Get used to condos or leave Metro Vancouver: UBC expert
Posted April 8, 2014 10:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – If you’ve been hoping to buy a single-detached family home, you may not be able to do it here in Metro Vancouver.
A House Price Survey from Royal LePage finds the push for high density is eating away at housing supply, and pushing prices up.
Tsur Somerville with the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate says he doesn’t see prices for detached homes going down anytime soon, since the inventory is shrinking to make way for more condos.
“It’s sort of two choices. One is live in something other than a single family house, and that’s a function of what else is available. Or, go live somewhere else.”
Somerville says the problem is the region doesn’t have enough room to build more detached housing unless we open up the Agricultural Land Reserve.
“We’re in a difficult situation. What we need to be more aggressive about is really allowing for more family-friendly options that aren’t single-family housing.”
The survey found the prices of detached homes increased nearly five per cent in the first quarter of 2014 compared to last year.
