Posts Tagged ‘calgary civic election’

Common Sense Propaganda

Saturday, October 5th, 2013

housing market

With the civic election just weeks away, city planning is a hot topic of conversation in the media thanks to a rather scandalous video taped surreptitiously at a home builders’ meeting earlier this year, with city aldermen called out for being friendly or unfriendly to developers’ interests, and the not always amenable relationship between our mayor and the Home Builders’ Association.

That’s led to some pretty serious propaganda surrounding Calgary’s housing market, including a website launched mid-September by Common Sense Calgary that warned of city planners making Calgary unaffordable for our children, citing the high price of property in Vancouver as an example of what we can look forward to.

Don’t be fooled; we’re not Vancouver. There is already a great deal of land within Calgary city limits set for new neighbourhoods to be constructed, neighbourhoods that will offer starter homes at relatively affordable prices. According to the Royal Bank Affordability Index, which measures how much of an average family’s income would be taken up by housing costs, Calgary is one of the most affordable major cities in which to own a home in Canada. Our affordability index is 33.6 percent. The national average is 48.4, and Vancouver’s is a whopping 85.8. And these are 2013 numbers, as we’re in the midst of a seller’s market.

Why are homes so expensive in Vancouver? Well, the obvious answer is it’s a coastal city, so land is at a premium. Add to that, the commute for people who work in Vancouver but live in the neighbouring communities – Burnaby, Langley, and so on – is hellish, so a small house in the city is still extremely appealing. Compare that to Calgary, a city built on the prairie with so much land we have the country’s largest green space (Nose Hill Park) in our city limits. Suburban life here doesn’t mean commutes of three hours each way; someone can live in Tuscany and still get to work downtown in under 45 minutes during rush hour. Plenty of residents of Airdrie, Cochrane, and even Didsbury happily commute daily, with travel times a fraction of those for commuters to Vancouver.

So, no matter what you think of Calgary’s city planning, or whether you approve or disapprove of the way the mayor’s office relates to home builders, don’t be swayed by the fear tactics employed by a special interest group looking to influence the upcoming election. Do your own research, and judge on facts, not hyperbole.

Safe Secondary Suites

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013

secondary suites

City council has been debating what I expect will be a hot topic in upcoming civic elections: secondary suites, where they can be, and how easy they should be to add to the market. Mayor Nenshi was pushing for major revisions to laws around the suites, but the majority of council preferred small, incremental changes: secondary suites damaged in the flood that had been grandfathered in, for example, can be rebuilt without rezoning, for example, much to the relief of the overwhelmed rental market. And a pilot project has been launched to inspect secondary suites for safety and adherence to code, which should come as a relief to tenants looking at their single window and wondering if they could actually crawl out of it in a fire.

So, good stuff, if perhaps not particularly groundbreaking. With the sales market in Calgary as hot as it is, with prices up more than eleven percent over last year, though, there are bound to be more residents looking to rental properties as a stopgap until deposits can be saved up – and plenty of investors will want to be capitalizing on their property holdings by adding basement suites for additional income. Surely once debates begin in the aldermanic races, lines are going to be drawn showing where each candidate stands on increasing our city’s stock of secondary sites, and that could seriously affect outcomes in ridings popular with, say, university students. This is a topic to watch.

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