My friend Alex Feldman sent me an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer this week called: Why is it so hard to build family-sized apartments in Philadelphia? As is the case in many/most North American cities, the article talks about how the majority of new multifamily builds are filled with studios and one bedrooms.
It then goes on to suggest that some of the reasons for this include: cultural biases in favor of suburban living, antiquated building codes (such as the requirement for two means of egress), exclusionary zoning ordinances, bad urban schools, financing availability, and so on.
This is something that we have talked about many times before on the blog and, while I do agree that it’s complicated and that there are many variables to consider, I think the key factor remains price. As I said before: “Everybody wants a 3 bedroom condo until they see what they cost.”
So I think this is probably the most important point in the article:
Partly that’s because Philadelphia, unlike Boston, New York, and Washington, has a vast supply of rowhouses that are still affordable to people in a position to buy. For those who prefer new construction, the past couple decades have seen a burst of modern rowhouse building.
If large multi-family apartments were more cost effective than Philadelphia’s vast supply of rowhouses, I am certain that demand would increase markedly. But that is not the case. So I think a more accurate way to view large apartments is as a luxury good. They’re a terrific way to live, if you can afford it.
BRANDON DONNELLY 
While larger apartments might be a ‘luxury’ I do think much more might be built at a lower price if zoning laws were changed. This is especially true in Toronto where large swaths of the city prohibit the conversion of single homes to row houses and low rise apartments.
LikeLike
One thing that NEVER gets talked about, despite being glaringly obvious, is that ceiling heights have increased. Assuming the same sized slab in a new residential building as in an older one, the older one is more likely to have 8′ floor-to-ceiling space, which is the minimum allowed in the U.S., while the newer residential building is more likely 9′ or even 10′ with the same sized slab. A 10′ ceiling height means the same sized tower will have 20% fewer units, even if the horizontal dimensions are the same.
LikeLike