Basement suites: Demand, supply, space, and technology

摘要

Basement suites emerged as a distinct sector of secondary rental in Canada by the 1970s, in a context of historical changes in rental demand and supply, the expanding scale of urban regions, and changing technology of the home. As the post-war rental apartment production regime ended in the 1970s, secondary rental, including basement suites, partly took its place in meeting high demand. By the 1990s, a shift within the rental sector to lower incomes, and minimal social housing production, reinforced demand for low-rent market options. Meanwhile the expanding scale of Canadian urban areas, and gentrification, pushed secondary rental outward in urban space. In the 1940s to 1960s, the shift from coal to natural gas furnaces, insulation, cheap electric appliances, drywall and panelling, as well as the new recreation room, created habitable basements rarely possible before then. By the 1970s such spaces could be converted to secondary rental suites.