High-rise towers not the answer to the housing affordability crisis in Vancouver, critics say

The tower is an efficient way to add density and minimize suburban sprawl, but it’s also a problematic building form that enhances income disparity, a Vancouver housing researcher argues.

Erick Villagomez, editor of Spacing Vancouver and instructor at the University of B.C.’s School of Community and Regional Planning, looked at the construction costs of a 40-storey building, not including land costs, and found that cost per square foot rises from $330 per square foot on the first floor to around $600 per foot at the highest floor. Based on construction alone, in a building without underground parking, “the average Vancouver household would be priced out between the third and eighth level, leaving over 30 stories out of reach to the average Vancouverite,” Mr. Villagomez writes in his recently published online post, Rising High, Falling Short.