Tag: real-estate

Housing prices squeezing families, seniors and immigrants: study

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on Sept. 21, 2021

Port Moody has plenty of housing getting built or in the process of being approved to meet projected regional growth targets.

But the city needs more diversity of housing options to keep it affordable for families, single people, low income earners, immigrants and people with disabilities, says a study by community planning and development consultant, CitySpaces Consulting.

According to the study, which is to be presented to council Sept. 21, the gap between what households can afford to pay for housing in Port Moody and the housing that is available is growing.

Since 2013, the median sales prices of single-detached homes and townhouses have nearly doubled. Rents have also skyrocketed at a similar pace, and the vacancy rate for units with three or more bedrooms is currently 0 per cent. As a result, one in five residents are spending more than 30 per cent of their income on housing costs, a level that is considered a standard measure of affordability.

“Housing is becoming more expensive and fewer residents are able to enter the home ownership market,” said the report, adding Port Moody’s housing situation isn’t about a lack of dwellings to be built, or land where they can be located. Rather, there isn’t enough diversity of housing, including more affordable housing options, as well as accessible and family-friendly units.

Renters, who comprise one-quarter of city residents, are also struggling with higher costs and less availability, said the report. The median rent in Port Moody is now more than $1,000 per month while the vacancy rate for all units is between 0.5 per cent and 1.9 per cent — a healthy vacancy rate is between one and three per cent.

“Some households may be able to find a rental unit for less than $1,000 a month, but this typically comes with trade-offs such as being in poorer quality condition, further away from public transit and amenities and may not be suitable to meet their needs,” said the report.

But as Port Moody strains under the same market forces that afflict the entire Tri-Cities area, there are still ways to turn the tide.

“For Port Moody, the number of units being developed is keeping pace with demand,” said the report. “However, consideration to adjust the mix and secure rental housing and affordable units is a key area of opportunity.”

According to CitySpaces, zoning bylaws in Port Moody often don’t mesh with land designations, creating challenges to build viable developments without expensive lot consolidations, and some areas of the city are falling short of their potential to accommodate new, more diverse housing. Developers, the consultant said, require certainty and standardized policy in development expectations and incentives, as well as expedited processes to move approvals along.

And that could require more staff, said the report.

“It appears that the local government may need to scale-up staffing levels to match the scale of development to not only move projects through the process in a timely manner, but to also ensure that opportunities to capture units for affordability is not missed.”

The study was commissioned by Port Moody in 2020 to fulfill new regulations under the provincial Local Government Act for municipalities to complete housing needs reports by 2022, and then subsequent reports every five years after that. The consulting company used data from various sources including Statistics Canada, BC Assessment and BC Housing, as well as an online survey, virtual workshops, interviews and a workshop with city staff.

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Port Moody rent-to-own project fails to help first-time buyers

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on Feb. 13 2025

A rent-to-own program meant to help first-time buyers afford a home in a new Port Moody condo project proved to do just the opposite.

But the developer is hoping it can revive the plan with new parameters.

Tim Schmitt, the director of development for Langley-based Marcon Development, said only one possible purchaser of 190 applicants was able to take advantage of the company’s program, that allows eligible purchasers to rent their unit for a period of time with the money going towards their down payment. Purchasers must also agree to occupy their new home as their primary residence.

In a letter to Port Moody council, Schmitt said the maximum household income threshold of $150,000 as set by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s First Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) program that the company was using to qualify potential purchasers proved too low to allow them to get a mortgage for even the most affordable one-bedroom apartment in the Hue, a 222-unit condo building nearing completion on the site of the old Barnet Hotel.

Further, CMHC’s incentive program that provided first-time home buyers with a loan of five or 10 per cent of a home’s purchase price to help increase the size of a down payment was discontinued in 2024.

Schmitt said that means the threshold is no longer being updated to account for higher housing prices.

Schmitt said it’s created a kind of Catch-22 situation; buyers who could qualify for a mortgage under rules that set a maximum loan-to-income ratio of 4.5 times have to earn at least $160,000 to afford a $630,000 one-bedroom apartment at Hue, beyond the threshold to be able to participate in the rent-to-own program.

“The purchase price of homes in the current market is out of sync with the FTHBI program that was created over five years ago,” Schmitt said, adding the company still wants to proceed with some sort of rent-to-own program for the remaining nine homes it had originally set aside.

Tuesday, Port Moody councillors agreed to amend the city’s housing agreement with the developer to allow that to happen.

The developer will convene a second round of applicants for the program but their maximum household income cannot exceed $190,000 if they’re purchasing a one-bedroom apartment or $270,000 for a two-bedroom unit. As well, they’ll be tiered, with first consideration going to first-time homebuyers who are either Port Moody residents who have lived in city for at least a year or they’re front line workers like firefighters or police officers. The second tier will comprise all other first-time homebuyers followed by any other qualified applicants.

