London growing upward, outward amid second year of billion dollar building boom

London's skyline is set to change dramatically, as a total of 10 residential towers are set to go up in the city's burgeoning downtown core amid a building boom that's seen it's second straight billion dollar year.

Development numbers from the city show 2017 saw $1.1 billion in building permits issued hot on the heels of 2016's $1.4 billion dollars worth of development.

More than half of this year's total value was residential with more than$612million in building permits issued for 1,038 single family homes as well as 752townhomes, multiplex units and apartments.

While it paints a picture of a city that's rapidly expanding outward, the city is also moving upward, according to Michael Tomazincic, the city's manager of current planning.

With at least 10 residential towers currently being built or in the planning stages, he said London's skyline will look a lot different within five years.

'A new trophy on the skyline'

"These towers have such high degree of quality architectureand design," Tomazincic said."No two look the same. Each one presents as a new trophy on the skyline and they're not generic, they're not boring, they're looking great."

Tomazincicsaid downtown is one of London's up and coming neighbourhoods, with city council offering incentives to developers, as well as a proposed rapid bus system and a new flex street on Dundas, many people see the area as a desirable place to live or invest.

"Council showed a desire to invest in the downtown and this created a new vibrancy," he said, noting the city's growing retinue of high tech firms are also taking up residence in the core, attracting employees who don't like long commutes.

"The types of employment that's available in the downtown, like the gaming industry and the high tech industry, the types of people employed in those fields like a downtown urban environment and now they can live close to their work."

'It's certainly the place to be'

"It's certainly the place to be," city councillor Stephen Turner, who chairs the city's planning and environment committee.

Turner said property values in thecentre of the city continue to gather steam.

"Just over the past decade there's been an increase of more than$400 million in assessment value in the core. Now we count about a billion dollarsworth of assessed value in the core."

Turner said from a tax perspective the downtown is the most efficient neighbourhood in the city. Not only does it allow the city to deliver more service with less infrastructure, it also generates more revenue in terms of tax based on area than any other part of the city.

"Downtown represents aboutpoint two per cent of the land area of the city but generates five per cent of property taxes," he said, noting the more people who live downtown, the more it will boost the health of the city's economy.

• Why more work needs to be done in London's core, despite growth

More people downtown is exactly what the city wants and actually living downtown increasingly seems to be what people want, according to Janette MacDonald of Downtown London.

"A critical mass of people want to live in the centre of the city and it's not just London,"she said, noting the core, in its current state, still isn't ready for increased density.

"We need transit and we need more places to live," she said. "We've got a lot of culture, we're fine there, but we need a good reliable transit system and we need more buildings."