UNDERSIZED PRICES BOOST MICRO LOFTS’ POPULARITY|
Micro lofts: Small living spaces prove popular thanks to their undersized prices
Micro lofts in prime urban areas are proving so popular that aspiring B. C. buyers have been lining up outdoors — overnight — to purchase them.
And this could be the answer to Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis, at least for younger people, an Urban Land Institute conference was told Thursday.
Thousands of builders and city planners from across North America are in the city this week, communing about issues related to development.
At the sessions, Vancouver is being widely touted as an idyllic civic environment: livable, green and, unfortunately, expensive as hell.
Vancouver’s micro lofts — strata units in some buildings, rentals in others — for the most part are designed for a bike- loving, environmentally conscious, modestly resourced, under- 32 age cohort, though they also are attracting some single pensioners, those seeking a piedàterre in the city or parents wanting accommodation for university- aged offspring.
The small size — starting at 265 square feet — means the units are more affordable and the fact no on- site parking garage is offered makes them cheaper to develop.
Minimum size for such suites in Vancouver officially is 298 square feet although developers occasionally have been permitted to go smaller. While units are compact — some with Murphy beds, foldout dining tables and under counter fridges — they are said to offer sufficient storage space for a snowboard or kayak.
They fetch rents in downtown Vancouver ranging from $ 400 to $ 800 a month. Judging from current listings, these teeny condos might sell for about $ 200,000, although there doesn’t appear to be any that inexpensive on offer at the moment.
“What you are doing with micro lofts is trading size for location,” explains Jon Stovell, president of Reliance Properties.
Reliance bought and refurbished a Downtown Eastside hotel in 2011. With a zero marketing budget, the company rented out the resulting 30 micro units in one week, using Craigslist.
In 2012, Reliance took another old hotel, this time in downtown Victoria, and created more than 100 micro units, priced at $ 120,000 to $ 200,000. They sold like hot cakes. “People were lined up in lawn chairs.”
The developer says the housing model is not as likely to work as well in settings outside the city core because those buying tiny are looking to the surrounding neighbourhood to act as their living room to compensate them for what they’re not getting in terms of personal living space.
The Gen- Y buyer, above all, wants access to amenities: a gym, cafés and restaurants, parks, transit, dog- walking areas ( 60 per cent own pets, almost always a dog), says Stovell.
They are not interested in owning cars and don’t need much storage because “they don’t buy stuff,” said Matt Griffin, a Seattle developer on the conference panel with Stovell. Griffin expanded on the theme of small housing, pointing to his Via6 development in downtown Seattle, which offers compact units but is less focused on affordability.
Each of the 600- plus units measure between 500 and 715 square feet and rent from $ 1,175 a month. The building, meanwhile, offers lots of on- site neighbourhood amenities — in other words, “a community.”
Via6 accommodates a coffee shop, restaurant, grocery store, barber shop and bike store.
There’s also a theatre and a seventh- floor relaxation lounge with communal tables and barbecue grills, and access to an outdoor deck.
Spaces for social engagement, as well as fitness and healthy living options, are proving increasingly popular for strata buyers throughout North America, according to the Washington, D. C.- based Urban Land Institute.
In Vancouver, it appears as though the primary focus for developers will be to keep things affordable with tiny abodes in great locations.