Vancouver Lacks Townhomes

UDI/ VanCity’s recent housing affordability index shows that Metro Vancouver lacks townhomes, despite their popularity with both first-time homebuyers and downsizers.

Although some developers are building larger condos to fill this gap, these don’t appeal to everybody. First-time homebuyers, who are priced out of the detached house market, might want more space than a condo typically provides or a yard, so that they can grow with a family. At the same time, some single-family homeowners who would be willing to downsize to a smaller home, but are not yet ready to make the move to condo-style living, are thinking twice about selling.

Michael Ferreira, co-owner of Urban Analytics, indicates that there is a great need for larger units that can accommodate families and that these typically move very quickly. They provide an vital stepping stone, he says, for both the move-up and the move-down buyer: “It’s more important to create that sort of stepping stone product for people who are living in a condominium that are outgrowing it, to be able to move into something with more space.”

Despite protests that people don’t want this type of housing in their neighbourhoods, the demand is clearly there, according to Ferreira: “In Dunbar or Point Grey . . . as soon as anybody brings a townhouse project on, it’s sold almost immediately regardless of the price. It’s bit of a contradiction because there is this perception that there is resistance to that kind of density moving into these neighbourhoods, yet demand is obviously there.”

Jon Bennest, co-owner of Urban Analytics, believes that the lack of dedicated zoning areas for townhouses is the main reason so few are being built. The solution to the fact Vancouver lacks townhomes, according to Ferreira, is to pre-zone select parts of the city for townhouse construction: “I think you could take a portion of just about any neighbourhood across the city and incorporate some townhomes,” asserts Ferreira. “It would be tough to do in downtown Vancouver, but I thing the Grandview-Woodland area would be good or even along the Cambie corridor, once you get off the main Cambie frontage.”

In the meantime, Ferreira indicates that larger condos might be a viable option as a stepping stone for both downsizers and first-time buyers: “Sixteen hundred square feet on one level lives pretty much the same as a 2,000-plus-square-foot multi-level home because you’re not wasting space with stairwells and modern design creates more efficient unit layouts.”

Because large parcels of land are needed on which to build townhouses, finding the right places to build them in Vancouver presents another difficulty that contributes to the fact that Vancouver lacks townhomes. Fortunately, some city politicians appear to be aware of the problem. NPA councilor George Affleck, for example, is speaking out and questioninh the slow process that developers have to endure in order to come by land: “There’s something happening in between the chance to have it rezoned, but there’s nobody asking. So, how do we encourage more developers, smaller developers to develop the smaller pieces of property and put in townhouses?

Vision Councillor Geoff Meggs discusses weighing the desires of current neighbourhood residents, who would rather not see densification, versus the needs of potential future residents: “We’re putting [townhomes] wherever we think that there’s strong community support and close to arterials. We’ve already rezoned in a number of important neighbourhoods in the last couple of years to provide support for that. But often communities resist on the basis that they want to keep the single family housing form. We can’t be deaf to those concerns.”

Ferreira argues that—despite protests by current residents—city council must start allowing townhomes to be built in typically single-family-home neighbourhoods, like Grandview-Woodlands, the West Side and Shaughnessy in order to alleviate the fact that, currently, Vancouver lacks townhomes: “There are neighbourhoods that are currently all single family now that are going to have to accept, and be willing to accept, different forms and higher-density forms of housing. That doesn’t mean that they have to accept high rises.”