Governments bet on high-rise housing despite Jane Jacobs warnings

Governments are increasingly favouring high-rise housing developments, a policy shift that risks creating unlivable communities and scarring Canada's housing landscape for generations.

This approach moves away from the urbanist principles championed by Jane Jacobs, who advocated for low-rise, mixed-use neighbourhoods where residents could easily walk to shops and civic spaces.

Today's preference is for "tall sprawl," consisting of massive towers housing thousands of people, often built on podiums with small patches of green space.

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"Too often, governments measure the quality of housing by the number of units produced, rather than the livability of the communities being built," the notes state.

For Jacobs, who died in 2006, thriving communities required a diversity of building ages, a mix of renters and owners, and a variety of residents and builders.

Her blueprint for livable density is often ruled out by zoning restrictions, making towers the more viable option for developers needing to build quickly.

The condominium boom, fueled by historic low interest rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, peaked in 2021 and began declining in late 2022.

In 2024, Toronto brought a record 25,572 condominium units to market, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, while Vancouver added 12,442.

Developers chased profits and rushed completions, while municipalities collected high development charges, which in Toronto were more than $120,000 per condominium unit by 2025.

The market declined sharply when interest rates rose rapidly in 2022, leading to cancelled projects, fewer new builds and lower resale prices.

Many developers are now converting condominium plans to purpose-built rentals, which have become the new money-maker.

The CMHC notes in its Fall 2026 Housing Supply Report that "purpose-built rental housing now accounts for two-thirds of all apartment starts in key markets."

These projects are viable due to $55-billion in taxpayer-subsidized low-cost CMHC loans with long amortization periods.

An Urbanation report from last October found that in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area, 61 condominium projects were converted to purpose-built rentals last year, with more expected to follow.

This gives tall sprawl a "second coming" in the rental sector, which may become the housing most Canadians turn to in the future.

The CMHC warns that the "greater long-term risk" is an "insufficient condominium and ground-oriented housing supply that leaves too few ownership options when demand strengthens again."

Such construction has "weakened sharply in major cities, including Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal."

Using a 2.5 per cent annual inflation rate, the typical detached house in Toronto will cost about $1.6-million in 2036, and roughly $2-million in Vancouver.

Ontario's government under Doug Ford has embraced extreme density, with projects like the Bridge Station development north of Toronto.

It proposes 20,490 apartments housing more than 43,000 people in towers as high as 80 storeys on just 63 acres of land, with many similar projects in the province's housing plans.

Critics argue such towers sever people from street-level life, feature units unsuited to family life, and lead to overcrowding, long elevator waits and amenity decks far from the street.

Commercial spaces in new builds often host monoculture chain stores capable of paying high rents, rather than diverse local shops.

By favouring tall sprawl and purpose-built rentals over diverse, street-focused communities, planners are betting that Jane Jacobs's warnings about vertical cities are wrong.

If they are wrong, many Canadians a decade from now may have few options beyond a unit in a tower they would rather leave than live in.

With files from The Globe and Mail