Building space, building value: residential space additions and the transformation of low-rise housing in Toronto

Abstract

ABSTRACT While much research has documented the proliferation of new residential space in Toronto through condominium development, homeowners have been adding significant space to low-rise, single-family homes across the city through housing additions and basement underpinnings. In this article, we analyze nearly two decades of public building permit data to map the growth in these types of space-adding renovations since 2001. We show how these renovations have had significant impacts on low-rise home values as they have proliferated across the city in recent years. We discuss the importance of these types of renovations to understandings of equity wealth and housing supply, highlighting their impact on housing value assessments and on the irrevocable transformation of housing assets across the downtown. In documenting the mutual constitution of these strategies in producing both space and value, we bring perspectives on speculative homeownership into closer conversation with scholarship on home renovations and property upgrading.