Local developer says look to city hall to lay blame for housing market

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – You’ve heard a lot about the red-hot real estate market in Metro Vancouver with pundits and academics pinning the blame on a host of different things from foreign buyers to unscrupulous realtors.

But what about the people who actually build homes and condos? A local developer says that’s where some of the problems lie and Michael Geller has his sights set on Vancouver City Hall specifically.

He says it comes down to a supply issue and there simply aren’t enough homes being built to keep prices down.

Geller feels prices would drop if developers could build more homes and condos projects but it take three years to get approval.

“Every project becomes a rezoning. There then has to be the negotiation of the community amenity contribution and in order to do that, in most parts of the city, we play a game called, ‘Let’s make a deal.'”

He adds that’s because there are no hard and fast rules on how much a developer has to pay.

As for solutions, he wonders how people would feel about living in an industrial area.

“Because today’s industry is very different than your father’s industry and many of these sites provide wonderful opportunities to add new residential development. And I’m even going to go as far to suggest we should look at, perhaps, adding housing to many of the rooftops.”

Geller is speaking on this subject at SFU’s Harbour Centre tonight.

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