3079 replies to this topic

[Ismo07]

We don't live in a "dream home" just a small modest bungalow that still has a 1970s kitchen. But for people whose main hobbies are gardening, or tinkering with stuff, car repair, motor bikes, woodworking, etc., it's all pretty difficult to do in a condo or townhouse even. So are our hobbies now to be vilified as well? My husband has an awful lot of woodworking tools and made a lot of our furniture. Guess we are evil. 

 

I think all of my British relatives also live in houses, some of them a lot larger and better kitted out than ours! 

 

This made me think about getting a bungalow, so I could tinker and work on stuff again...  Those were good hobbies and times...

 

I'm having a nightmare of a time finding a condo that's got enough space to simply store my hobby tools and materials, let alone anywhere to use them.  

 

I think the condo lifestyle is more appealing to the sort of folks who enjoy every night out on the town and just need a place to hang their hat at the end of the day and 'Netflix and chill' on the weekends (just not in a wood framed condo, that's really not what the neighbors need to hear...)

 

This made me want to stay in my condo... LOL

[Mike K.]

One thing is for sure, you're going to spending a lot more money every month maintaining your house and property, than you would a condo. I have to redo a driveway soon, complete with retaining walls and stairs. I'm afraid to even get the quote.

[Bob Fugger]

One thing is for sure, you're going to spending a lot more money every month maintaining your house and property, than you would a condo. I have to redo a driveway soon, complete with retaining walls and stairs. I'm afraid to even get the quote.

 

I've got a guy for you.  Exquisite work and very fair.

[Mike K.]

Excellent, please shoot me the deets.

[sebberry]

One thing is for sure, you're going to spending a lot more money every month maintaining your house and property, than you would a condo. I have to redo a driveway soon, complete with retaining walls and stairs. I'm afraid to even get the quote.

 

Sure there is, but with a house much of it can be done by the homeowner to save some money.  In a condo, you're at the mercy of others who insist on ignoring multiple professional opinions, wasting money on the eventual lawsuit and still not doing anything because nobody is available to do the work while watching your property value tank, everything else skyrocket and you start wishing an asteroid would finish the whole lot off so you can claim the insurance payout.

[On the Level]

I have a "white collar job"....but I am not "white collar" in life.

 

I have a friend that can't paint, check to see what's wrong with an appliance, clean a gutter.  I don't understand this.  If there ever was some sort of natural disaster, how would that family cope?  Same with families in the ant colony of a large condo.

 

Some of the most rewarding time with my kids is working on "stuff".  Changing a bike tire, replacing rotors/pads and flushing brake fluid in the car, redoing the deck, putting in a new garden, making a wooden bowl on the lathe.  What sort of hands on education/bonding does a condo have to offer a family?  Bickering with Strata?  No thanks.

[LJ]

 

 

Some of the most rewarding time with my kids is working on "stuff".  Changing a bike tire, replacing rotors/pads and flushing brake fluid in the car, redoing the deck, putting in a new garden, making a wooden bowl on the lathe.  What sort of hands on education/bonding does a condo have to offer a family?  Bickering with Strata?  No thanks.

This is so true but it depends on the kids. I had one that wanted to build, take apart, fix anything and everything. The other one just wanted to use the repaired item. When I made the second one do the oil changes on his motorcycle and change out a light switch it was like pulling teeth. He lives in a condo and "calls the man" when stuff needs fixing.

[Mike K.]

What’s the fixer upper kid up to now?

[LJ]

He's an electrician.

[Awaiting Juno]

As those here know, I'm seriously considering running in the October 2022 election. As such, I've started a new blog and I'd like to invite people to follow me on twitter (@AwaitingJuno). 

[A Girl is No one]

As those here know, I'm seriously considering running in the October 2022 election. As such, I've started a new blog and I'd like to invite people to follow me on twitter (@AwaitingJuno).

Is there a way to sign up? Or just have to check regularly?

Edited by A Girl is No one, 02 October 2021 - 03:37 PM.

[Midnightly]

As those here know, I'm seriously considering running in the October 2022 election. As such, I've started a new blog and I'd like to invite people to follow me on twitter (@AwaitingJuno). 

you already have my vote... and hubby will vote for whoever i tell him to vote for lol (i follow news more then he does)

[todd]

As those here know, I'm seriously considering running in the October 2022 election.

Why would anyone want to do that in this day and age?

Edited by todd, 03 October 2021 - 04:14 PM.

[Barrrister]

Juno, Happy to write you a cheque if you are serious.

[Sparky]

The candidates that should be successful in this election are the ones that include a program of road repairs in their election platform.

