All in Lifestyle
Vancouver is in a terrible housing crisis and it’s tearing the city apart pitting neighbour against neighbour, and parents against their kids.
Most candidates for mayor promise bold new measures to build more of the “right kind of housing” but each of them has different ideas about the definition of “right kind of housing”. In this article we dig into their proposals and promises and help you compare them objectively.
The City of Vancouver recently announced the beginning of 18 months of consultation that will result in a “Making Room” rezoning which is intended to find neighbourhoods to add more duplexes and laneway homes. Making room implies, there isn’t room already and this is far from the truth. Vancouver has loads of space, but it is poorly used. Vancouver’s land use has barely changed since we paved over the orchards and farms to build suburbs south of the downtown core after WWI. Rather than just “Making Room”, it’s time for Vancouver to evolve from Citified Suburbia with families stuffed in laneway houses and basement suites to a network of purposefully designed “Urban Family Districts”.
This real estate update is focused on the City of Surrey. Real estate is local and even though Vancouver and Toronto are in the news that doesn’t help people living in sub-markets like Surrey. The fact that luxury downtown condos aren’t selling as quickly doesn’t have much bearing on Surrey.
Struggling to find things to do with your children now summer is coming its close? Here are our favourite family-friendly festivals throughout the month of September.
45% of homes proposed in the City of Vancouver are suites and 1-bedrooms suitable only for small households. Barely any 3-bedroom apartments are built when 24% of new apartments in Metro Vancouver should have 4-bedrooms. We need to more homes and the right mix of homes fast or else by 2020, 100,000 hard-working people will be underhoused.
Simply put, Vancouver is a scenic wonderland. Take a trip to these local lookouts for some stunning photos of the unique skyline and magnificent natural wonders so nearby!
Our homes consume a lot of energy, so we want to minimize their impact on the environment but it’s hard to know what to ask and what the standards are.
By 2020 Metro Vancouver housing stock will be short by 47,000 homes! The housing supply problem is bad, it’s real, and will get worse.
We’ve all heard people in Vancouver who blame lack of supply for housing unaffordability. Many will have heard the opposing argument that the supply problem is a “myth”. However, our analysis at Mortgage Sandbox shows that the supply problem is real and could be worse than any of us imagined.
We need to settle this once and for all, so that government can act quickly to solve the housing crisis.
