Families may have a lot to gain from Vancouver’s duplex decision

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If you live in or around Vancouver, you know how unaffordable it has become to rent or own a home. But the city’s legalization of duplexes in practically all single-family neighbourhoods might mean keeping more families together.

The move doesn’t mean all applicable homes will be torn down and be re-developed. But Jamela Van Steinburg with Harmony Homes in Kelowna says increasing your home’s density means parents can help their kids in their 20s or 30s who can’t get into the housing market.

“This is a way, as opposed to coming up with a large amount of cash to help these people out, they can re-develop their existing property and have a house for their kids or their family.”

Van Steinburg points to a case where a grandmother has owned her home for over 50 years. “She’s re-developing it and will be living on a main floor unit. Her children will be on the top-floor unit. So, she’s got accessibility and they all have their own living spaces but they’re able to look after each other within the one property.”

RELATED: Vancouver council approves legalization of duplexes in nearly all single-family neighbourhoods

She says about 40 per cent of her clients are current owners of properties.

“Tear down a house that is probably in need of repair or upgrading… and be able to build themselves a brand new property, giving them a brand new home to live in and a secondary home that they can either sell to pay off the cost of the build or turn into a rental revenue property.”

That could work in places like Vancouver, too.

Dan Garrison with the city explains this decision gives people the ability to decide how their floor area is distributed. “[It’s] one step towards making more room for families and other folks in those districts.”

“Having so much of the city’s land area locked up in essentially single-detached house zoning — that everyone knows are very expensive, generally over $2 million these days — was really restricting the ability to provide affordable housing to families and folks that earn an income here.”

Van Steinburg says Harmony Homes has been focusing on densification in Kelowna for the past decade. She’s seeing a lot of people looking to increase their homes’ density.

“We only have so much land to work with within the municipality… When you’re able to put more homes into one piece of property, you’re able to utilitze [and upgrade] existing systems and keep your density near your services… and create more walkable living within your city.”

“The more doors you can offer communities to put people in, the better you’ll be able to regulate your pricing,” she adds.

City council has approved the legalization of duplexes in 99 per cent of single family neighbourhoods. Garrison says the remaining one per cent are exempt due to a “technical zoning issue.”

“[It’s] around how floor area is calculated in those zoning districts,” says Garrison. “We will be looking at those areas in the next phase of work to see what other housing options could be allowed there. But… we weren’t able to include them in this broader change, just because of the technical changes that would have to be done to the zoning bylaw.”

Concerns of “renovictions” have been raised. Garrison admits this is a big concern. “It is something we’re looking at carefully.”

“In this case, we’re not looking at the scale of this change being something that’s going to incentifize a really significant increase in the amount of re-development that’s happening in the zoning districts.”

He says about 800 single-detached houses are re-developed in Vancouver every year.”

“We’ve kept the amount of increased floor area down — in fact, we haven’t provided any additional floor area, we’ve just provided an option for how that floor area in a new building in this zone is distributed. We aren’t expecting that to create a significant increase over the amount of re-development already happening. We’re just expecting it to provide additional options to provide some more affordable housing, when that re-development does happen.”