[Halifax] Skye Halifax (1565 Granville) | 66 m | 2 x 21 fl | U/C

[Hali87]

I'm getting the impression that some people at UG just aren't great at their jobs. They botched the Motherhouse redevelopment, there have been ongoing problems with the Waterton and now the TS/Skye absurdities.

A recurring theme in the comments in the media (and also at Centre Plan meetings) is that many people (strongly) believe that high residential density leads to high land prices (look at Manhattan! look at Vancouver!)

I always assumed that the cause and effect were the opposite there - cities start to increase density when more people want to live in a given area, but can't because there are no available units that they can afford. Does anyone have an economics (or related) background? I'd be interested in learning more about this. I would guess that there's some kind of function where as residential density goes up, commercial viability also goes up, leading to better retail, more convenience, a more desirable location, and thus higher land values, which can then be mitigated by the addition of more units. I would also guess that Manhattan and Vancouver became unaffordable not simply because this happened, but because of the rate at which this happened, and the fact that neither city nor developers were making a conscious effort to keep units affordable. I certainly buy the argument that newer units are generally priced higher, but I have trouble understanding why increasing the number of available units