Toronto condo class wars
Needs differ. Young and old, rich and not-so-rich clash
Kelvin Browne, CanWest News Service
A new kind of class war has broken out. It pits young against old, rich against the not-so-rich, first-time buyers against retiree last-time buyers.
Where’s this happening?
In a condo tower near you.
Condo towers offer a fantastic array of suites. In one building, there’s often a range of options, from little wee studios to the multi-bedroom, multi-floor spreads. In the sales office, this seems like a good idea. But it’s not so nice when the thing gets built and everyone moves in.
Guess what? The person who bought the 450-square-foot studio with a tiny balcony and no parking is quite a different person, with very different ideas about how he or she wants to and can afford to live, than the 60-year-olds who sold their house for a bundle and bought the three-bedroom penthouse with enormous terraces and two parking spots. Now, they have to co-exist and manage their condo building together.
Class lines are usually simple to draw. The bottom third of the building consists of small suites stuffed with first-time buyers, often in their 20s. If they’re single, it’ll likely be their first home, maybe the first time living outside their parents’ home. Weekends can be a blur with lots of loud music.
In the middle are larger units, populated by young couples without children. These people are often saving for a home so they can start a family. While not quite the party scene found on the lower floors, these people feel entitled to play their music at any volume they like and generally feel entitled about everything.
And then, in the top third, are the empty-nesters, many of whom have sold their houses at great profit and bought a condo for their retirement. They travel, have summer homes and/or places for the winter in Florida or Arizona. They spent a fortune buying their condo and likely invested in costly upgrades.
The class wars start because owners have conflicting notions about how to live. Those on the lower floors like to stay up late most nights. The insides of their apartments are filled with Ikea, not antiques, and they can be rough on a building’s public spaces. They don’t much care where they chain their bikes or what their backpacks scratch in the elevator.
Those in the top floors of the condo aspire to life the way it was portrayed in the marketing ads. They want perfection inside their apartment and outside. They notice every chip of paint and every stain on the lobby’s carpet. They don’t much like the fact that some of the owners in the lower parts don’t comb their hair or haven’t given up their piercings yet.
For those at the bottom, it feels like their parents are living above them. For those on top, it’s like the kids have moved back home. It wasn’t always this way; buildings used to have a more homogeneous mix of apartments. Often, the same unit style went from top to bottom, with only minimal price increases for higher floors. Usually, the price difference was not significant between most of the units, aside from the premium for penthouses. Developers often assumed they were catering to a relatively narrow range of consumers, one focused on the neighbourhood or price point. Now, a building can have a United Nations diversity, with an age spread that even the UN doesn’t have to cope with.
While living together is bad enough, managing together is worse. The lower part of the building will do anything to keep condo fees down. They don’t have any money; thinking a week ahead is long-term planning. Meanwhile, upstairs, the oldsters want to build a massive reserve fund, constantly improve the building’s aesthetic, increase security and make more rules for owners. (No storage on balconies, no bikes in the halls, no parties after 10 p.m. and so on.)
The battles are going to get worse. The people on the top aren’t going anywhere and are getting older and crankier. Everyone else is moving on to houses or bigger condos; they’ll be replaced by younger people. The age and wealth gap will intensify - welcome to high-rise hell.
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