- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Messages
- 13,879
Calgary city council
yesterday voted to not amend existing by-laws to allow a "card blanche"
approach to secondary suites.
Having lived in Calgary in an established neighborhood in the 90's for many
years, but also as a landlord, all I can say is: BRAVO. Many neighborhoods were
designed 40+ years ago, with low density and single family houses in mind. Some
newer neighborhoods already look like Europe, with cars parked everywhere.
Thus, in my opinion, an approach to essentially allow double-family homes
everywhere and twice as many cars would not be sensible. A more useful approach
would be a street-by-street approach, much like Vancouver, were a certain
amount of legal suites or "coach homes" are allowed per block, to
make an area denser, but not all homes by default as now entire neighborhoods
could change character.
Combine this with $100+ oil, a booming economy in Calgary and Alberta in
general, the recent tightening to CMHC mortgage rules and to me it means: vacancies
in Calgary will tighten, rents will go up and therefore apartment building values.
As this decision is closely watched in other cities and towns in Alberta, it
would also mean the same thing for our other buildings concentrated in the
Edmonton region. Alberta is the place to be as a landlord right now, and we've
seen considerable tightening of vacancies since fall 2010 in all of our Alberta
buildings, which will translate into rent increases in the spring/summer of
2011 after almost 3 years of flatish rents and values.
yesterday voted to not amend existing by-laws to allow a "card blanche"
approach to secondary suites.
Having lived in Calgary in an established neighborhood in the 90's for many
years, but also as a landlord, all I can say is: BRAVO. Many neighborhoods were
designed 40+ years ago, with low density and single family houses in mind. Some
newer neighborhoods already look like Europe, with cars parked everywhere.
Thus, in my opinion, an approach to essentially allow double-family homes
everywhere and twice as many cars would not be sensible. A more useful approach
would be a street-by-street approach, much like Vancouver, were a certain
amount of legal suites or "coach homes" are allowed per block, to
make an area denser, but not all homes by default as now entire neighborhoods
could change character.
Combine this with $100+ oil, a booming economy in Calgary and Alberta in
general, the recent tightening to CMHC mortgage rules and to me it means: vacancies
in Calgary will tighten, rents will go up and therefore apartment building values.
As this decision is closely watched in other cities and towns in Alberta, it
would also mean the same thing for our other buildings concentrated in the
Edmonton region. Alberta is the place to be as a landlord right now, and we've
seen considerable tightening of vacancies since fall 2010 in all of our Alberta
buildings, which will translate into rent increases in the spring/summer of
2011 after almost 3 years of flatish rents and values.
