Ten years ago a Vancity report stated that Only 3% of Vancouver residents think they have reasonable rents or mortgages.

As you may have heard Vancouver has earned the dubious distinction of being the third least affordable city in the 2023 Annual Demographic Affordability Survey.  Only Hong Kong and Sydney were less affordable.

This is not good for our communities and it is not good for business. People are leaving Vancouver due the severe housing and affordability crisis. It is our belief that affordable housing requires new development models.

There are many successful models around the globe and the one common success denominator is the community’s involvement in the process.  Communities need to engage and coalesce around this issue and ‘develop’ their own unique solutions.

In our work on developing a financial model for a local charitable housing trust the analysis showed us that if a Non-Profit Housing Development Corporation (or other entity) can reduce the cost of development by 20% then they could build and market affordable home ownership and/or rental properties at up to 75% below current market rates in the Lower Mainland and similar results in other communities. When the land could be brought in at zero cost that can be reduced to 50%.

CMHC has reported that we need an additional 3.5M new homes by 2030 to address the housing and affordability crisis. That is not simply a hundred billion dollar problem it is a TWO TRILLION DOLLAR problem. We are working on a solution and if you are interested in learning about our plan to begin ‘Building Solutions to the Housing Crisis’ please send me an email and I will send you a link to our soon to be launched ‘I Invest in Housing’ project. (Please note: the site is password protected until the launch and if you send me an email I will send you the password)

Does your organization have a property that you are considering re-developing? Is your non-profit or charity looking for affordable housing solutions? Our role as social enterprise development consultants is to assist your group in every step from creating financial models to seeking funding opportunities; from developing partnerships and joint ventures to guiding the affordable housing development process.

To discuss how we may assist you and your organization develop an affordable housing strategy please contact me directly at 778.835.5801 or by email.