“No more land” for single-family houses in Vancouver, Urban Futures planner says
Apartments and townhouses are the future, according to Yazmin Hernandez
Almost a tenth of the single-family houses in the Lower Mainland have disappeared in a decade.
Perhaps that could explain why detached homes are so in demand that they now fetch over a million dollars in the market.
“The dwelling stock has changed in the region,” Yazmin Hernandez, a planner with the Vancouver-based think tank Urban Futures, told the Straight in an interview.
Citing census data, Hernandez pointed out that the number of detached homes in Metro Vancouver declined by eight percent from 2001 to 2011.
There were 301,140 single-family houses in the region in 2011, or 26,510 less than the 327,650 in 2001.
According to Hernandez, the decline is more dramatic in the City of Vancouver.
The Urban Futures planner noted that Vancouver had 28 percent or 18,930 less detached homes in 2011.
Hernandez said that in 2001, the city had 66,460 single-family homes. In 2011, there were 47,530.
Conversely, there was an increase in multi-family developments in the form of attached and apartment units as single-lot properties were consolidated with others and rezoned for more intensive developments.
Metro Vancouver saw a 55 percent increase in attached ground-oriented units (townhouses) or 82,750 additional attached units between 2001 and 2011, according to Hernandez.
Hernandez also said that there was a 27 percent growth in apartment units or an addition of 76,390 apartments over the decade.
She added that the City of Vancouver had a 21 percent increase in apartment units, with 26,940 units added between 2001 and 2011.
Hernandez added that attached dwelling types increased by 53 percent, with 20,460 additional units from 2001 to 2011.
According to Hernandez, it is an interesting chicken-or-egg question to ask which came first: a change in people’s expectations about what type of house they want or the decline in the number of single-family homes in the market.
Regardless of the answer, Hernandez noted that “expectations have in fact changed and will need to change because there is no more land”.
“We have so many limitations in our ability to add single detached units, so attached ground-oriented type of format and apartments are the future of the city [and the region] as it stands,” Hernandez said.
According to Hernandez, “There is a lot of pressure on demand, like people want to live here and the only way that we can make room for the residents that we’re expecting to see going forward is by becoming more efficient in the way in which we use the land.”
Comments
8 Comments
Anon Mity
May 7, 2015 at 1:42pm
Editor: Here on van. island south we are told by local mayor(who is putting ambassadors on our street like failed in vancouver) we are living on unceded native land....
hmmmmmm
May 7, 2015 at 2:53pm
These are the reasons that an urban planning "think" tank comes up with to account for the decline in single family dwellings? Let me break it down for you.
Step 1: Allow corporations, and specifically development corporations, to donate inordinate sums of money to the campaigns and candidates of municipal politics.
Step 2: Have those developers get their way by having their councillor and mayoral puppets rezone huge swaths of what was formally zoned for single family dwellings.
Step 3: For every single family house that is knocked down or redeveloped have it replaced with a minimum of 3 multi family dwellings.
Step 4: Act surprised when the chicken that comes home to roost is people gravitating to mult- family dwellings because the now rarer single family dwellings are being priced out of the reach of most people who want to call Vancouver home.
Step 5: Allow the continued wholesale destruction of perfectly livable heritage housing stock in the name of gaining a lane way house and more square footage, thus pushing the price of single family dwellings ever higher.
Step 6: Continue to act like you aren't quite sure why more people are choosing multi-family dwellings. (Likely at the instruction of some developer money that is funding you as well)
Jesus. Do people actually believe all the claptrap in this article?
@hmmmmmm
May 7, 2015 at 3:35pm
"Likely at the instruction of some developer money that is funding you as well"
Looks like you're right on the money, Jack.
I took a gander at the client list on their 'think tank' website:
"Rennie Marketing Systems"
"The Real Estate Institute"
Shameless.
Seriously?!?
May 7, 2015 at 8:04pm
The only reason there is pressure on the region is growth policies of local governments. Vancouver doesn't need more residents except to line the pockets of developers and the mayor. If the NPA had run roughshod over neighbourhoods like Vision has done the Straight would have led the charge but somehow Vision get a free pass. The media have failed the residents of Vancouver along with the civic government. The growth policies of Vision are the biggest threat to keeping this city liveable.
Steve_W
May 8, 2015 at 9:32am
The densification of Vancouver is short term gain for long term pain.
The city government is allowing developers to increase the population of the city, without increasing the infrastructure. Water, sewer, natural gas, and electrical services are not being increased. Eventually, these services will not be able to keep up with the increasing population.
Head shaker
May 8, 2015 at 1:28pm
I see all of the conspiracy theorists and anti-Vision folks are still upset over their loss.
Go back and look at the long-term plans of the NPA in their heyday and you'll see densification along the transit corridors. As a matter of fact the realization that Vancouver has limited horizontal growth potential has been known for much longer than that, especially regarding the COV.
I think it's odd that so many think that the reason we are growing is that those evil developers are putting up towers to attract people who would normally never consider moving here. They think that all they need to do is find the right lawsuit, get rid of Robertson, jail or euthanize all developers and then suddenly they'll be able to buy the dream house overlooking Spanish Banks that they've always yearned for, but could never make near enough money to buy. Keep dreaming suckers.
jenables
May 16, 2015 at 4:27pm
Head shaker, you have no idea what people think, clearly. Some of us have lived here or whole lives and recognize what has happened in the last decade cannot be explained away by mountains, oceans, desirability and the inability of any established city to create land. The gig is up, people aren't falling for it anymore. Change is in the air, and you might find you are the one who has been suckered.
Jason Reall
May 17, 2015 at 5:19am
Helllllll yesssss!!! finally someone who is 100% Spot on with the Vancouver real estate news!!!!! Yes their is no more land! North is mountains, south is USA, and west is the ocean! Nothing left but east. Shhhh this news wasn't suppose to be exposed, we're all suppose to say news about a housing bubble, a crash, or a soft landing because negative news creates panic to sell and profit. Thus creates richer people or wise people to be purchasing more detached homes in Vancouver. Get use to living in smaller condos/townhouses people because fact is that is becoming the present.