Data Analysis of Apartment Buildings in the Toronto Area

In this data analysis, we explore various aspects of apartment buildings in the Toronto area, focusing on their location, building height, construction year, and RentSafeTO safety scores. The data used for this analysis is sourced from the Apartment Building Evaluation dataset available on the Toronto Open Data Portal.

Dataset Overview

The dataset used for this analysis is obtained from the Apartment Building Evaluation data on the Toronto Open Data Portal (https://open.toronto.ca/dataset/apartment-building-evaluation/). It includes information on registered apartment buildings with three or more floors under the RentSafeTO program. One significant attribute in the dataset is the “score,” which represents the safety evaluation of each apartment building.

Data Cleaning

To begin the analysis, the dataset is processed using the pandas library to remove unnecessary columns and perform data cleaning operations. The cleaned data is then stored in an SQLite database.

Data Visualization and Analysis

Area Analysis

We start by analyzing the distribution of apartment buildings across different areas in Toronto. The “Toronto-St. Paul’s” area emerges as having the highest number of apartment buildings with three or more floors, while the “Toronto Center” area, which is known for its tall buildings, ranks seventh. This observation can be attributed to the inclusion of lower-rise buildings (e.g., three or four floors) in the dataset.

Next, let’s explore the areas with the highest number of apartment buildings exceeding 20 stories. As expected, the “Toronto Center” area leads with over 800 such high-rise buildings.

Proportions of Different Apartment Types

We examine the proportion of apartment buildings based on the number of stories. The analysis reveals that buildings with 3-10 stories account for 76% of all apartments in Toronto, while those exceeding 20 stories constitute only 5.3%.

Furthermore, we analyze the age distribution of apartment buildings. The majority of buildings in Toronto are over 50 years old, representing 82.5% of the total, whereas less than 1% of apartments were constructed within the last decade.

Rental Safety Scores

We investigate the relationship between rental safety scores and various factors. This analysis reveals weak correlations between safety scores and both the construction year (correlation coefficient: 0.16) and the number of stories (correlation coefficient: 0.2). Contrary to common belief, newer or taller buildings do not necessarily exhibit higher safety measures.