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There really isn’t much builders can do to shrink condominium units to make them more affordable since some are already as small as 280 square feet.

Peter Clewes, a principal at Architects Alliance, whose firm designed what is being billed as Toronto’s first micro condo, Smart House, said it’s really not possible to design anything smaller than that project’s units — the popularity of which is a testament to just how much prices have risen in Toronto’s condominium market.

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But unlike in the detached home market in the largest cities, where it has long been the practice to keep driving until you can afford something, condo developers seem to have adopted a philosophy of shrinking units until they can meet consumer budgets and bite-sized investor appetite.

Condominium sizes have been shrinking for the past decade, at least up until the past two years. The average condominium in the Greater Toronto Area was 892 square feet in May 2007, based on remaining inventory at the time, but shrunk to 789 square feet by May 2015, according to data supplied by Altus Group to the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).