If there is one common issue that stands out above all others in Metro Vancouver and elsewhere it is housing and affordability. At the water cooler, the dinner table and coffee shops everywhere, people are talking about a fascinating subject that has so many aspects to it.
A new government was elected that promised solutions for housing affordability and various tax strategies and changes to mortgage rules have been implemented in an attempt to cool the market.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver came out with its March stats this week and it does not look like anything is really helping to halt the trend. Although home sales in the region are down a whopping 30 per cent, prices have remained stable and essentially unaffordable for first-time buyers. The composite average for a home in Metro Vancouver is $1,084,000, up 16 per cent over this time last year.
The benchmark for a detached home is currently $1,274,000 in Tsawwassen and $1,008,000 in Ladner. How can a young family come up with the hundred grand down payment and afford the massive mortgage out here? They can’t in general terms.
Townhomes are in the mid-$700,000 range in South Delta and there has been some sales activity in this type of housing but none in Tsawwassen as there are not many townhomes available to buy or sell.
Some have suggested that older “fixer uppers” be somehow retained for young families to buy and invest in as opposed to them being gobbled up and rezoned by “greedy” developers. How a young family could purchase a home is still the question considering land value trumps building value every time and why would a young family subject themselves to a lifetime of financial stress dealing with endless renovations?
By 2041 the region’s population is forecast to grow by 1.2 million residents to 3.4 million, which will require more than 574,000 new housing units to be built, according to Metro Vancouver data.
Part of the solution to the crisis is to build middle ground housing form which is badly needed in Delta and, in particular, Tsawwassen.
Long-time real estate analyst and consultant Bob Ransford had this to say about this type of housing: “The market is really hungry for that middle housing — not the large detached single-family home nor the high-rise condominium apartment — but the right sized home in more compact, more densely populated, walkable mixed-use neighbourhoods where the car isn’t the primary concern. Pocket neighbourhoods, with smaller detached homes that share a commons is one way of providing that housing. Why are people looking for this kind of housing? It’s not affordability. It’s not ease of life. It’s not the neighbourliness they are looking for. It’s all of these reasons.”
I attended an open house for an early stage offering of a pocket townhome neighbourhood here in Tsawwassen recently. The local developer, Maple Leaf Homes, has a vision for the type of infill density zoning that our community needs.
I am hoping that our next local government remembers the Official Community Plan is a living document and it will be receptive to rezoning applications that will afford opportunity for young people to buy and for empty nesters to downsize in their own communities.
Mike Schneider is founder of Project Pickle and likes to write about growing, cooking and eating food. He is a Jamie Oliver Food Revolution ambassador.
