Quote:
Originally Posted by DubberDom
Well, my parents live in that Claridge infill project in Vanier, and I can tell you that it is neither desirable nor quality of life for families. There are needles in the kids sand playpark, multiple thefts and prostitutes at night. If that's quality of life and an environment where I want to raise my kids I would be plain nuts!
What you fail to understand is by restricting the SUPPLY OF LAND YOU ARE INCREASING THE VALUE OF THE LAND. I'm a homeowner with a relatively low mortgage/equity ratio, so I'm profiting as are other long-time homeowners in this city, but your policies are going to lead us over the affordability cliff.
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We had a 23 year supply of land as it stood 2 years ago. With most of it held by a few companies, who are unwilling to resell the land (which they bought years ago at a lower rate per acre, say 25k than what they could sell it for now) to smaller developers who are ready to build now, it would appear to me that the restriction is being self imposed by these developers to increase price they can ask for a new home.
Also, it's not just the supply of land that is the issue, it's also what the market can bear. We live in a city with the second highest average family income (behind Calgary), so people on average have more money to throw at a home.
Finally, I love how you picked out one of the >$500k homes in Vanier and used it as an example of the price of an average townhome there.
Here's a list of 3 bedroom homes available for under $275k inside the Greenbelt. Can you find some clunkers in the list? I'm sure you can. But my point is that the house you gave as an example is by no means an example of the cost of a home in the city.
In my opinion, we need to start working now on breaking down the Greenbelt, so that in 5-10 years, when the supply of vacant land decreases, we (or the NCC I guess) can start selling off that land to developers. Prime land, much easier to get services to as well.