3507 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

[Mike K.]

We look to troubled Europe for too many ideas, and think they apply uniformly here.

[Victoria Watcher]

When it meets today, council’s committee of the whole will look at creating a revitalization tax exemption to spur more affordable units in new market-priced rental projects, and encourage investment in non-market rental housing.

The city will weigh cutting in half the development cost charges for non-market rental housing and altering its rules around the amount of money it can grant through the city’s housing reserve fund.

A staff report said current incentives encouraged construction of a “significant” amount of rental housing over the past six years, but rising construction costs and interest rates are making it more challenging to deliver new rental projects, especially those with lower-priced units.

https://www.timescol...e-built-7672154

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 October 2023 - 05:05 AM.

[Mike K.]

It was driven by the low interest rates and the returns lenders received on rental versus other forms of investments. It’s what led to the rental housing boom that started in the early 2010s.

[Citified.ca]

Here's how many affordable and supportive rental homes completed in 2023 in Greater Victoria

https://victoria.cit...eater-victoria/

[Victoria Watcher]

Comment: The moral of the street lamp and the lost dime

 

The most likely scenario is that the newly built housing will be occupied by the same groups who can afford housing now.

https://www.timescol...st-dime-8205264

[Nparker]

That article tells me nothing and offers no solutions to the issue of housing affordability. I'm unsure what message the author was trying to convey, but he failed in making it.

[Victoria Watcher]

https://twitter.com/...5192695/photo/1

 

[Ismo07]

^ That's funny...

[Victoria Watcher]

It is!

 

I also tested myself on figuring our some of the areas, especially the ones marked "public", took me some time.  I think some sort of overlap with "park".

[Victoria Watcher]

B.C. eyes community, non-profit, underused lands to build affordable rental units

 

The BC Builds program will target land owned by governments, community and non-profits and provide low-cost financing to fast-track rental property developments on underutilized lands in communities across B.C.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...l-units-8301237

 

 

British Columbia is launching a public housing plan to build more affordable rental units for middle-income earners who often struggle financially to live in the same communities where they work, Premier David Eby said Tuesday.

 

The New Democrat government's almost $3 billion BC Builds program will target property owned by governments, communities and non-profits, and provide low-cost financing to fast-track affordable rental developments on underutilized lands across B.C., he said.

 

Eby said the private market hasn't been able to ease B.C.'s ongoing housing crisis, resulting in the government making affordable housing one of its top priorities.

"We know that the middle class is struggling in our province," he said at a news conference. "The people who make our province go are struggling to find a decent place to live."

 

Teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers, civic employees and construction workers have difficulties finding affordable places to live, said Eby.

 

In North Vancouver, where the premier made the BC Builds announcement, he said rents are as high as $5,000 a month for a three-bedroom apartment.

 

"We know that the private sector has not been able to deliver the middle-income housing that we need," he said. "We are attacking the housing issue head on."

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 February 2024 - 04:12 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Casey Edge, executive director of the Victoria Residential Builders Association, pushed back on the idea that “the B.C. government is going to build homes for the middle class.”

 

Spending taxpayers’ dollars wouldn’t be needed if government had not obstructed market housing development in the past, he said.

 

Edge said municipalities have been allowed to block housing proposals from moving forward for years, noting that while Langford has been welcoming large developments, other municipalities have discouraged them.

 

Factors choking housing supply include local governments allowing 100 per cent increases in development cost charges as well as other fees, taxes and regulations imposed on the development community, he said.

 

“B.C. Builds is another government solution to fix a problem created by government,” said Edge.

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...program-8303775

[Mike K.]

Eby said the private market hasn't been able to ease B.C.'s ongoing housing crisis, resulting in the government making affordable housing one of its top priorities.
"We know that the middle class is struggling in our province," he said at a news conference. "The people who make our province go are struggling to find a decent place to live."

More division.

The private market is the biggest provider of affordable housing in BC.

[Victoria Watcher]

Rent hits another record high in January as average asking price reaches $2,196



https://www.cbc.ca/n...sking-1.7114976

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 February 2024 - 01:14 PM.

[dasmo]

It’s the law of supply and supply folks. Trust the experts. They got this….

[Tony]

While Vancouver is still the most expensive city for renters in Canada, rents in Vancouver fell by three per cent in January compared to last year.

[LJ]

Maybe the NDP will get this company to come in and build car free, cheaper accommodation...

 

https://culdesac.com/

[Victoria Watcher]

The Songhees Nation is building its first new housing in nearly two decades with the help of nearly $24 million in government funding.

 

When complete, the four-storey, 66-unit rental building on 1502 Admirals Rd. will be the Songhees Nation’s first member housing project since 2005.

 

Three levels of government were at the construction site on Friday to announce the $24-million contribution to the below-market rental project on Songhees reserve land.

 

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, who was in Victoria for two housing-related announcements on behalf of Housing Minister Sean Fraser, said housing is top of mind for everyone. “It doesn’t matter if your office is right here or it’s down at the legislature, or it’s back in Ottawa — housing is the job right now.”

 

Against the backdrop of the building’s nearly complete wooden frame, Songhees Elder Frank George thanked those present in both English and Lekwungen for their efforts.

 

“This building is very important to our Lekwungen people,” he said. “Thank you for your na’tsa’maht mind, unity, and all this work.”

 

The 66 below-market units will prioritize Songhees members as occupants. Expected to be complete in 2025, the building will have 30 studio units sized at 413 square feet, with 24 one-bedroom units and 12 two-bedroom units ranging from 500 to 753 square feet.

 

Half the units will be rented at 30 per cent of the occupant’s income, while 30 per cent will rent at 10 to 20 per cent below market rates at time of occupancy. The remaining 20 per cent will rent at the shelter rate for those on income assistance, currently $500 a month.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...0-years-8321982

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 16 February 2024 - 07:50 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Premier David Eby says it’s “hard to understand” why other politicians still believe in relying on the private sector to deliver affordable housing, and says it’s time for governments to step up.

 

Now, after two generations of destructive, unworkable housing policy choices that have been made by all levels of government, Eby finds that the private sector cannot do that which it is most noted for doing.

 

Before 1972, there was such an abundance of new, affordable rental housing being built that its production was a worry to people who feared their neighbourhoods were being destroyed.

 

A vacancy rate of five per cent was considered normal and balanced. Former Victoria mayor Peter Pollen was credited with stopping the “westend-ization” of James Bay by championing height controls on apartment buildings so that, today, we have just a few buildings over four (technically three) storeys in that neighbourhood. A hero for stopping production of rental housing!

 

The abundance of supply came to a crashing halt in 1972 due to the counter-productive, destructive changes to the income tax rules that made rental housing investment unprofitable.

 

 

https://www.timescol...the-way-8328542

 

 

 

So it’s not that I can’t build rental housing, it’s just that Eby is in the way.

 

Step back and let the private sector function as it should. We will build the housing. And we’ll do it more affordably and manage it better than you will.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 February 2024 - 03:16 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The federal government has committed $2 billion to help finance B.C. Builds, a new program aimed at constructing thousands of rental homes built on under-used public land, which would then be provided to middle-income earners living in those communities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the funds at a news conference alongside B.C. Premier David Eby and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim in Vancouver on Tuesday morning.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ement-1.7120001

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 February 2024 - 11:32 AM.