Condo glut an optical illusion?

Great show last week with George Carras from Realnet



He had the below graph that illustrated an interesting point about the Toronto housing market



As can be seen the GTA made a huge transition in 2002-2003 from low-rise (houses) to hi-rises (condo/lofts). This is due to the introduction of the green belt and the places to grow act in 2002 (encouraging intensification).

So when we see all those cranes floating around thinking we are in an over supply situation, we are actually building less units overall YTD...and we may be in a slightly under supply situation (that's why we are seeing bidding wars on downtown condos right now).


Moral: Government regulations have unintended consequences. smart investors see through the hysteria and profit.