While Toronto’s real estate market has cooled in recent months – perhaps about to tank into that corrective dive so many predict – the rental market surges ahead unchecked. Case-in-point, the forest of condo sky-rises that now blot out the city skyline as you approach downtown from the west on the Gardiner. Ten years ago you were able to see the SkyDome. Today? No longer.

Yes, it is every young person’s dream to live within walking distance of all the cool clubs and whatever office tower they worker bee at. Hence, the tens of thousands of shoe-boxes that have come online over the past few years. These character-less and ubiquitous condo towers sprung up down near the railway tracks, along our underutilized waterfront and anywhere else there was some free space or a knockdown batch of junky buildings.

Do most have a nice view? Is the noise control decent? Is decent parking to be had at a reasonable price? Can you rent a 1BR with at least 600 square feet? Is the wait for an elevator at 8am and 6pm less than a few…five…ten…minutes ?

Well, no, no, no, no and no. But they come with a pool! (Indeed, one look into the exercise room at peak hours and all the young flesh makes the above seem like irrelevant quibbling.)

Oh, and attach the word “loft” to the joint and watch the price sky rocket!

“Yes, there used to be a cookie factory on this site but it burnt down in 1948 and was replaced with a Towers department store but that went bankrupt and basically heroin addicts squatted in the ruins until gentrification hit the neighborhood in 2007 so we threw them out and built this, the Cookie Factory Lofts. The ceiling is 10′ and the wall in your living room is brick. A 400 sq. foot Jr. Bachelorette is $1900 before electric, hydro or gas. Cable/internet/phone extra. No parking. Comes with a 3×3 storage cubby next to the utility room. Did I mention that there is a brick wall in your living room?”

However, a unit has been rented this week that is so chic, so boutique, so modern that it now holds the record for the highest per foot rental cost ever charged in the city: $10 a square foot! Welcome to The Bellagio Park WaterClub Phase II Place

“Yes, not only are the kitchen and washroom counter-tops granite, but so too is every surface in the suite. The walls, the ceiling. Everything. GRANITE. And the fridge? Black. Oven? Black. Dishwasher? Black. Even the toaster is black. The toilet is black too. There is an en suite washer/dryer but due to the extreme boutique coziness of the unit the washer/dryer is literally in the refrigerator (plenty of room is left in the vegetable crisper). A Juliette balcony provides breathtaking views of the back of your neighbour’s microwave.”

“Futon living, dining, and sleeping bed not included.”