As more and more households have two incomes, many prospective homeowners are able to pay a lot more for a home than it is worth.
That is one of many reasons Canadian real estate has become overpriced. The price of a home is no longer based on what it is worth, it’s determined by what we are perceived to be able to pay.
While Summerland council is all excited about what they term a ‘revolutionary’ style of housing development they are entertaining for the property where the current RCMP building is located, they might want to look at the Sunrise Village on Raymer Avenue in Kelowna.
This is a similar development, where homes are located on privately owned land with short-term leases.
One of the main reasons why this format is not very common, let alone popular, is that the landlord can evict the tenants, by serving relatively short notice.
Similar land use legislation applies to B.C. mobile home parks today.
One of former premier Gordon Campbell’s claims to fame was changing the mobile home act so that land owners could turf their tenants by giving them only one year notice. As a result, a quarter of a million B.C. mobile homeowners could be booted out of their parks, with nowhere to go. Many have already lost their homes.
Gordon Campbell’s loyal MLAs readily rubber stamped that legislation, while developers were celebrating.
At the end of the day, does the city really have a mandate to try and compensate for an inflated housing market?
Why should city taxpayers be on the hook for expensive rental property, when many of them cannot afford to buy their own home?
If anything, why not approach the local service clubs and ask them to consider building and managing co-op housing developments similar to the Kiwanis’ tower in Kelowna.
Anders E. Thomsen
Summerland