Mississauga homes 57% larger today than the 1990s while condos 25% smaller

Mississauga houses are getting bigger while condos are getting smaller.

That’s the word from Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), which tracks property data across the province.

This “decades-long pattern” started in the 1990s as land for new builds became scarce in large centres.

“As land values increase, we see more units on a single property, which means many of those individual units are smaller,” says Greg Martino, MPAC vice-president and chief valuation and standards officer.

“Because condos are traditionally a major entry point for first-time home buyers and investors, the market for the smaller units has remained quite strong.”

Mississauga condos are 25 per cent smaller now than those built in the 1990s. An average condo built since 2017 in Mississauga is 758 square feet, compared to about 25 years ago when they were 1,016 square feet.

Still, Mississauga’s condos are slightly larger than neighbouring Toronto, and the decrease in size is lower compared to other cities. Ontario condominiums are 35 per cent smaller on average than they were 25 years ago.

In the mid-1990s, the average condominium in Ontario peaked at approximately 1,100 square feet. The most recent MPAC data shows the average condo today is about 700 square feet.

A similar trend toward smaller units is also evident in the townhouse market, with stacked townhouses – multiple units constructed vertically on a single lot – being built instead of traditional row townhouses.

Comparing  single-family homes today to the 1990s is where there is the biggest difference in Mississauga.

Single-family detached homes built since 2017 are 57 per cent larger than they were in the 1990s in Mississauga. An average size home in the 1990s was 2,489 square feet, and today it’s 3,906 square feet.

Mississauga homes are the largest of 12 cities MPAC compared. And the city is only behind Innisfil and Lasalle for the biggest home growth.

Mississauga’s home size growth is also much higher than the provincial average, which saw a detached home 25 per cent larger now than in the 1990s.

“These are long-standing trends that will likely continue,” Martino says. “It will be interesting to see whether the change in consumer preferences and behaviours over the last couple of years, coupled with recent economic drivers, like inflation and rising interest rates, will alter the pattern.”