Toronto has entered into something of alaneway house renaissanceastiny homes populate backyards and laneway frontagesacross the city, but not everyone is happy about this new form of housing.

A curious-looking new home tucked away in the backyard of456 Armadale Avenuejust hit the rental market, offering 0.5 bedrooms in what is essentially a glorified multi-level studio apartment measuring just 650 square feet andrenting for $2,450 per month.

It's actually a pretty unique layout with a modern, if not a bit cozy, kitchen setup, and even a ceiling skylight flooding the space with natural light.

The ensuite laundry, sheltered carport, private entrance, and other high-end perks like heated floors throughout the suite, make this laneway unit look and feel like a proper house, albeit a shrunken-down one.

But some neighbours fought tooth and nail to keep this home from ever being built.

在2021, signs werestapled to utility poles in the neighbourhoodin an attempt to fight the tiny home's construction, in what is perhaps the most literal case of local NIMBYism in recent memory: opposing a project happening right in their neighbourhood's backyards.

The alarmist signs with slogans like "Armadale NOT Condodale!" advertised achange.org petition fighting against the development, which — and I'm not making this up — suggested that a tiny laneway home somehow translated to "destroying and degrading our charming, historic community beyond recognition."

A competing change.org petition was alsocreated supporting the development, asking that the City's Committee of Adjustment "approve the variance necessary to build the proposed three-story [sic], four-unit dwelling at 456 Armadale Ave."

在the end, a scaled-down version of the proposal came to fruition, but neighbours still aren't pleased.

One blogTO reader reached out about the newly-listed rental unit, saying, "What even is a .5 bedroom?!?! The way they describe it vs. the objective size of the thing is bananas, and the price is unconscionable."

While $2,450 may seem pricey to anyone who hasn't been following the rental market, it is actually just a shade more than theaverage one-bedroom rent of $2,418 in Toronto as of June 2023.