[URBAN NOTE] "Why are Young Torontonians Moving into Tiny Micro Condos?"

[rfmcdonald]

The title of Alina Bykova's Torontoist article is a rhetorical question. Downtown living is really worth it.

When Sean Solowski saw his 27-square-metre apartment for the first time, he was struck by the huge windows and the flood of natural light. It was 2009, and Solowski had just moved from Ottawa, where he had been studying, back to his native Toronto. The apartment was on the second floor of a building dating back to the early 1900s near Dundas and Gladstone, and even though it was considerably smaller than most studio apartments, it was perfect for the 33-year-old.

In Ottawa, where he received his graduate degree in architecture from Carleton University, Solowski lived in a 51-square-metre apartment, and sizing down meant getting rid of some of his belongings. “It really makes you think, ‘What are the essentials of life?’” he says. Because the apartment only has one closet, he put many of his possessions on display. Two shiny motorcycle helmets are perched on the wall above an orange swivel armchair. A streamlined and expensive-looking Cervèlo road bike hangs from another wall. “Plan for things to have more than one function,” says Solowski, who made the best of his tiny pad with a futon couch that folded into a bed at night and a work desk that doubled as a dining table.

Solowski isn’t the only Torontonian purging his belongings and sizing down into a tiny apartment. Today, condominium developers are turning to micro condos to satisfy a growing need for downtown real estate.

In the last year alone, the number of micro condos in Toronto’s new housing market has risen to 11 per cent, up from five per cent, according to a study from Urbanation. Micro condo units appeal particularly to the younger crowd—people in their late 20s and early 30s who want to live and work in Toronto’s vibrant downtown core. The condos are smaller, cheaper, and easier to clean and organize, ideal for a young person who has recently landed their first professional job and may want to find a beginner’s footing in the city’s expensive real estate market.