Housing in Winnipeg
 

Housing is big urban issue, of course, so I thought a thread dedicated to housing in Winnipeg would be appropriate. Rent controls, rental-to-condo conversions, urban sprawl, multi-family housing, etc. etc - it's a diverse topic, with lots of interesting debate. Here's an article from the Free Press on the topic:

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Housing in crisisCity’s blowing a chance for growth
By: Bartley Kives

Posted: 06/12/2011 9:55 AM | Comments: 30
Print E–mail 28 15Share43Report Error At the risk of throwing a soggy blanket over the current optimism in Winnipeg, this city is about to blow the biggest opportunity to come around in decades.

No, I’m not talking about National Hockey League tickets. That tiny window opened and closed in 13 minutes two Saturdays ago.

I’m talking about growth — the tangible variety that involves more human beings inhabiting this town, not the loosier-goosier concept of economic growth.

For the better part of the past 50 years, Winnipeg has been rightly regarded as a slow-growth city due to annual population increases of barely one per cent.

According to Statistics Canada, our growth this year is a modest 1.3 per cent, as about 9,000 more people were added to a population that stood at 684,100 almost a year ago.

The city’s population is now estimated to be 693,200. The broader Winnipeg metropolitan area — the city and surrounding bedroom communities where more than half the workforce commutes to Winnipeg — now stands at 764,200, up from 753,600 a year ago, according to StatsCan.

You would think a medium-sized metropolitan area that’s been growing slowly for decades for would be able to sustain the slow-but-steady pace.

But a bizarre thing happened over the past decade: Winnipeg’s snail-like population growth outpaced the supply of housing to the point where residential property values doubled and the apartment vacancy rate plummeted to ridiculous lows.

Between 2003 and 2010, the taxable portion of Winnipeg properties jumped from $15.1 billion to $30.8 billion. On one hand, this is great news for people who own property as well as the real-estate industry, the property-development sector and all the tradespeople and retailers that benefit from a property boom.

But the rapid increase in property values has a corollary in residential-apartment vacancy rates, which first sank below two per cent in 2000 and have now receded to 0.7 per cent.

It’s been said many times, but this amounts to a housing crisis. Many people moving to Winnipeg cannot find a place to live and many people of modest means who already live here can’t afford to remain, if they have to move, for any reason.

Part of the problem is a shortage of apartment buildings. Developers are more willing to build condominiums than apartments, mainly because condos amount to quicker profits. As well, many developers resent the rent controls in place across the province, even though property-management companies routinely exceed those controls by making legitimate improvements to their buildings.

But another major factor in the residential-housing crisis is condo conversions, which are driven by the high housing prices and provide a fantastic opportunity to make a quick buck. The conversion of apartments to condos has exacerbated the housing crisis, but Manitoba’s laissez-faire regulatory regime actually encourages them.

In most other provinces, apartment-building owners who want to convert their suites into condos must first determine what sort of infrastructure improvements must be made to their buildings, such as roof or furnace repairs. They must then create a kitty for those improvements which will then be used by future condo-buyers to pay for the upgrades.

This kitty both protects condo buyers and slows down the pace of conversions, as there is no enticement to make a quick buck. And that in turn displaces fewer apartment dwellers.

In Manitoba, the condo converters essentially do what they want. Cognizant of the problem, Winnipeg’s city council is formally urging the province to insist that condo converters place seed money in building-maintenance funds. But the provincial NDP isn't going that far.

In May, the Selinger government promised to slow the pace of condo conversions by announcing it will soon force property owners to provide more notice to apartment residents. The province also plans to place a four-year moratorium on conversions of buildings where owners have received rent-control exemptions because they fixed up entire properties.

In the meantime, Winnipeg is left with the worst of both worlds: a low vacancy rate that makes already desperate disadvantaged people even more desperate and a rent-control system that only annoys the very same property developers the city and province need to build more apartment units.

Ottawa, which hasn’t cared about housing in decades, needs to create some form of tax incentive for apartment developers. City council, which is fond of telling anyone who will listen that it should not be responsible for housing, needs to realize the low vacancy rate is not just fuelling Winnipeg’s homelessness problem, but contributing to crime. A city cannot be healthy with a large underclass of people with no acceptable place to live.

The province has even more work to do. It needs to go further on condo conversions, possibly rethink the thorny question of rent control and start thinking about housing in a broader context.

