Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 254

https://youtu.be/erHe_WF4D1s?si=k0boyRmdSHrf8Y2r

Street networks tend to be pretty sticky. Meaning, they tend not to change very much, or at all, over time. We have spoken about this before, over the years .

A good example of this is Broadway in Manhattan. Broadway is a world-famous street. And it's perhaps no coincidence that it's also the only street that runs the full length of Manhattan and breaks across the city's regular street grid.

The exact reasons for this are somewhat nuanced. And for a more fulsome backstory, I recommend you watch Daniel Steiner's recent video on the topic (embedded above).

It is alleged that Broadway started out as the Wickquasgeck trail. Meaning it pre-dates the arrival of Europeans to the island. But regardless, we know that it came before New York's famed Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which is the plan that gave the city its grid.

So it would appear that, sometimes, even the most rational of plans can be no match for something even stronger: a street that already exists.

When the market is hot, it becomes more difficult to buy real estate. You end up with more buyers than sellers. And because of this, there's a natural tendency to look further afield for opportunities. You don't want to overpay for the obvious assets, and so you start to pioneer.

This can work out just fine, particularly if the market remains strong. But oftentimes, when the market does turn, it is the peripheral stuff that gets hit the hardest. There is a flight to quality and pioneering gets quickly viewed as too risky.

Here in Toronto, I am consistently being told that there are peripheral development sites that have seen their value drop to 20-25 cents on the dollar compared to the peak, and that's if you can actually find a buyer. In many cases, the sites are now unsellable.

This, to me, is our periodic reminder that while it's important to search for overlooked opportunities and buy cheap, you can't forget to also buy quality.

Point access blocks , which are also known as single-stair buildings, are getting a lot more attention here in Canada. And B.C. looks like it might be one of the first provinces to relax its building code. Here's an excerpt from a recent Globe and Mail article:

Canada’s building code, which provinces have generally gone along with, has required two staircases per apartment building since 1941. But B.C.’s Ministry of Housing last week published a research report outlining the optimal conditions for single staircases.

“We are definitely moving forward with this,” said Ravi Kahlon, the Housing Minister, who hopes to introduce the legislation allowing the change in the fall.

Mr. Kahlon said that the option of “single-egress” buildings, as they’re also called, will be confined to areas where there is professional fire services (as opposed to rural-style volunteer departments) and good water supply, as is the case in Seattle. That city has allowed single-stair buildings since 1974.

In this case, the proposed change is expected to be limited to six storey buildings that have no more than four apartments per floor. That still feels fairly limiting, but it's at least a step in the right direction.

I have been spending some time looking at the feasibility of small six-storey apartments (here in Toronto), and I can tell you that it's not easy to make the math work. You need to optimize, everything . Minor assumption changes can really blow up the model.

I don't think that this change will magically fix that. But it's still meaningful progress. And if we keep chipping away at this housing problem , we might actually get there.