Suburban real estate adventures: Brampton monster homes and Scarborough rooming houses

A bungalow-heavy neighbourhood in Brampton is seething over a partially finished 6,600-square-foot house (which the Toronto Star has started refering to as “the Brampton monster home”). Owner Ahmed Elbasiouni says he originally planned to renovate the site’s original 1,800-square-foot home, but switched to the current two-story design when supporting walls collapsed during construction. The city has halted work on the site for now, and local councillors want the house scaled back to send a message to an increasing number of building permit flouters. Meanwhile, in another part of the GTA, a Re/Max agent is facing charges for jamming 11 bedrooms into a Scarborough home and charging tenants $500 to $700 a month for each—the latest illegal rooming house owner to capitalize on the overwhelming demand for affordable housing. The ungainly and ever-controversial quest for higher density in the suburbs continues.