The reason there are so few multi-bedroom units can likely be at least partially explained by the cost of adding bedrooms during construction, ab Iorwerth with CMHC said. Many provinces have building codes that require each bedroom to have a window, he said, which has a tendency to make the cost of building three-bedroom units disproportionately more expensive.
"Because of that jump in price in getting a three-bedroom unit, developers and builders just put less of them in," he said.
The non-profit U.S.-based Center for Building in North America echoes the statement in a
blog post from last May about why it's so hard to find family-sized apartments in the U.S. and Canada: codes.
Construction continues on condos being in downtown Toronto on April 18. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)
"North American zoning and building codes work together to drive up the size of multi-bedroom apartments in particular, putting them financially out of reach for many parents raising children," executive director Stephen Smith wrote.
"The effect is clearly that apartments, in order to provide the same number of bedrooms and give everyone a window, must necessarily consume far more floor area."
