B.C. townhouse project to arise on church premises
Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth
53 new townhouse units are slated to arise on the premises of the old St. Andrew’s United Church in Mission, B.C., should the proposal for the development push through.
The project, which is spearheaded by Noort Developments Ltd., has been scheduled for a public hearing on September 5. The development is planned to replace a church that has been standing since 1927.
The proposal included provision for grey row townhouses along with large parcels set aside for personal patios and yards, as well as an expansive children’s play area.
Updated data from the CMHC showed that Abbotsford-Mission has an overall vacancy rate of 0.5 per cent, a level maintained by a limited supply of housing in the Fraser Valley.
Earlier this month, the B.C. Real Estate Association said that consumer demand for condominium units and townhouses has significantly outpaced the hunger for free-standing homes in the year that followed the B.C. government’s introduction of the foreign home buyers’ tax.
The MLS Home Price Index benchmark price of apartments has increased by 18.5 per cent compared to July 2016, up to $616,000. Meanwhile, the benchmark price for townhouses has grown by 11.9 per cent over the past year, up to $763,700.
Jill Oudil, president of the region’s real estate board, attributed this shift to a pronounced need for more affordable residential real estate, adding that the tax has failed to address the main factor igniting runaway housing costs in Vancouver.
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