Pete Fry will run on October 14 for a seat on City Council under the Green Party umbrella.
Fry, who is the son of longtime federal MP Hedy Fry, said he wants to focus on creating affordable housing and “throttling” luxury developments, while supporting Green Party leader Adriane Carr in council meetings.
Thanks to CBC News and Meera Bains.
No candidates yet from Vision or NPA, but Anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson and homeless advocate Judy Graves have both tossed their hats in.
Yes! Finally someone who sees these new luxury high rises as the problem, not the answer to housing affordability!
Not to sure how if you reduce luxury high rises it will improve affordability. Those buyers will just find something else and push up prices elsewhere.
Only three things will make housing cheaper to buy
A) less government regulations
B) lower taxes
C) lower land costs
With essentially all land in Vancouver taken, only subsidies for C will help. The proposed 25% rental properties in each highrises will help with rentals but it will make buying even more expensive.
Which candidate will focus on A, B and/or C ?
What about rezoning more aggressively to increase supply???
And what do you get then? Buildings like Mirabel and the Jervis all $1 million plus. It’s naive to think that will solve the affordability problem.
Its about supply and demand if those buildings were not built other properties would be even more expensive.
Or how about an earthquake? A plague? Or how about waiting for the cycle of fashion to turn around and the rich no longer want to live in cities anymore?
Cities have always been places where you need money and can make money. There was a short period of time in the 1970s and 1980s where rich people moved out of them leaving the demand low so prices fell for a few decades but that was unusual.
Waiting for the return of cheap city housing is futile. It will never happen again.
Exactly. One needs to treat MetroVan as the new “Vancouver”. Plenty of cheaper albeit smaller condos in New West, Burnaby, Surrey etc .. City of Vancouver will always be expensive. Even upzoning will produce nothing below $1200/sq ft. The new forced 25% rental housing will ease rentals, in time, but will make condos to buy even more expensive.
NEW VANCOUVER (metro) has plenty of cheaper condos in areas where most potential buyers would be not find a local job .MORE residential zoning is needed in the C O V. MORE I C I zoning is needed in the suburbs where people live.
Correct. But more upzoning will not make things cheaper in Vancouver and land IS EXPENSIVE in Vancouver. Look at Madrid or Barcelona or London or Munich or Paris: very dense with 6 (or so) story buildings to the curb. That is doable in V but because land is already occupied land will be expensive.
Due to our somewhat misguided ALR policies (“don’t touch it .. ever .. don’t even think about it”) we have little free land available and it is competing for new industrial, retail, commercial or recreational uses.
Where is the MetroVan task force to sensible amend ALR or create new land, say in Boundary bay, W of Richmond, W or N of UBC, W of Tsawwassen, up Indian Arm, onto Bowen Island or up various Mountain sides ?
No new land = expensive housing. It’s just this simple.