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Throughout October UrbanToronto is featuring a special State of Housing 2026 editorial series to examine the pressing housing challenges facing Toronto and the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
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An argument can be made that no type of structure is more important to the history, society, and overall urban fabric of Toronto than the detached single-family home. From the historical charm of ones in the Annex or Cabbagetown to the more modern forms in Scarborough or Etobicoke that have become homes for the city’s diverse immigrant population, single-family homes have become the defining feature of Toronto’s built environment. While in recent years high-rise condo towers have captured the city’s imagination (in both good ways and bad), these detached homes remain at the core of the city’s identity. That role, however, is also inextricably linked to the growing pains that Toronto has faced as it has grown from a sleepy regional hub to a globally-oriented metropolis. Through an examination of the city’s historical growth — as well as that of Montreal — a picture emerges of a place whose status as a global city came about rather unexpectedly, and in a way that has not been without its bumps, but which in the long run will create a more livable Toronto.
With its prime positioning relative to trade networks, for much of Canada’s history the role of dominant economic hub was filled by Montreal. Yet between the shifting of global trade routes and the rise of Quebec separatist sentiments, from the 1970s onwards Toronto began to usurp this role — something for which it was not at first designed to accommodate. This lack of preparedness is immediately evident when looking at the predominant types of housing stock in each city. Duplexes, low-rise apartment buildings and other examples of missing middle housing abound in Montreal, with the city being designed to be denser and more populated in expectation of its role as Canada’s main city to continue indefinitely. By contrast, Toronto’s lack of similar missing middle housing becomes more acute with each passing year. Because for much of its history there was no reason to expect it to grow beyond the rather sleepy city it had long been, few considerations were made for accommodating future growth (which in terms of housing meant that there was little incentive to build much besides single-family homes). With this in mind, Toronto’s sprawling, low density urban form makes more sense: it was not originally supposed to grow into the bustling metropolis it has become, and therefore the pressure to build denser housing never occurred like it did in Montreal. As a result, the city and its suburbs have found themselves playing catch-up in terms of building the housing needed to accommodate the Greater Toronto Area’s explosive growth.
This aforementioned game of catch-up manifests itself in a variety of ways (such as upgrades to infrastructure not originally designed for a city of this size), but the ongoing housing crisis is arguably the most visible, yet also one with a high potential for positive change. The Toronto City Council has made it easier to build more missing middle housing throughout a large swathe of the city, which will do much to fill the gap between detached homes and high-rise. At the same time, although they may be polarizing the proliferation of new high-rise condo buildings has allowed new housing to expand upwards rather than outwards, limiting the urban sprawl that would accompany further prioritization of single-family homes. Finally, Toronto and its suburbs have in recent years been one of the most proactive regions in North America when it comes to building new transit infrastructure — and with it has come a new focus on transit-oriented development, which in turn allows for more sustainable land use going forward. Taken together, it is clear that while there have been some growing pains along the way, Toronto’s transition away from a sleepy, low-density city dominated by single-family homes has set it up to better meet the demands of a 21st century where it is positioned to continue being a global metropolis.
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UrbanToronto's research and data service, UTPro, provides comprehensive data on construction projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe—from proposal through to completion. Other services include Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
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Thank you to the companies joining UrbanToronto to celebrate State of Housing Month 2026.
