02-18-2024, 01:55 PM
For me, it's mostly just a difference in between Kitchener and Waterloo. It's obviously a lot easier to sell condo units downtown Kitchener than it is uptown Waterloo and that's demonstrated by the sheer number of condo projects downtown (but also rental apartments). Waterloo may have built a lot of towers over the last few years, they are primarily tiny 1 bedroom short term rental apartments geared towards the thousands of kids who are studying at university. There's a completely different market, culture and vibe in Waterloo versus Kitchener. Waterloo - at least to me - does not seem like the kind of place first time buyers are looking at and therefore it's hard to sell units in a new building uptown when uptown still feels like a tiny main street in generic small town Ontario but with the addition of thousands of young zoomers everywhere you go. Since Waterloo dragged its feet, uptown did not evolve in any significant way whereas downtown has changed so much it's almost unrecognizable.