Thanks for sharing! I’m curious, where does 50% permanent nonmarket housing exist (‘50% has been successfully mandated in a few American communities’)?
I can’t imagine how that would pencil out without free land or $0 development fees from all levels of government. If the point is to slow development until land prices reduce substantially, then we are just majorly increasing the housing crisis for at least another decade.
In the case of strata housing, I would definitely not agree with only applying to the initial sale price. The first buyer would flip for a substantial lift when allowed to. I’ve recommended selling at, say, 30% below market, and when the unit is resold, it is listed at 30% of the market price at that future time, or selling at market price with 30% of the sold value going back to the builder (i.e., BC Housing). Thanks.
The Elephant in the room is transit and transportation. The notion that the Broadway subway will deal with all transportation issues is ludicrous. Subways tend not to attract ridership and are built on routes with traffic flows exceeding 15,000 pphpd, due to the massive costs. The 5.7 km Broadway subway is now estimated to cost $4 billion or put another way over $700 million/km.
By comparison, a European style tramway (not North American LRT, which has now become light-metro) can be built for $35 million to $45 million/km, including vehicles and maintenance/stabling facilities. Thus for one km of SkyTrain subway one can build 20km to 15 km of modern tramway, with a bonus of having at least twice the capacity of the Broadway subway, which capacity has been limited to 7,500 pphpd.
This is the blinkered planning that is destroying metro Vancouver.
Thanks for sharing! I’m curious, where does 50% permanent nonmarket housing exist (‘50% has been successfully mandated in a few American communities’)?
I can’t imagine how that would pencil out without free land or $0 development fees from all levels of government. If the point is to slow development until land prices reduce substantially, then we are just majorly increasing the housing crisis for at least another decade.
In the case of strata housing, I would definitely not agree with only applying to the initial sale price. The first buyer would flip for a substantial lift when allowed to. I’ve recommended selling at, say, 30% below market, and when the unit is resold, it is listed at 30% of the market price at that future time, or selling at market price with 30% of the sold value going back to the builder (i.e., BC Housing). Thanks.
The Elephant in the room is transit and transportation. The notion that the Broadway subway will deal with all transportation issues is ludicrous. Subways tend not to attract ridership and are built on routes with traffic flows exceeding 15,000 pphpd, due to the massive costs. The 5.7 km Broadway subway is now estimated to cost $4 billion or put another way over $700 million/km.
By comparison, a European style tramway (not North American LRT, which has now become light-metro) can be built for $35 million to $45 million/km, including vehicles and maintenance/stabling facilities. Thus for one km of SkyTrain subway one can build 20km to 15 km of modern tramway, with a bonus of having at least twice the capacity of the Broadway subway, which capacity has been limited to 7,500 pphpd.
This is the blinkered planning that is destroying metro Vancouver.
Excellent post, and thanks for sharing your analysis.
and thanks for reading!