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Originally Posted by someone123
The housing market in Halifax is very different from China. Prices haven't been increasing much (partly no doubt because there is so much supply available) and I doubt there are a lot of speculative buyers (if there are they aren't profiting much). A lot of the new residential development is rental right now. Most of the buildings are mixed use and some of them are more commercial rather than residential. I would say there is a higher risk of overbuilding in the office market than the residential market.
Planners can determine what types of land uses are permitted in a given area but it is the developers who create the actual proposals and determine which types of uses to focus on based on what they think will sell. Generally speaking in Halifax you can build businesses or residential just about wherever you want; the uses are determined by the market.
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Insightful post. With the large supply in housing it just seems odd to me that a majority of new developments are more housing. Would it be correct to say that a majority of those moving into these new condominium developments are those already living in Halifax?
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Originally Posted by Drybrain
I disagree that downtown "sucks," though it's definitely experiencing major growing pains. I'd also disagree that there's nothing to do. The quantity of downtown bars, restaurants, cultural institutions, and other amenities is second to none for a 400,000-person city (and many much larger ones) in Canada. Downtown Halifax in 2020 vs 2010 might be similar to Queen West in 2010 vs 2000 ("elegant" certainly wouldn't have been the word to come to mind in the latter case).
Finally, the trend back toward urban living took a few years longer to get to Halifax, but we're making up for it very rapidly, hence a lot of the intense construction activity in the city centre. I am starting to wonder when we're going to see a drop-off in developments and approvals though. Population growth is strong, and growth in the centre of the city is stronger still, but I nonetheless feel like it's getting pretty obvious that new construction is going to over-shoot demand.
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I apologize for the "downtown sucks" line - I should've worded it better. I meant to say that the downtown as it currently stands is a far cry from what it could be. Outside of the Spring Garden strip south of South Park, and the harbourfront during the summer, I haven't noticed any other areas that are ripe with foot traffic. The area surrounding pizza corner perhaps, with bars and restaurants?
It seems like downtown has pockets that are highly trafficked, but these pockets are segmented so the area as a whole doesn't seem fluid. Hopefully that makes sense.
Your point about urban living was insightful, and helps to answer my question posed to someone123. If the new condominium develops are for current Haligonians moving into the downtown core (as opposed to outsiders moving into the city), it would make more sense as to why there are so many of these being developed in the first place.