People looking to buy low-rise homes in the GTA are struggling to get their hands on one.
Calin Miculescu and his wife Amanda rent a one-bedroom condo in downtown Toronto. For the last couple of years, they’ve been saving – but prices and availability have been challenging. “We looked east, west and north of the city before we settled on a neighbourhood near where we grew up in Aurora, with lots of green space and amenities within walking distance,” says Miculescu.
The Miculescus have chosen Aurora Trails, a new residential development in the heart of Aurora.
More than ever, prospective homeowners looking to move to new low-rise dwellings – detached, semidetached or townhomes - are facing challenges. People from all demo- graphics are drawn by the space, both square footage and outdoor green space, of ground-based housing. However, throughout the Greater Toronto Area, there are simply not enough low-rise homes being built to accommodate the huge demand for this housing option, with many new developments coming in the form of high-rise condominiums.
While the high-rise market has been keeping up with the increasing demand from the GTA’s growing population, supply of ground-related homes is among the lowest in decades. This isn’t an oversight on the part of developers in the GTA: homebuilders are restricted by provincial and municipal regulations that limit new construc- tion of low-rise dwellings.
“It goes back 10 years, when the provincial government implemented an intensification plan, putting restrictions on how and when land could be developed,” explains Jim Andrews, director of sales & marketing for Fieldgate Homes, one of the four builders in the Aurora Trails community. “That slowed development and pinched off the supply available in the GTA, limiting our ability to keep up with the growing demand for low-rise homes.”
Statistics confirm the difficulties developers face with the limited but important low-rise market. According to Bryan Tuckey, president and chief executive officer of the Building Industry and Land Develop-