Please dont scare me.... I visit my parents on the regular and they live @ Strawberry Hill.. so yes... I pass the 72nd/Highway once a week... lol

It’s okay I mean 120 is an invisible line… just some Surrey spillover

Yeah but the guy looked away and was wearing a ballcap and a mask

Since AB and Calgary came up in this discussion, just read that the city is converting some DT offices into residents. I believe they are rentals and apartments. It seems like a creative use of vacant office space probably as a result of Covid and companies going hybrid and workers not wanting to go back to office full time. Here are some brief reads on this. On paper, sounds like a good idea assuming they have some good city planners on this. Anyone close to AB, Calgary have any insights on this?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ooms-1.7023265

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...tone-1.6716211

https://i.cbc.ca/1.6816140.168194900...building-1.jpg

https://i.cbc.ca/1.6816110.168194908...velopments.jpg

I think that's quite literally the silver bullet solution. There's parking, the building exists, the infrastructure exists, the space exists. I think not only does it contribute to helping the housing crisis, but it contributes to solving some of the crime issues due to these basically abandoned areas of town. The waste of space and money that is commercial office space was clear long before Covid due to the advance of technology when it comes to communication, and the pandemic really solidified how easy it is to shift away from it, but businesses and real estate investors will do whatever they can to prevent a solution like that from happening.

Plumbing sounds like a nightmare, unless it’s some sort of university dorm room with shared washrooms. Lol.

It’s a great idea in theory, likely not as cheap as you’d hope.

I'm sure it's not cheap, however there is no way it can cost as much as a new building of the same square footage.
As for the dorm room plan, is that really all that terrible when considering what the SROs or tent encampments are? 5 useless buildings full of insurance and real estate offices people go to once a month being able to take a bite out of homelessness, and take profits out of the hands of these fucking piece of shit slumlords running the SROs on the DTES and do something that is properly controlled for the most vulnerable population would benefit everyone.

Calgary is doing it, but there are actually a LOT of problems the construction companies have to deal with to make it work properly, so that it can be used as medium to long term housing.

For one thing -- asbestos abatement is a HUGE problem. Pretty much all of those department store spaces / office were built way back when asbestos was present in the construction materials. So it is a PITA -- not to mention $$$$ -- to get around that problem.

Another problem is HVAC. These places are setup to function with a central HVAC system. To make it work as individual residential units, you pretty much have to rip out the whole existing HVAC, and come up with a whole new system that would make HVAC work.

Because of the extensive amount of renovations that are required, gutting and renovating buildings like these are actually more expensive than knocking the damn thing down and rebuild it with residential housing. If I am not mistaken, the only major benefit to repurposing old commercial buildings such as old dept stores / office space is -- it can be done faster than knocking the building down and restarting from scratch. But because of the higher costs, investors / builders tend to approach projects like these very cautiously.

So are the building owners expected to donate these empty buildings to the city? From what I’ve seen, city’s generally don’t buy anything thing for cheap.

Once again, great in theory, just can’t see it making financial sense.

Hopefully in a few more years when leases start expiring faster than they are renewed it's either get rid of it or be caught holding the bag. Those tax bills add up real fast without tenants.

i'm not too worried about asbestos, you have to deal with it in any type of reno, but the plumbing & hvac is something definitely needing sorting/upgrading.

aren't most buildings DT curtain wall, floor to ceiling glazing? no open windows/balconies, is that going to be a problem? that's the thing i'm curious what plan they have (or is the plan to keep as-is???)..

empty office floor space actually kind of sounds nice (blank slate for unit conversions), outside of the infrastructure challenges

A good chunk of my studying / working career -- including now when I am not WFH -- was spent on working in a room with absolutely no windows at all. It doesn't bother me, but there has been no shortage of fellow students and coworkers that craves for a real life window, even if it is just looking at yet another dull building outside. So from years of that experience, I can tell you a good chunk of people are not going to thrive in a windowless environment -- for some people, it just wouldn't work.

at work i rarely get a window
sure it helps productivity in the summer but winter time it definitely adds to the rat race effect

New assessments are up

Pretty modest (as expected) changes this year - I'm up 3% as our my parents and in-laws, my brother, and BILs. My old duplex is down 3%.

I'm very interested to see how assessments and tax rates will look as the new provincially mandated rezoning take place as assessments and tax rates are supposed to be based on "best use" and every one living inside a transit oriented area (like me) should see a jump in assessed value and taxes as a result. My lot is going to go from a zoned .6FSR (detached house only) to 3FSR with up to 8 stories allowed.

Up 3 ish not bad, I still think everything is gonna go way over ask again in 6 months when rates drop

Interesting, I'm down 4%

I'm up 1%. I'm on a main road though but not part of the larger plan as I'm not in the smack dab middle of the city. There was a 10 year plan that was released but I don't remember what the projected zoning is going to be for me.

Oof, up 5.6%

I'm just outside the 800m radius from a SkyTrain station in East Van

I’m up like 150k on the new place and 50k on the old place. Not bad for a recession

Double lobster for dinner tonight!

All my neighbouring units are up 3-6%, I'm down 0.1%, which means my reno's are depreciating!

Interesting... my place is up 1%, as are all my neighbours -- as in, like all 6 or 7 of them.

The guy hit 3 more houses on my street a couple days ago and we live on a main street.

I'm down by 33K lol (2.4%). Overall gain is still 30% tho.

https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R2822897/1...-Vancouver-BC/

$1.3m for a 2 bedroom duplex in East Van by King Ed and Knight. Seems way overpriced - probably more like a $1m or 1.1m place.

Check out the size of that garage:

https://cdnparap130.paragonrels.com/...2844524-22.JPG

For reference a Civic hatchback back is 180 in or 15 feet long so it wouldn't fit in there.