Townhouses are becoming an increasingly important part of the housing mix in the Langleys, particularly in fast-growing Langley Township.
Urban Analytics has been tracking the market for new multi-family home market in Metro Vancouver since 1994.
“Townhomes are quite affordable and offer maintenance-free living,” said Urban Analytics managing principal Michael Ferreira.
Surrey and Langley townhouses are proving popular with both younger residents with families and with older people downsizing from larger detached homes.
“For the same price a buyer would pay for a one-bedroom condo in Vancouver or Burnaby, they could get a 1,300-1,400 square foot townhome in the Fraser Valley with a private at-grade garage and a little yard space,” Ferreira said.
Ferreira pointed to a recent Willoughby townhouse development named Exchange, which sold 28 units in its first month of marketing. Various stages of the project are under construction while others are finished.
Townhouses, rowhouses, duplexes and other forms of multi-family housing are currently dominating new home construction in Langley Township.
Langley Township building statistics showed that in the first seven months of the year from January to July, 625 multi-family housing units were created, including everything from a townhouse to a condo unit.
In comparison, the Township registered the creation of 285 secondary suites and 168 single-family homes.
All of those numbers were up sharply from last year. A total of 1,090 housing units were created from January to July in 2015, compared to 670 in the same time period in 2014.
This year’s development represents more than $89.5 million in multi-family housing being created so far in 2015.
The bulk of the construction in Langley Township is going on in two neighbourhoods – Willoughby and Murrayville.
Willoughby represents 56 per cent of all new housing being built in the Township, while Murrayville makes up 21 per cent.
Walnut Grove and Aldergrove added about five per cent each, Brookswood three per cent, and the Township’s rural areas saw eight per cent.