Housing renovations boom may help Toronto with its supply issue

We’ve been noticing the following scene in Toronto’s inner suburbs more often lately: construction crews add second floors to old bungalows as homeowners want more space for their larger families.

However, according to the supporters of affordable housing, it could help the city benefit from the renovation boom and fill the missing middle in Toronto’s housing supply by transforming such single-family houses into multi-unit properties.

Frank Clayton from Ryerson University believes adding more space to existing single-family houses is a good way of reviving neighbourhoods.

“People purchase those bungalows and then add a second floor instead of moving to Pickering or somewhere else. In my opinion, it’s a good decision as families stay in Toronto.”

Nevertheless, he says with average prices for bungalows exceeding $1 million these days (reno not included), they are not the answer to the issue of the so-called missing middle: multi-unit properties like townhouses, low-rise apartments and single family houses transformed into multiple unit rentals.

For many years, our MortgageLegko.com team has been helping Canadians to tap into the equity of their existing properties and get cash to complete big and small renovation projects. Today it could be a very good option to fund your project considering historically low interest rates.