If any of the rent-to-own units remain unpurchased after going through all the qualified applicants, they’ll be released for general sale.

Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti said Marcon’s rent-to-own conundrum is “unfortunate,” as it was a major component of the company’s pitch to get the project approved.

“It was one of the most positive aspects of that application.”

Coun. Kyla Knowles said the dilemma is a symptom of communities’ ongoing struggle to secure affordable housing for their residents.

“We need senior levels of government to step up,” she said.

Port Moody senior planner Doug Allan said the new rules make the best of an unfortunate situation.

“They address Marcon’s challenges in selling the 10 RTO strata lots, reduce the barriers to program participation, and support moderate income households by updating income thresholds,” he said.

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The struggle for affordable housing and what it meant when a Coquitlam woman found it

This story was originally published in the Tri-City News Nov. 10, 2024

Frances Stone had never lived in a home that requires a security fob or a building that has an elevator.

Recently, she and her teenage daughter moved into a gleaming two-bedroom-plus-den condo in Anthem Properties’ new SOCO project just off North Road in Coquitlam.

How Stone got there is a study in transformational importance of securing safe, affordable housing.

Stone and her daughter were living in a walk-up rental building in uptown New Westminster when her landlord informed her she needed to move so a family member could move in.

Stone, an addictions counsellor, considered uprooting to Alberta where the provincial government is offering financial incentives to newcomers and rents are much cheaper.

Then a friend told her about a partnership between the Affordable Housing Society and Vancouver-based developer Anthem Properties that would make 18 rental homes in two new condo towers in Coquitlam available at rates geared to tenants’ income.

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.(CMHC), that means a tenant pays 30 per cent or less of their gross income for rent.

Secure future

Stone said since moving into her new home in August, it’s the first time in her adult life she’s felt secure about her future.

So much so, Stone said she’s in the final stages of adopting a rescue dog to add to her family, something she’s wanted to do for years but failed to pursue because of her ongoing housing uncertainty.

That’s music to the ears of Stephen Bennett, CEO of the Affordable Housing Society.

He said being able to live in a safe, affordable home impacts every aspect of a person’s life.

“We don’t understand what a lack of choice means for people,” he said. “Because it’s so unaffordable out there, people are stuck.”

Best interests of the community

As municipalities across B.C. strive to attain housing targets recently mandated by the provincial government, they’re also wrestling with the challenge of ensuring those homes can be accessed by a broad spectrum of residents.

“We still have to predicate all of our decisions based on what is in the best interest of our community as a whole,” said Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti about the pressure to approve the construction of more homes.

Bennett said affordability can only be achieved when all levels of government work together to provide necessary funding because the cost of constructing homes has spiralled so high. He said without subsidies and grants from programs through agencies like BC Housing, BC Builds and CMHC, rent for apartments could be as much as $5,000 a month.

‘It can often be a tightrope’

Melissa Howey, Anthem’s vice-president of development, said companies like hers are feeling the pressure as well, as they look to deliver housing stock that meets communities’ needs.

“It is balancing the costs, the availability of density,” she said. “It can often be a tightrope to walk.”

Howey said inflationary pressures and constraints on capital are making that tightrope even tauter.

Inclusionary zoning policies and negotiations for additional density can help spur developers to find creative solutions that will allow them to include affordable units in their projects, but the long process to get approvals means the landscape is always shifting.

“Every municipality operates differently,” Howey said, adding the navigation of those varying procedures comes with more layers of expense.

“It can be a challenge to deliver the other forms of housing in a project at somewhat affordable rates.”

In fact, Anthem recently had to scale back a plan to designate half the 128 units in a rental building its seeking to build in Port Moody to just 13. The company said its original intent proved “financially unviable.”

Complicated process

Bennett said his society is always working to devise new models to help fund affordable units, sometimes pooling financial contributions from several agencies.

But, he said, “to pull all those pieces together is exceedingly complicated and it takes a lot of work.”

Stone said she’s keenly aware of the challenge to provide enough affordable housing.

Prior to losing her apartment in New Westminster, she’d been on the BC Housing waiting list for five years. She said she’d also applied to every co-op in Metro Vancouver but “nothing was available.”

“It was pretty hopeless,” Stone said.

Now that she’s settled in her new home, though, Stone is starting to take advantage of her building’s host of luxurious amenities, like its indoor basketball/badminton court, the games and community room that features a full kitchen, a gym and yoga studio as well as an outdoor garden atop the parkade with seating areas, play structures and several gas barbecues. She said she’s keen to start a podcast that she can record in the building’s special sound room as well.

It’s a lifestyle Stone never imagined for herself.

“I would never have been able to work hard enough to live in a building like this,” she said. “It changes your perception of yourself.”

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment