Bob Rennie says developers need to look at cheaper ways to build condos
Sun
Demand for housing in downtown Vancouver will only increase over the next few years, and developers need to look at cheaper ways to build high-density condominium units, real estate marketer Bob Rennie told an audience of 700 developers and realtors Thursday at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
Rennie, whose company Rennie Marketing Systems has sales volumes exceeding $1 billion annually, said this means building Ikea-styled interiors rather than the high-end finishing that has pushed units in the downtown to $879 per square foot.
“We’ve all figured out the luxury market for high net-worth individuals from China, Korea, Iran, and [with] money from Europe,” said Rennie, who cited the Woodward’s project as proof you can build housing for two levels of affordability.
Rennie said it would be possible to make affordable units if cities give away excess density and if developers’ profits were capped at 10 per cent.
“There’s an insatiable demand for affordability downtown as we see price levels rise and supply disappearing,” said Rennie, adding that Vancouver’s population density is currently fourth-highest in North America behind New York, San Francisco and Mexico City, and is projected by 2021 to become the second-most- dense city, trailing only New York.
He said it’s time for all the stakeholders in Vancouver’s housing future — developers, residents and governments — to stop working in isolation and work together to make it possible for people to afford to buy housing in the city where they work, and to prevent pricing a young generation out of the market.
Rennie said 48 per cent of Vancouver residents surveyed said they would make a condo their principle residency, and the same number said they would raise a family in a condo.
In 2007, 76 per cent of all MLS-listed housing sales west of Main Street were condos, compared to 70 per cent in Burnaby, 66 per cent in Richmond, 56.5 per cent in the Tri-Cities area, and 39 per cent in Maple Ridge, where detached houses are still relatively affordable.
Whichever way the housing is built, it must be ecologically efficient. The same survey of Vancouver residents revealed that 96 per cent of people listed the top amenity to their housing as energy efficiency.