So if the idea of living in a duplex/triplex/fourplex is not appealing enough and you really want to live in a detached home but can't swing the $2m cost in Vancouver/Burnaby then the only solution is to push the our local governments to change their zoning for single family lots.
Right now the RS-1 standard in Vancouver requires SFH lots to be no smaller than 3600sf and no narrower than 24'. You'll notice that there are lots of lots that are less than 3600sf that are RS-1 and those are grandfathered lots which require the approval of the Director of Planning in order to build a new house. RS-1 zoning:
https://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applic...ctSchedule.pdf
A 3600sf lot runs about $1.5m today (about $400/sf) in East Van and if you want just a house with no laneway you're looking at $600-700k to build 2500sf of house on it (a laneway will add another $150-250k). No developer builds without a laneway as they want to maximise profit so these lots end up going for $2.5m with no yard and possibly no garage (a dealbreaker for us car enthusiasts).
What to do?
Get the city to allow smaller lots - as narrow as 20' that are a minimum of 100' deep (2000sf). Let people build up to .86 FSR (what you can build now with a laneway) in a single building. in the smallest case you get a 1700sf house with a single garage. More likely you get a developer who buys two 33x122 lots and they build 3 separate houses rather than 2 which lands you three 2300sf houses with a big single garage and a legal suite. That's 6 families over two lots which is what we get today with the laneway so no extra density, just more affordability.
in that scenario land costs for each house is about $1m plus about $550-600k of building costs - tack on some profit and you've got yourself a $1.8m detached house (22x122 lot) which is only few hundred K more than a duplex and bigger as well.
Who says no to that other than old white people (every person who opposes density at city council is an old white person) who say it'll ruin the character of their neighbourhood?