I live in Toronto as well. We make a good income, have large savings for a down payment, and recently thought about buying a house. It's depressing.
So, I decided to look at the City Plan -- to see what the actual plan is for addressing the housing cost crisis in Toronto.
Not surprisingly, the real problem became very clear to me, almost immediately.
The problem is not blind bidding.
The problem is not foreign buyers.
The problem is not low interest rates.
The problem is the official city plan is 100% a NIMBY plan.
From the plan itself:
> While communities experience constant social and demographic change,
the general physical character of Toronto’s residential Neighbourhoods
endures.
In other words, let's not change our back yards.
> Physical changes to our established Neighbourhoods must
be sensitive, gradual and “fit” the existing physical character.
Again -- this means that the large inner-city neighborhoods full of mansions (such as Rosedale and Forest Hill), have to stay full of mansions.
Just to spell it out:
> If, for example, an existing zoning by-law permits only single detached houses in a particular geographic neighbourhood and the prevailing building type in that neighbourhood is single detached dwellings, then the Plan’s policies are to be interpreted to allow only single detached dwellings in order to respect and reinforce the established physical character of the neighbourhood
You see this reflected in the development that does happen. Yonge & Eglinton just gets more dense -- because that's the "character" of the neighborhood. Meanwhile, in "fancy" neighborhoods, housing often gets less dense, because that conforms to the "prevailing" characteristic of the neighborhood.
With the current plan, the city is going to be a city with super high density combined with ultra low density and very little in-between. In other words, it will be full of wonderful enclaves for the wealthy, and sardine-can housing for everyone else.
This, of course, leads to issues such as the lack of schools available in the Yonge & Eglinton area, anod overcrowded transit, not to mention the lack of quality housing for families with two kids. (Try finding a decently sized 3 bedroom unit near playgrounds and schools. Yikes.)
The solution, would be to allow more medium and low rise development throughout neighborhoods. The "character" of the existing neighbourhoods should be allowed to change.
I don't blame Toronto though, this is a problem that is happening in most wealthy cities in North America. Doesn't mean we can't do better. We should.
https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/97dd-cp-of...