Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext
It should be clear to all three levels of government that they allowed real estate prices to escalate to such a point that it has become impossible for the private to build truly affordable market rentals in Vancouver. Since they sat on their hands during the build up to the crisis all three should cough up land to build such rentals on. And I'm not talking social housing. There needs to be affordable rental that working people who make an economic contribution to the city can afford.
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I'm not sure what the City of Vancouver, (or Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby etc.) could have done to prevent the run up of prices. That's mostly down to low interest rates for lending. If there were municipalities that had closed down development (as San Francisco did for many years) that could have contributed to higher prices. I don't think that happened here though - although there are certainly municipalities slamming the brakes on since the last round of local elections. Whether prices will rise, or not fall as much as a result in White Rock remains to be seen...
What land do you have in mind, sitting underdeveloped and waiting for large-scale construction, owned by any level of government? The Feds have released Jericho and the RCMP site in the City of Vancouver. I'm not familiar with suburban municipalities enough to know if there are federal or provincial sites sitting with development potential - but I'd be surprised. To allow new non-market projects in Vancouver the city have been buying sites on the open market - which is far from cheap.