By Pepper Parr
June 15th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The structure on the right, 19 Bloor West, is the third-highest tower in Toronto.
At the Bay Area Economic Summit held recently in Burlington Mike Moffatt said: “we need to get away from the mindset that a unit is a unit when we are counting. The 400 to 600 square foot condos that attracted investors are not housing for a family. We need three and four-bedroom units if families are to be accommodated.”
Moffatt is an assistant professor of business, economics and public policy at Ivey. In 2018, Moffatt was appointed director of policy and research at the progressive think-tank Canada 2020.
He is the Founding Director of the Missing Middle Initiative.
A news item out of Toronto made mention of the units in the tower being built at 19 Bloor Street West’ “The residential units themselves will range from studios to three-bedrooms, with some of them getting pretty tight, even by Toronto standards.
According to design plans, a number of the studios will measure as small as 287.8 sq. ft, with many of three-bedrooms being as snug as 863 sq. ft. The largest unit shown in the plans is a three-bedroom measuring 941.8 sq. ft.
One-beds will take the lion’s share of units (48%), followed by two-bedrooms (36%), three-bedrooms (10%), and studios (7%).
Related news story:
Mike Moffatt at the Bay Area Summit
I think some of our citizens having to live in tents due to exorbitant rents would appreciate the chance too. Maybe if more affordable rental units were built we could alleviate that problem. A roof over your head should not be a luxury.
I like Mike. I have no doubt that some of last quarters 819,000 newcomers, 8.5% annualized will appreciate 287 SF.