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Originally Posted by Qmx323
Infrastructure upgrades will need to happen due to the increase of density, budgets coming from somewhere... So I assume we take the hit in the form of taxes. If we're paying tax towards taking step 1 to tackling the pricing problem, I'm ok with that. Traffics gonna suck though. I think that might be one of the reasons why they're re-zoning to multi-units so slowly.
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Upgrades are paid by fees that developers pay the city to build and the city charges a mint for these (though it's sometimes not enough, witness how the developers of the River District are asking for more density to cover the cost of the promised daycare).
Traffic CAN get worse but there's actually easy opportunities to minimise the impact - the areas around the skytrain stations (Nanaimo, 29th Station, Renfrew, Rupert for example) are ripe for development and highly transit friendly. It's nuts that the city hasn't made more progress around adding density to those areas in the last 30-40 years (the Expo line has been around since 1986!!!). Even if you don't build in transit friendly areas a doubling in density doesn't mean a doubling in traffic - many people already don't own cars and/or can't afford them. You're looking at pretty modest increases (like 10-20%) even in the worst case b/c you also get more liveable neighbourhoods - more shops get opened wherever density happens so people walk/bike more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Qmx323
So now we have a flood of duplex/triplexes, hopefully in the price ranges of what... 600K to 800K? This seems like a positive. It will probably drop condo prices down a bit... why would you pay 500K for a 1br 450 sqft condo when you can buy a 1000-1200 sqft duplex for a little more? Assuming they can somehow enforce the price for duplex/triplexes from going buck wild.
Condo market cools off, anyone who mortgaged their condos are kinda fucked if they got in during the peaks.
Fail me if I'm wrong but someone kind of loses if we suddenly flood the market with affordable housing. I have no experience in the RE industry as sales, and there is probably more nuance to the circumstances but does any of what I said make sense? In a whole sense we all win, specifically those who look for an alternative to condo living, but anyone who's on money that was borrowed during the peak kinda gets shafted.
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There's no scenario where someone doesn't lose when more housing is built but the same is said when not enough housing is built - right now the people getting screwed are the 98% of the population that can't afford a home. Let's spread the pain out to the top 2% as well.
The GVRD's approach to the housing crisis is akin to using a garden hose to put out a house fire - Vancouver rezoned the whole city to allow for duplexes but they force you to build a smaller house than a normal detached (3000sf vs 3700sf) b/c they were afraid duplexes would be too popular and as a result the price of duplexes are still stupid and some aren't very liveable (450sf per floor is pretty small for a family home - 500-600sf per floor makes it nice to live in and allows a usable basement that can be rented out.
We need radical surgery - we need to allow 5000sf of housing on any standard lot (1.25FSR). That's either a single 4 story building with 3-4 units or two buildings (a 3 story in the front and a coach house in the back). Property values would increase a bit to build these but if you do it across the entire city it'll flatten things out so you end up with:
1.7m for 4000sf of land
1.3m to build 5000sf of housing
15% profit
You end up with four 1250sf, 3 bedroom units that can sell for $850-900k anywhere in East Van.
Or allow RS-1 lots to be subdivided into smaller units - let me build a 2600sf home on a 25x122 lot. Land costs would be $1m with building costs of $650k. Add in 15% profit and you're living in a detached home with a garage for $1.9m.
Edit: Technically this isn't radical at all, it's just a return to the era before zoning became restrictive and discriminatory (zoning came about due to racism and economic discrimination). If you walk around our older neighbourhoods you'll find lots of 4 story walkups and homes built right up to the property line - none of which people complain about. Try building a 4 story walk up now in a SFH zone and it "ruins the character of the neighbourhood yet you walk around south Kerrisdale and there are apartment towers next door to SFHs.