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Developers put their efforts into most urban, most transit-oriented, most expensive ‘hoods

May 13th, 2016 · 5 Comments

No wonder Vancouver is always in an uproar about some development or another. There’s just so much of it in the city, as I was made aware when someone pointed me to the statistics on housing starts in the region.

Vancouver, in spite of being an almost built-out city and with very little greenfield (never built on) land available, has the most residential construction going on of any municipality, and by a long shot. So far this year, 3,500 units under construction in the city, compared to 1,400 in Burnaby, 900 in Surrey.

That’s because development is Vancouver is so much more certain — for sure, everything will get sold and, for sure, it will be for a good price. Which is what is making the city eternally attractive.

My story in the Globe on all this here. The CMHC report here. And an invaluable source for all things housing, the Metro Vancouver Housing Data Book, here.

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  • boohoo

    I wonder what the numbers are in terms of density or land gobbled up?

  • Kirk

    Surrey is the fastest growing municipality in the region. And, it will overtake Vancouver in a few years. Yet, no one wants to buy/live there?!?

  • francesbula

    They do, but not in the high-rises that add units in the hundreds. They will live in houses and townhouses. And Surrey’s population is growing because there are three, four, five people in every housing unit that gets built (or more), unlike Vancouver, where there are one or two or occasionally none per unit. But it won’t be overtaking Vancouver in a few years, not if the current trend lines prevail.

  • francesbula

    I don’t know of anyone that’s done that study, though I have reported on a national one that showed that, for every 1,000 residents taken in by various cities, Calgary uses twice as much new land as Vancouver. Surrey is demolishing some houses (about 500 a year), so not everything there is on greenfield, but much is — more than Vancouver, for sure.

  • Kirk

    So, the next question is (seriously), are people squeezing into Vancouver/Burnaby/Coquitlam because they really want to live in high-rises? Or, is it that they just don’t want to move to Surrey? Is it families doing all this buying? Or, singles?