Toronto the High-Rise Kingdom: Third-Wave Rental's New Reign, 2011-2020

Keywords: urban political economy, housing, Toronto, condominiums, new build gentrification
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 71

Abstract

Over the last decade, a majority of new housing in the City of Toronto was built in the form of privately owned high-rise condominiums, continuing a trend underway for many decades. This emphasis on private sector condo development (condo-ization in Lehrer’s evocative term) is indicative of “third wave” urban transitions underway in Toronto. This transformation is informed by emphases on changing regional planning and neoliberal policy norms (Lehrer and Laidley 2008), has implications for urban governance (Lippert 2019; March and Lehrer 2018), and is responsive to the economic conditions of an increasingly financialized Canadian political economy. Building on previous research looking at “condo-ism” as an emergent socio-political regime (Rosen and Walks, 2013, 2015), this article assesses the implications of Toronto’s ongoing emphasis on condominium development over the last decade for the socio-spatial transformation of the housing market. In particular, we analyze a series of data to assess how condoization is transforming the rental housing market, altering the structure of rents both within and outside the condo sector, and potentially driving new forms of inequality both between and within Toronto’s central city and suburbs via new build gentrification.