Rent or buy. Condo, townhouse, or single family.
Those are the options that most people assume when looking for housing. But there are other options, even in a quiet suburb like Langley.
One of the least well known is that some locals have taken to the water.
Grant’s Landing is Langley’s float home community, a collection of 33 houseboats moored at the foot of 208th Street on the Fraser River.
Monty Grant and Marlyn Sparks founded the community back in the early 1980s. Sparks lives on land, and Grant on his houseboat. He’s now 93, Sparks said, and has no intention of leaving.
“It started with Monty’s boat, coming up the river,” Sparks said. The land was zoned for a marina, and more and more float homes were added over the years until it was a true community.
In the 1990s, the community had dubious legal standing. But negotiations with Langley Township saw it bring in modern sewage connections, fire hoses, and electrical hookups, and it was brought into compliance with local bylaws.
“We went through all kinds of hoops,” Sparks recalled.
The units of a houseboat community can come and go as boats leave and new ones are added. Houseboats are typically cheaper than ordinary housing, but owners have to pay moorage fees.
At Grant’s Landing, fees start at $630 a month, go up to $825 for larger houseboats, and a couple of the biggest pay a bit more.
But houseboats are relatively inexpensive.
A larger, newer one might cost $350,000, Sparks said. The smallest and oldest could go for as little as $30,000.
While some float home communities farther down the Fraser have gone upmarket, Grant’s Landing has continued to welcome the older and smaller homes, Sparks said.
Some of their residents have come to the river for financial reasons, downsizing and finding a less expensive way of life after selling a house, said Sparks.
There are a few challenges compared to living on the land.
“When you have high winds, you’re going to bounce around a little bit,” she noted.
Even the largest houseboats are typically smaller than a normal home, and there may be a lack of storage and space.
Learning to navigate the docks can take some work.
“It’s a little harder to bring groceries down a ramp and carry them along,” said Sparks.
They also have to ride out the periodic floods on the Fraser River. Residents have made it through several periods of high water since 2007, when there was concern that debris from a fierce flood season could impact the community.
But Sparks said the constantly changing view of the river, the peace and quiet, and the sense of community among the tight-knit houseboat dwellers is what continues to draw people.
“There’s nothing like this left,” she said. “This is the last place.”
The float home community has now reached its maximum size, Sparks said.
“We’re full up.”
