The crown corporation that tracks property data in Ontario says condos across the province are getting smaller while detached homes are getting bigger.

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), which also determines the assessed value for all Ontario properties, says between the mid-90’s and early 2020, the average condo has shrunk 35 per cent, moving from 1,100 square feet to just 700 square feet.

Hamilton is below the provincial average, with the median slipping 40 per cent over 25 years from 1,231 square feet to 744 square feet.

Greg Martino, MPAC’s vice-president and chief valuation and standards officer, told Global News an increase in land values across the province, particularly in areas with a strong demand for housing, is likely the primary reason for the trend.

“As those land values have increased, to make some of these projects economically feasible or viable, more units are being built on a single property or a single parcel of land,” Martino explained.

“This has meant that those individual units on those lands have gotten smaller.”

Of Ontario’s biggest real estate markets, Markham has seen the biggest shift, with units shrinking 45 per cent over 25 years.

Martino says Niagara, Halton and Brantford haven’t seen as acute a decline in square footage compared to Hamilton due to much less condo development and a history of already building smaller units.

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