270 Sq. Ft. Condos

Posted by: Tim Halbur

26 January 2010 - 2:00pm

Dubbed "micro-lofts", these tiny units are going up in an historic building in Vancouver, B.C.

Developers say that the condo size is not unusual in Asia and Europe. Reporter Darah Hansen talks with John Stovell, general manager of Reliance Properties in Vancouver, who says that affordable rental units are desperately needed downtown.

""So many people contact us, not with a specific size they want, or specific amenities, but they tell us where they want to be in the neighbourhood and how much they can pay. So often that amount is just not achievable for anything but a very specialized product like this," he said."

Full Story: Big city, small condos: 'Micro-lofts' to come to Vancouver

Source: The Vancouver Sun, January 26, 2010

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Toronto temporarily

Submitted by Michael Lewyn on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 14:29.

Am taking the academic year off from Fla Coastal on sabbatical, returning in the summer.

Me too (sort of)

Submitted by Michael Lewyn on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 09:15.

I live in about 15 square meters in Toronto (including kitchen)- a little too small for me, but I'd be perfectly happy with a bit more storage/bathroom space.

Toronto?

Submitted by HRPlanner on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 11:49.

I thought you taught in Florida? You're probably banging your elbows in the bathroom right?!

Excellent -- a great value

Submitted by johndecember on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 09:40.

I live in 28 square meters in a studio apartment in the US, and I find that more than adequate. The problem in the US is that tax policies and backwards thinking discourages sensible-sized living spaces for single people. Note that small-sized living places are hardly "new"--the building I live in is about 80 years old. Architects and town planners early in the 20th century seemed to have had the ability to meet the needs of people for housing. I hope that current developers relearn those lessons from the past, and perhaps tax policies and building codes would stop encouraging over-sized living spaces.

Which tax policies and building codes

Submitted by HRPlanner on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 15:28.

Johndecember,

Can you elaborate on which tax policies and what parts of building codes you find encourage oversized living spaces?

A couple:

Submitted by Ricardo on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 08:43.

Not Johndecember, but the mortgage interest tax deduction encourages larger living spaces as the more home one buys (correlating to a higher price and therefore a larger loan) the larger the tax decution one receives. On the planning code's side, maximum density limits, SRO bans, minimum lot sizes all encourage larger living spaces than might otherwise be built. I am sure there are several ordinances in the actual building code as well that accomplish the same although I honestly don't know building code off the top of my head.

Resoloving the tax deduction issue

Submitted by HRPlanner on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 11:52.

I know others are concerned about how federal finance policy is causing this phenomenon of people buying bigger, thus getting more money. I'd like to learn of proposed language to correct this.

I think this idea of building smaller loft type efficiencies is a good one for people on a tight budget. The higher ceilings probably do help it feel more open.

Federal Tax Code

Submitted by Ricardo on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 16:22.

I think it's buried somewhere in the 36,000 plus pages of the federal tax code. There's a very interesting chapter in Niall Ferguson's book "Ascent of Money" that focuses on the laws that the US has put in place that basically make it mandatory for our populace to speculate on real estate (or at least highly encourage it)... a very interesting read for sure:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97395387

Not exactly germane to the specific item we're chatting about, but I thought I'd mention it.