With all the new condo construction going on in this city, the last thing on many people’s minds is suite renovation, but I frankly expect it to be one of the fastest growing segments of the renovation market over the next few years.

Just like new subdivisions, there comes a point approximately 20 years after the original occupancy when things need repairing, replacing or re-modelling. We’ve been erecting new condo buildings in the GTA for 40 years now, so we’re into the second wave for some buildings.

I’ve always said that the resale market drives renovation as people fix to sell or renovate to suit, and we all know that the resale market has been very strong for years, but of late, the resale condo market has witnessed above average levels of activity, which is in turn driving renovation activity.

The condo construction boom of the mid to late 1980s is the stock that’s currently ripe for renovation and that was a time when suite sizes were substantially larger, so the renovation possibilities are as varied as the owners themselves.

With all these drivers of condominium renovation activity, I wasn’t surprised when Kenzie Campbell, General Manager of Royal Home Improvements and Chair of BILD’s Renovators Council told an industry roundtable meeting recently convened by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation that he is doing more and more work in condo buildings and that the project values are rising as suite owners do their units up to the nines.

As active as the condominium renovation market is today, fast forward 15-20 years and imagine how busy professional renovators are going to be as the stock currently being built reaches the renovation sweet spot.

Stephen Dupuis is the President and CEO of the Building Industry & Land Development Association.