Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyUnpacking multiplexes
Support Brandon Donnelly
Brandon DonnellyUnpacking multiplexes
Yesterday evening I sat on a panel at The Canadian Real Estate Investor's 2nd annual Unpacking Multiplexes event. I'm not sure that I would construe myself as an expert on multiplexes, but I was asked to talk from more of a macro perspective and also talk about our productized rental housing strategy. And so that's what I did. A big thanks to Daniel Foch and Nick Hill for inviting me.
Two things stood out to me from the sold-out event (~250 people).
First, there's a massive amount of interest in building multiplexes in Toronto. In attendance were people ranging from experienced builders to people who are just starting out and looking for their first multiplex site. This breadth of interest seems to be one of the features of this housing typology.
It's small enough that it's accessible to small developers or even individual homeowners who maybe want to live in one of the homes and rent out the rest. At the same time, there are developers who used to be at big shops, are now on their own, and want to build a big business with this scale of housing. Both are good outcomes.
Second, this entire push for more housing feels very much like an iterative process. The City of Toronto is monitoring these new policies, watching how the market responds, and then making adjustments as needed. This is the way to do it, and it should make us all feel optimistic about the future of our city.
We're on our way to creating more missing middle housing — in every sense of the word middle.
Yesterday evening I sat on a panel at The Canadian Real Estate Investor's 2nd annual Unpacking Multiplexes event. I'm not sure that I would construe myself as an expert on multiplexes, but I was asked to talk from more of a macro perspective and also talk about our productized rental housing strategy. And so that's what I did. A big thanks to Daniel Foch and Nick Hill for inviting me.
Two things stood out to me from the sold-out event (~250 people).
First, there's a massive amount of interest in building multiplexes in Toronto. In attendance were people ranging from experienced builders to people who are just starting out and looking for their first multiplex site. This breadth of interest seems to be one of the features of this housing typology.
It's small enough that it's accessible to small developers or even individual homeowners who maybe want to live in one of the homes and rent out the rest. At the same time, there are developers who used to be at big shops, are now on their own, and want to build a big business with this scale of housing. Both are good outcomes.
Second, this entire push for more housing feels very much like an iterative process. The City of Toronto is monitoring these new policies, watching how the market responds, and then making adjustments as needed. This is the way to do it, and it should make us all feel optimistic about the future of our city.
We're on our way to creating more missing middle housing — in every sense of the word middle.
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