Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 59

Many years ago, a real estate broker said this to me, and it has stuck ever since. I often go back to it in my mind. The logic behind it is as follows.

The best answer is customarily "yes." "Would you like to invest $100 million into my development project?" "Yes, I'd love to! Where should I send the money? I'll do that right now." This is the outcome you want.

The second-best answer is "No, I don't like you and I don't like your project." This is not what you want to hear, and it will probably sting at first, but it's the next-best answer in that it offers complete certainty. You know where the person stands, and you can move on.

The absolute worst answer is a "no" disguised as a "maybe." "I don't know. Seems interesting. We'll see. Let me talk to my partners about it and get back to you." This answer creates false hope and delays things. Whenever possible, you want to suss out and avoid delaying an inevitable "no."

It's, of course, okay to need to think about things and do due diligence when it comes to important decisions, but ultimately, the goal is to get to either a "yes" or a "no" as quickly as possible.

It's okay to just say "no." In fact, it's the second-best answer you can give to someone.

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Cover photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

As most of you know, the Toronto housing market has shifted its attention from condominiums to rentals. This is out of necessity. According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board , the GTA saw approximately 71,392 condominium apartments leased (counting only those leased through MLS) in 2025.

These increases are a result of having no other option. As demand has waned for new condominiums, a greater number of investors have decided to rent out their new condos. If you're a tenant looking for a new home to rent, this has been good news.

At the same time, Urbanation just reported that a total of 9,821 purpose-built rental apartments started construction in 2025, representing a 42% increase from the year prior. This is the highest annual total since the 1970s.

At year-end, this resulted in a total of 27,815 purpose-built rental apartments under construction in the Greater Toronto & Hamilton Area. And like individual condominium buyers, developers are doing this because there is, in most cases, no other option.

But while these may seem like large numbers, it's important to keep in mind that new condominium completions are currently on a downtrend toward zero completions in the coming years (for all intents and purposes).

Even with rental starts approaching 10,000 units per year, it's not enough to replace the condominium supply that is starting to evaporate. Based on current sales and starts, 2029 looks to be the year where we'll hit our housing supply bottom.

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Cover photo by Nadine E on Unsplash

I'm back in Toronto. And another " fresh pow annual " is in the books.

The BC interior is a specific kind of ski and snowboard trip. It's not about dancing on tables in neon onesies while Champagne gondolas fly overhead. It's about chasing champagne powder with like-minded middle-aged men, all pretending that they don't otherwise live a sedentary, low-range-of-motion lifestyle for the balance of the year.

Both have their merits.

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We stayed in four different accommodations for this trip, and one of the things that became very apparent is that everyone is trying to over-optimize around "good service." In each case, I was getting text messages and emails before the stay, during the stay, and after the stay.

"Here's how to prepare before check-in." "Is there anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable?" "How was your stay?" "Please share your experience with us here." In one case, I even received a phone call from the front desk as soon as I got to my room: "We just wanted to see if everything in your room is to your liking."

On the one hand, this level of communication and responsiveness is fantastic when you do need something. But on the other hand, it can be overwhelming. Blasting everyone with automated text messages and emails does not, in my opinion, stand out as exceptional hospitality, especially since everyone now seems to be doing it.

Outstanding hospitality is emotional, rather than technical.

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In city-building news, Bloomberg recently published an article about why cities should embrace "messiness." In it, they cite a book that was assembled by some fellow Torontonians:

This premise — that urban planning’s efforts to impose order risk editing out the culture, character, complexity and creative friction that makes cities cities — is a guiding theme in Messy Cities: Why We Can’t Plan Everything , a collection of essays, including Thorne’s, gathered by Toronto-based editors Zahra Ebrahim, Leslie Woo, Dylan Reid and John Lorinc. In it, they argue that “messiness is an essential element of the city.” Case studies from around the world show how imperfection can be embraced, created and preserved, from the informal street eateries of East Los Angeles to the sports facilities carved out of derelict spaces in Mumbai.

Messiness and allowing for ground-up urban interventions are themes that I have written a lot about on this blog over the years. I think we have gone overboard with rules and regulations, to the point that we stamp out many of the things that make cities so wonderful.

Top-down planning will never get everything right. It's impossible. And the big thing about over-planning is that, in the end, we don't actually know what we're missing out on. We don't know what might have been possible if only we had allowed for it or were more flexible in our approaches.

Messiness is a feature of cities, not a bug. We should be embracing it.