A rare 50′ x 125′ RM-4 zoned single family lot in the South Granville area is being planned for a 4-storey, 5-unit condo building utilizing a courtyard rowhouse scheme. The owners (a numbered company) of the lot at 815 West 15th Avenue (near Willow Street) are seeking development permit approval for:

• Two buildings containing a total of 5 units
• a building height of 35.1 ft
• a density of 1.45 FSR (max under RM-4)
• 5 underground parking spaces

A description in the application: “The intent is to provide for ground-oriented housing with greater access to light and air, per dwelling unit, than would otherwise be provided for in a four-storey multi-family building. The inner courtyard offers additional privacy with the majority of windows oriented toward the inner 20′ wide courtyard. Many windows also face the street/lane. This massing and siting approach inherently requires a relaxation of setback requirements, which are intended to produce a “lozenge-shaped” apartment building.”

The lot was purchased in July 2014 for $2,480,000, or $273 per buildable SF.

Source: REBGV Stats

Here is a snapshot of where concrete values are this year based on resales. Taking a look at Year-to-date MLS resales in Vancouver West for buildings built in 2012 or newer, and excluding the downtown peninsula, yields the following:

• 134 sales, averaging $808 per SF
• This market is now firmly entrenched well above $700 per SF in most areas
• The cheapest sale was $584 per SF

Source: MLS

The average for Downtown Vancouver remains higher ($904 per SF YTD); however, this is skewed by higher end luxury sales in building such as Residences at Hotel Georgia and 3 Harbour Green. Ultimately, the scarcity of newer concrete product, even in areas that are percieved to have lots of inventory like Olympic Village, is driving Westside concrete values to match or even exceed Downtown prices.

Here is a snapshot of pricing for resales of concrete condos in Vancouver’s submarkets over the past two years. It shows moderate price gains in most areas, with those more pronounced gains in Burnaby and North Vancouver as a result of newly completed projects which saw some resales upon completion.

The analysis used only condos built since 1999 and concrete construction. Surrey was the only submarket without any price growth since 2012.

As we ring in the New year, an analysis of the REBGV’s Housing Price Index for apartment/condo’s on Vancouver Westside, including Downtown, shows that pricing has been flat for over two years now.

Resales values have likely been suppressed amid a large amount of new inventory coming to market; particularly in areas like Southeast False Creek and Cambie Corridor.