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Originally Posted by goldenboi
Development shouldn't stop if prices lower. You don't need to sell million dollar condos to make money. Many other cities with lower land values still have lots of development. Unless building costs are astronomically higher in Vancouver (which I believe they are), in which case we should be having a discussion about how to lower building costs, rather than worrying about prices falling.
One of the most effective measures that we could take to alleviate the housing crisis would be to make it easier for small developers to build missing middle housing types. I cannot emphasize this enough. Eliminate parking minimums - San Francisco is doing it. Allow rowhouses in every neighbourhood - Minneapolis is doing it (well kind of). Get rid of the excessive restrictions that cripple architectural creativity and make it possible for only the largest developers to operate in Metro Van. Does anyone else feel like the real estate market is exhibiting some frightening oligopolistic characteristics?
Yikes
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Should we eliminate parking minimums? Is the car ownership (not just usage rate) actually low enough to justify that?
But yeah, we should allow rowhouses everywhere, which is more or less taking place in the outer suburbs, where older SFH are being upzoned into medium-density. The irony is that the outer suburbs, removing the land reserves and parks, are actually becoming more dense than the inner suburbs.
But honestly, it's largely something that's going to take time. People still want SFHs because they still have an Americanist mindset of everyone having a wide lawn, and people still use cars enough to make even dense developments require tons of parking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by misher
It’s a combination of construction costs, taxes, development fees, etc which left a slim margin of profit for developers when things were going good and haven’t decreased since things started going worse.
I’ve always found it pretty hillarious how the city with the housing crisis has the longest approval times and strictest building code.
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Mostly just the COV, not the rest of the reason. But the COV is big enough that the spillover is causing everyone else to pay with higher prices.
This is why I wish the COV could balkanize back into Point Grey and South Vancouver. Each section is as culturally distinct as Coquitlam is from Anmore and from the City of Langley. Why are the wealthy residents of Shaughnessy helping dictate the future of Downtown, or East Van?