 

The streets of this city are in deplorable condition. Most of the problems are with the numerous "patching" that has been performed over the years and the levels of "manhole covers" that are usually set lower than the road surface. 

 

Painful. 

[Awaiting Juno]

New blog post entitled, Housing and the City: Part 1 The Downtown Core . Note - I am very seriously considering it, why? Because unless more people who love their city and have the skills and abilities to help move its governance to a more functional reality step up, we'll get more of the same. I want to see a collegial and professional team who are working to serve the best interests of the city and all of its residents, and I feel like I could be a part of that. 

[A Girl is No one]

New blog post entitled, Housing and the City: Part 1 The Downtown Core . Note - I am very seriously considering it, why? Because unless more people who love their city and have the skills and abilities to help move its governance to a more functional reality step up, we'll get more of the same. I want to see a collegial and professional team who are working to serve the best interests of the city and all of its residents, and I feel like I could be a part of that.

I will gladly support you based on this.

[Mike K.]

What isn't so great is the degree to which the larger downtown core with small units have been used more for investment rather than as housing. The degree to which those units are held as occasional homes, empty a good portion of the year. The degree to which affordable homes have been replaced by gleaming towers, entirely out of reach of their former occupants, while adequate affordable replacement homes have failed to materialize.

Hmmm, I don’t think any of the above is actually the case. The empty vacation home and the investment-not-homes theories are more urban myth than reality in Victoria, which has one of the lowest non-permanent/highest primary residence rates in Canada.

And we have to remember that investment is still housing. An investor wants their investment lived in, otherwise I’m not sure it’s considered an investment. We are also building (and have been for several years running) the highest volume of government-backed affordable housing units in the City’s history.

The degree to which those units are really hotel rooms, rather than homes - being run as businesses without much of the usual expenses that come from running a business - and potentially at the expense of the businesses (mostly hotels) running as businesses. As an example, residential taxes tend to be a fraction of the taxes paid by those who are running businesses. The provincial speculation tax was intended to address this issue, although many would argue that it has done far less to ameliorate the issue than was hoped.

The City put a stop to new AirBnB-eligible inventory three years ago. The units that are eligible must be licensed now. There is also the argument that a loss of well over a 1,000-units of hotel room inventory even before the province began buying up hotels had an impact on the lodging industry, and AirBnB picked up where the industry was lagging. Consider that the Queen Victoria, Harbour Towers and Dominion hotels were converted into apartments in recent years, and many more motel properties shut down or were redeveloped (the motels on Hillside and Belleville come to mind). Now many hundreds of rooms are also gone from our hotel inventory as of 2020 (Paul’s Motor Inn, Comfort Inn, City Centre Hotel, and so on).

[Awaiting Juno]

Under the current conditions I could understand a person who has "a place in Victoria" who does not rent it out when it is not personally occupied. Current tenancy laws make doing so cumbersome at best and a nightmare in the making at worse. And the truth is, we have really lousy data on this. We do not have good data on how many people rent out a portion of their home (ie - to a room mate). We do not have good data the availability of secondary suites that are not being rented out at all, for a variety of reasons.

 

I'm also a little concerned about how out of whack type of tenure is in Victoria and think it merits some further exploration. I feel as though a substantial chunk of the renters we have (more than half of Victorians fall in this category), are former home owners who rather than take out a second mortgage have chosen to rent. As a result, the costs to income measure might not be an accurate depiction of the level of economic stress for many households. It might be good to try to push the share of home owners up - for a variety of reasons. 

[Mike K.]

Under the current conditions I could understand a person who has "a place in Victoria" who does not rent it out when it is not personally occupied. Current tenancy laws make doing so cumbersome at best and a nightmare in the making at worse. And the truth is, we have really lousy data on this. We do not have good data on how many people rent out a portion of their home (ie - to a room mate). We do not have good data the availability of secondary suites that are not being rented out at all, for a variety of reasons.

 

We actually have pretty good data on this. Statistics Canada tracks how many domiciles there are, how many are rented, how many are owned, how many are lived in full time, and how many are secondary homes, etc. The 2021 census will give us a good update on what's what.

 

Regarding suites, we don't typically track their volume because most are illegal, so they are not reported as domiciles for the purposes of statistics. We also don't track how many people are renting a room specifically, but StatsCan does attempt to track data like multi-family households, and persons per household.

 

There is a lot of housing data from Statistics Canada that you can check out here, specific to the City of Victoria: https://www12.statca...ta=Count&B1=All

 

We also have additional data specific to the region, via Stats Can.