In this series of blogs, we’re exploring why people are choosing to move downtown to be closer to their office space Toronto and enjoy the urban experience of living in the city’s core. We touched on the fact that it is no longer just young single professionals choosing to move downtown, but young married couples who are thinking of starting a family. Even existing families with children are now moving downtown! One of the virtual office clients who was in the office last week to use one of our boardroom rentals, mentioned that his wife was expecting their first child and they have no plans to move away from downtown where he has his business and she has her job.
There are several reasons why families want to move into downtown condos. One of the major concerns is the stress on the family caused by long hours of commuting by one or both parents. The time spent commuting does not just take away from the hours that could be spent as quality family time, but it can also cause resentment by children who are being kept away from parents – because of the 2 or 3 hours each day parents are spending in the car driving from the suburbs to their downtown Toronto office space. It is also no secret that, as urban sprawl continues, there are more cars on the road and the commutes will just continue to get longer due to congestion.
There is a myth in North America that families need big houses with big backyards and tree-lined streets with low traffic because children need a lot of space to develop socially. The truth is that the majority of the population lives in or within 100 km of a major town or city. The urban sprawl cannot spread much further than that!
In fact, while a majority of downtown condo developers have been focusing on smaller units, there are a growing number of families who are pressuring developers to build condo units that have 3 and even 4 bedrooms. There is some pressure from downtown politicians who want to see these types of developments, but the real pressure is coming from the families who want to buy these larger condo units and have the money to pay for them.
While there are condos around the corner and across the street from our office space Toronto with 2-bedroom units, more are coming. According to Toronto City Councilor Adam Vaughan, in his downtown constituency there are more than 600 units of housing where 3 or more bedrooms have been constructed or approved in the last four years. I am certain that more will be coming soon, because the City of Toronto has even gone so far as to offer incentives to developers who are willing to build larger, family-friendly units. They do this by approving higher-rise buildings thus allowing for more population density.
Part 2 of this blog entry will identify and examine some of the developments and downtown neighbourhoods specifically catering to families, that are located only minutes from our office space for rent Toronto.