Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
What is the typical buyer demographic for a giant condo tower in the middle of 70's-era sprawl?
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I'd imagine that investors account for the largest share of the pie. Many of these condos are starter homes for those who grew up in the surrounding sprawl. Mississauga is also a huge employment centre in its own right, so there is a demand for all sorts of housing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by destroycreate
That said, I so wish US suburbs had random condo towers in them like you see here.
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I wouldn't say these towers are random; rather, they are the product of planning decisions made at the municipal and provincial levels as well as Canadians' expectations for the suburbs. Before the condo boom, Mississauga—like many of Toronto's suburbs—was dotted with older high rises (i.e., commie blocks), which themselves were built for and originally marketed to the young bachelor demographic (hence their tacky names, gaudy lobby carpeting and neglected lifestyle amenities). While those early singles moved on to bigger SFHs as they grew up*, the same type of people continued to move into newer apartment buildings, the construction of which never really stopped (although ownership structures changed for various reasons over the years).
That said, the current condo boom is, in part, a consequence of the planning policies adopted by the government of Ontario in the 2000s: notably, the establishment of the Green Belt and the Places to Grow Act. Of course, these policies might not have been possible without the cultural forces I touched on above. Coincidentally, we're almost certainly voting out the fifteen-year-old government that adopted those policies in today's election (for completely different reasons—the policies themselves remain popular and will likely survive in some form under either of the two parties that might win tonight).
*In doing so, leaving space for the 'Begumpura' crowd to move in.