A Brief Post-War History Of Real Estate Development

Before 1945 most of the GTA was farmland. Large suburban cities, Mississauga, Vaughan, Maple, Brampton were either small towns, non-existent, or farmland. Toronto was largely relegated to what most now consider the city’s downtown core. Then it was known as Metro. From 1945 to the mid 60s the first true ‘suburbs’ were built. Forest Hill, now Canada’s most affluent neighbourhood tied with Rosedale, was one of them. Government guarantees and mortgage support, along with large scale infrastructure spending facilitated these suburbs.

The 1950s Real Estate Boom

At the height of the 50s economic boom, the Chair of Metro, effectively the head of Toronto’s development and planning, was Fred Gardiner – the namesake of the famous downtown highway. Gardiner claimed that Toronto was so prosperous and growing so fast that the local government could build whatever it wanted. Gardiner claimed that: “Money is not an issue for us, we have the resources to build whatever we choose.” This strong activist government supported a massive real estate boom. From the 60s to the 80s, much of Scarborough, Etobicoke, and North York were completed. Mississauga began its explosive growth in this period. Over time other suburbs and developments were completed.

The 1980s Toronto Real Estate Crash

The late 80s was a time of real estate speculation and overbuilding. This lead to an eventual crash which took 7 years to recover from. From the mid 90s to 2008, the GTA underwent a massive housing and condo boom. This continued after the conclusion of the Great Recession and peaked in the summer of 2017. While significant downturns have occurred, southern Ontario and the GTA have been development and real estate hotspots for almost 80 years running. 

Why Toronto is Immune from a Real Estate Crash

The imposition of a foreign buyer tax, stricter and more comprehensive rules and regulations, higher interest rates, and higher taxes has upended the Toronto real estate market. What was once the most dynamic sellers’ market in the history of the region in February of this year has now shifted in a much more balanced way towards buyers. A market where sellers were seeing double digit price increases and massive demand has been extinguished and now prices and sales are faltering with huge influxes of inventory hitting the market.

The talk now is of where the market will be in the medium to long term. Will prices and demand remain steady, recover, or crash? This is the grand question on the minds of professionals, buyers, sellers, politicians, regulators, bankers, and everyone else interested and affected by real estate. The best way to predict and ascertain the future is to look back to the past. The last time the market experienced a genuine, painful, and widely feared crash was in 1989. At the time speculation was rife, price growth explosive, money reasonably cheap, and demand strong.

But what triggered the ultimate inflection? What was the spark which led to a near decade long depression with a 40% real drop in prices? Ultimately, two factors broke the back of Toronto real estate. The first was a rapid increase in interest rates unveiled by the Bank of Canada to stem the inflation from the cheap money of the 80s boom and the second was a subsequently massive and sudden spike in unemployment. These two forces unleashed the early 90s recession which particularly hurt Ontario and caused 11% unemployment.

For the Toronto real estate market to crash, rates and joblessness would have to soar. The Bank of Canada has little reason to spike interest rates, as inflation is very low, and the economy is stable. Canada’s banks are healthy and sound, prices for many key commodities still remain competitive, and there are several economic sectors which are growing, particularly real estate, high tech, robotics, and advanced services. Leaving out a spectacularly sudden and damaging event, likely offshore, stability remains foreseeable in the medium to long term and jittery observers have little to fear from a full on 1989 real estate crash occurring