It will be a while before new construction and growth slows down in the red-hot housing markets of the eastern Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.
Some of the fastest-growing communities in B.C. are Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, Mission, and Maple Ridge.
The main reason? This is where there’s still open land.
The easiest development to do is so-called “greenfield” development.
That’s where big swathes of land that once housed a single house – former hobby farms or acre-sized plots – are turned into new subdivisions. For decades, this meant suburban sprawl and cul-de-sacs, but now most growth skips straight to a denser mix of small lots, townhouses, and five- and six-storey condos.
The alternative model has been the construction of big, concrete high rise condo towers, mostly in downtown Vancouver and other inner suburbs like Burnaby.
But there’s a hard limit on how much more greenfield development we can do.
Langley – Township and City – serve as great examples of the current model of the development, as well as the future.
In the Township, greenfield development is still the primary engine of housing growth. Willoughby has been developing since the late 1990s, and still has at least a decade to run before the bulk of its land is built up.
But Langley City hasn’t had large acreages available for decades. For a long time, this meant development was minimal. But the City’s compact downtown and future SkyTrain link made the area attractive.
So older homes on smaller lots are being packaged up, and chunks of low-density urban land become the site of new condos or townhome complexes.
Between greenfield growth and skyscraping condos, suburban redevelopment like that in Langley City has only had a tiny share of the pie.
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That’s about to change.
The next 10 to 20 years are going to mark a watershed moment, as redevelopment becomes one of the biggest stories in construction and housing.
Our greenfield supply is running dry, hemmed in by mountains, border, and the ALR. Concrete condos can house plenty of folks, but they don’t fit every budget or family size.
And at last, the provincial government, and many municipal leaders, are more open to the idea of redevelopment. That might be “soft” density – coach houses, basement suites, and so on – but in many places, it will be duplexes, townhouses, and condos replacing low-density suburban homes.
Most of the attention has focused on the vast swathes of Vancouver that could see growth after many decades. But it will eventually apply to every single-family neighbourhood in the Lower Mainland.
That’s going to mean a lot of heated debates at city halls. A lot of people love their cul-de-sacs and quarter-acre lots.
But we don’t have a choice, not if we want the next couple of generations to have space for families at a price they can afford.
The next big development zone is existing suburbia. Time to get ready.
Have a story tip? Email: matthew.claxton@langleyadvancetimes.com
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