In the Network: Media Co-op Dominion   Locals: HalifaxMontrealTorontoVancouver
This post has not been reviewed by the Vancouver Media Co-op editorial committee.

Vancouver Tests Cheap Alley Housing

Blog posts are the work of individual contributors, reflecting their thoughts, opinions and research.

Newsweek blogger Andrew Sullivan has an interesting link to projects going on in Vancouver that involve transforming garages or small alleyway guesthouses into full-scale, super-dense accommodation.

Laneway homes are basically miniature versions of single-family homes – in the range of 500 to 1,000 square feet – that are built in what has traditionally been the garage location of a single-family lot: in the backyard facing the lane.

In Vancouver, the revival was spawned by sky-high real estate prices, a lack of affordable housing, and an ingenious plan to create ‘hidden density’ in the city’s most desirable single-family neighborhoods.

While laneway house-conversions are almost exclusively created for rental income and exclusively cater to people with higher incomes, they are a welcome alternatve to current urban housing  expansion in Vancouver (and in other majorcities in Canada): the condo.

They also are a higher-priced example of other projects aiming to tackle cheaper and small forms of housing.  Several years ago, Dru from the Montreal Media Co-op highlighted the hexayurt project, while Kim Aronson in California has recently been focusing on other micro-housing unit projects in Berkley.

Catch the news as it breaks: follow the VMC on Twitter.
Join the Vancouver Media Co-op today. Click here to learn about the benefits of membership.

Comments

question:

how can the laneway housing be "cheap" as per headline, and also cater exclusively to high income people?

Creative Commons license icon Creative Commons license icon

The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.