B.C. shared-equity housing plan prompts both hope and skepticism

Imagine buying a brand-new studio apartment in a prime location on Vancouver’s west side, close to the city’s major hospitals, to schools, and to a spectacular city garden park, for $372,000.

Or a two-bedroom apartment for $780,000 – an amount of money that normally would get you no more than a small one-bedroom in the less-pricey east Vancouver neighbourhoods, a two-bedroom townhouse in the southern suburb of Surrey, or a house with yard in Chilliwack, an hour’s drive east of the city.