At the risk of upsetting the provincial housing orthodoxy, its current policy preoccupation with creating low-income housing quite ironically harms low-income people, because when middle-class and wealthy people have no place to live, they simply move into whatever’s available. And that means displacing low-income people.

Ergo, Winnipeg needs to stimulate the creation of all kinds of housing: homes, condos, apartments and subsidized spaces, ideally all in the same neighbourhoods, in every section of the city. I don’t believe in urban utopias, but the healthiest neighbourhoods have a mix of people, not monocultures.

The policy geeks know this. The politicians understand this. Even the developers have been raising red flags about the Winnipeg housing crisis for years.

Unfortunately, housing isn’t anywhere near as sexy as NHL hockey. But I can tell you what’s not sexy: a slow-growth city too sluggish and short-sighted to accommodate what any observer would consider very modest population growth.

On one hand, there is an upside: the lack of housing may keep certain undesireables out.

Let's face it: we have more than our fair share of low-income people, and if we need to displace many, so be it. Edmonton has lots of affordable housing; they can go there.

Winnipeg has a vast inventory of derelict homes that are ripe for replacement with multi-family developments, and of course, the vast surface lots downtown.

:previous:


At the risk of being politically incorrect, I agree with the above post!

Agreed 100%. Displacement due to higher housing costs would be a great thing for Winnipeg.

It is one thing to have affordable housing. It is another to have a city filled with derelict housing where the rents are cheap.

I assume y'all are working with the assumption that the displaced people will move elsewhere and not take up residence on Winnipeg park benches? Or is either outcome beneficial?

On the other hand though, the undesireables may choose to stay and simply congregate into unfavourable conditions. Under which, even the more rational thinking of them may find themselves travelling a path they might not have otherwise.

It is a double edged sword.

If we want to continue receiving 10,000 immigrants a year (or more) though, something is going to have to be done about the shortage of affordable housing (particularly rentals). Most young people/young families migrating here from abroad can't necessarily buy into the hot housing market right off the bat - it takes a few years. We need to ensure that there are affordable rentals for these families (not to mention students and young professionals), if we want these groups to set roots in Winnipeg. I'd argue that these 3 groups are very important for Winnipeg's continued growth/prosperity...

Well, the province is the first to recognize the importance of immigration, which is why it will continue to fund new housing developments for them. With most immigrants, they need rental accommodation for a short period before they move into purchasing; this order of behavior is what will keep our housing market, and economy very healthy. This same idea must be encouraged with social housing for non-immigrants. Social housing should never be a permanent idea, but rather a temporary solution. So many people just don't give a damn about progressing. Stop having kids if you cannot afford to support them, and attempt to get training to better your chances of getting a bigger paycheque.

First of all, you guys are twisted.

Secondly, that's not how it works.

drove by the new apartment building being built on westwood. should start shooting out of the ground any week now!

http://districtcondos.ca/ just updated their website with more information including floor plans.

Interesting that some of the units have no wardrobe closets (aside from a front coat closet) and that many of the other units have the closets shown as optional.

I would think that it would be necessary if you have a job that requires you to dress in business casual or higher.

http://www.dennistoun.ca/

Not too sure what to make of this but marketing for the Dennistoun Condominiums has been suspended at this time.

Is there a chance this project will be cancelled?

bet there making it larger

I doubt it. If sales were going well the building would already be under construction.

I suspect they will make the building cheaper by making it uglier in hopes to get more sales.

I e-mailed Sunstone about this, and here is the response:

"Thank you for your inquiry. Unfortunately we have been unable to achieve the necessary pre-sales to proceed with the project, therefore we have suspended all sales and marketing at this time. We may consider a re-launch of the project at some time in the future should market conditions change..."

A bit dissappointing news but I'm not surprised. The units there were priced quite high compared to some of the other projects around downtown.

That's really unfortunate, considering the hoops Sunstone had to jump through to get the thing to proceed...

New streetside condo project for the royalwood area.

http://www.streetside.ca/view-condo-...m?projectID=29


Also Fort Rouge yards has recently updated their site with come recent developments and a brief timeline. I was a bit worreid about this project as there hasn't been any updates in a year. They're looking to start contruction of housing summer 2012.

http://fortrougeyards.com/2011/11/14...-2011-updates/

So the first development of this TOD will happen on the section of land farthest away from the BRT station. Wow. :rolleyes: