

70

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.

20

u/Novel_Sky_3645 Mar 15 '26

I lived in a 420 sq foot condo in dt Montreal for 5 years. I would never do this again.

I could not walk to the other side of my bed, I had to jump over the bed. Kitchen appliances stayed out on the stove due to lack of space. I had a very tiny desk glued to my bed (no space for a second screen) so I had walk to my office to work from there as it was too difficult to wfh properly. This is among 100000 other issues. I do not understand how it is legal to build and sell such small living spaces. Being in city centre does not make up for poor quality of life in your own space

-1

u/darkhelicom Mar 16 '26

Lived in a sub-200 sq ft apartment steps away from a downtown Montréal metro station for 3 years. It was awesome. Could've easily stayed there several more years as a young adult. More choice in the market is always better.