John Bermingham
Province
Premier Gordon Campbell thinks smaller lots could help young people get into the property market.
“We’ve been aggressively encouraging municipalities to look at ways that they can reduce the cost of housing,” Campbell, a former property developer, said after a recent speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade.
He said small-lot subdivisions could reduce the price of a home by more than $200,000.
In Vancouver, he said, reducing the lot frontage for single-family homes could knock $200,000 to $300,000 off the price.
“Some fairly small decisions with regard to how subdivisions work, and how you create compact communities, can have a huge impact on the value of a home,” he said.
Bob Ransford, director of the Urban Development Institute, agreed that the price of land is a “huge component” in the price of housing.
“Size of the home and size of the lot that home is built on dictates, in large measure, the price,” Ransford said.
But with steady migration to B.C., and because the market is possibly at the height of the cycle, he doesn’t see smaller lots having a dramatic effect on prices.
“I don’t think we’re going to ever put enough supply in this market to see a significant reduction in prices,” said Ransford.
Brent Toderian, planning director for the City of Vancouver, said affordability is a big issue.
Toderian said smaller lots could work in the suburbs, where there are mostly single-family homes.
“We’re looking at smaller lot sizes, but that’s the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “If you subdivide a 60-foot lot into two 30-foot lots, neither of those is necessarily going to be affordable for a young person.”
Toderian suggested residents and planners “think about coach houses or units in garages as a rentable opportunity, plus a mortgage-helper for the main home.”
Peter Simpson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association, said townhouses and condos now account for 80 per cent of new construction in Metro Vancouver.
“We’re out there looking at the available land and trying to design and build housing that uses that land more efficiently,” Simpson said.
© The Vancouver Province 2008
