Cracks showing in B.C.’s affordable housing plans

Subsidizing affordable housing with the sale of market housing is a nice idea, but in B.C.’s market downturn, it’s a model that’s showing major cracks.

Typically, municipal governments require 20 per cent of the floor area of a new residential tower includes rental units that are below market, made possible by allowing extra density for market-rate housing. The city of Vancouver’s latest initiative is creating 17 mixed use neighbourhoods, or villages, throughout the city that will include below-market rental housing to be “diverse and inclusive.” Ross McCredie, founder of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, and chief executive officer of Sutton Group, doesn’t see how that will play out in this economy.