A cyclist rides through the West Point Grey neighbourhood of Vancouver on Oct. 29, 2015.Ben Nelms
The neighbourhood of West Point Grey in Vancouver, near English Bay and full of multimillion-dollar detached homes, has seen little change for decades, save for ever-higher real estate prices. In 1996, the neighbourhood’s population was 12,885. A quarter century later, in 2021, it was ... 12,886.
That no-growth history will soon end. A section of West Point Grey is set to be remade, as development of the Jericho Lands moves forward. It is 90 acres, some of it former government land. Today, it is owned by a coalition of First Nations, the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh. Canada Lands, a Crown corporation, is partner in a portion of the land.
Earlier this month, the group issued a revised development proposal – 13,000 homes in mid- and high-rise buildings. The tallest towers would be close to 50 storeys, adjacent to a future subway station. The site would more than double West Point Grey’s population by mid-century.
The extent of the transformation on the Jericho Lands may seem jarring to some but it is the sort of scale that can start shifting the equation on Canada’s housing deficit. Over years, the country has dug its housing market into a hole. Strong demand and not enough supply sent prices to buy and rent into the stratosphere.
Climbing out of the housing hole will take years. There are many challenges, including the cost of land and the cost to build. Affordability of decades past won’t suddenly be restored.
That’s why the quantity of new housing has to be the focus. It needs to come in a variety of forms – under the general label of density. The development of dozens of buildings on the Jericho Lands, with the majority of around 10 storeys, is one part of the solution. There are other such blank canvases in cities across the country, often controlled by Canada Lands, such as Downsview in Toronto or Confederation Heights in Ottawa.
Such unusually dense developments are a necessary step but they are not sufficient to ease the housing crunch. There cannot just be a bunch of towers amid a sea of detached homes, which is the current state in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver.
On the Jericho Lands, the First Nations are working with the city to establish a framework to guide the long-term development of the site. The agreement would inform specific rezoning thereafter. City council is supposed to vote on the plan by the end of this year.
This sort of tailored approach makes sense for a rare block of prime land near the centre of the city. But given the scale of housing demand in Canada, city councils also have to step back from micromanaging the building of new homes.
The conservation has shifted over the past few years. Through the late 2010s, the problem of too few homes and escalating real estate prices wasn’t widely obvious. That’s changed, with prices now out of reach of many Canadians. The idea to allow four homes on a residential lot previously restricted to one has become more common. Toronto has made the shift; in Vancouver it is pending.
It’s an important change – but more needs to be done. Permitting small apartment buildings across rapidly growing cities must be the key next step. A flood of supply isn’t going to be built all at once but creating the conditions to allow it to happen should be put in place.
While there are questions about upping the rate of construction – there are calls to double the number of homes built each year – the housing market has remained resilient, even as interest rates climbed. Housing starts in 2022 fell only 3.4 per cent from 2021 and remain well higher than the late 2010s. In previous slowdowns, in the late 2000s and early 1990s, declines in housing starts were far sharper.
There are many more issues in housing. They include the fees governments charge on new developments; the rules for multiple units on one lot have to be flexible; the value in driving the rental vacancy rate toward 3 per cent, where the market is in balance for people looking to rent.
Neighbourhoods like West Point Grey in Vancouver cannot any longer see their populations unchanged over decades. The problem of housing in Canada is acute. The scale of the response has to match the size of the challenge. The type of future sketched out at the Jericho Lands is part of the answer that cities have to embrace.