During the recent Ontario Housing Summit the main focus was on millennials and home ownership, and the consensus of the Summit was that there is a need for more affordable housing supply.
Some of the points that were made are:
- Boomers are restricting access to prime property
- Boomers would like to move out, but
don't see any suitable alternatives in their area
- Trade down houses (townhomes, midrise condos, duplexes) are not zoned in desired area
- "Missing middle" or those defined as trade down houses for boomers, starter homes for millennials, are not available
- NIMBYs, "not in my backyard" homeowners oppose development of such buildings in single-family home neighbourhoods
However, there is a rise in YIMBYs in Toronto. YIMBYs are the supporters of affordable housing, or as the name goes, "yes in my backyard" homeowners. Toronto's YIMBY group is known as Housing Matters, they are a group of activists. They are growing fast and hope to bring change to Toronto's affordable housing, however, they must take more action than just utilizing social media to get their message across, they must approach the city and other groups with hard facts and evidence that affordable housing will be able to benefit not only the city, but the neighbourhoods they will be in.
Until the city can determine what to do, it is a waiting game. For now, we'll have to see what the government's current measures to cool down the market will do, as it seems to have some impact on the housing market in Toronto already.
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