Langley is one of the fastest-growing communities in the Lower Mainland.
Finding affordable housing is a issue for new families seeking a first home, for renters, for seniors, and for those on social assistance.
In March of 2012, the benchmark price of a detached home in Langley was $574,200. This March, it hit $875,300. Townhouses, increasingly the starter home for families, have gone up from a benchmark of $303,000 to $440,000, and condos have risen from $205,000 to $291,000 over the same time.
But high prices in Langley are still lower than prices in Vancouver, and the cost hasn’t dissuaded builders.
In the first three months of the year, 543 new housing units were created in Langley Township, including 331 condos or townhouse units, 105 secondary suites, and 98 single family homes. Despite a brief flattening of real estate prices since last year, that’s up from the 361 units built in the first three months of 2015.
The three major parties all have platforms dealing with housing costs and social housing.
The NDP says it will build 114,000 rental, social, co-op and owner-purchased homes over the next 10 years, and renters will receive a $400 annual grant per unit.
The Liberals are pledging 5,000 new affordable housing units, and to increae the homeowner grant.
The Green Party plans to boost the property transfer tax for high-end properties to cool the housing market and increase affordable accommodation.
If buying housing is difficult even for people with good jobs, renting for people on the bottom end of the income scale is becoming more difficult.
Robert Brown, president of Catalyst Community Developments, is working on an 82-unit complex proposal to be built in partnership with Willoughby’s Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church and BC Housing. If approved, the project will be built on church land.
Since they were announced, Pastor Kristen Steele said there have been a number of people already asking when the homes will be available and how they can move there. The questions are coming both from people within the congregation and from total strangers, she said.
“As house prices have increased, a lot of people have been priced out of the ownership market,” said Brown. There’s simply no way for them to buy anything, so they have to rent.
That means there are more renters, but a dwindling supply of rental properties.
Non-profit groups that help build and run such projects first need to find somewhere to build.
“We’re competing with condo developers and townhouse developers,” Brown said. “It’s quite difficult.”
They find most of their land through partnerships with churches like Shepherd of the Valley or other groups that already own land.
Their $15 million project in Langley is expected to be built starting in 2018.