Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
I disagree pretty strongly with your report. Firstly, the number of people having children and the size of families in Canada is rapidly declining. As someone who did not have children until a few months ago, I can say that I had zero desire for a detached home until I had children. The same was true of just about everyone I knew without children.
As for Calgary specifically, there is massive demand for the new townhouses in the Altadore area. Mostly from small families. Quite frankly, I think a lot of people would prefer a townhouse with a foot top patio over a detached garage. I can't comment on how this will affect Calgary's craft wood working industry.
If you're telling me there is simply no demand for a townhouse that's walking distance from a bunch of bars, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment and also a very short commute from downtown, I'm telling you that I don't believe you.
|
From my experience buying such a property last spring, there is definitely is demand. When we were shopping I’d typically send 4-6 listing to my realtor for viewings, and get word back in a few hours that a 1/3rd had already been conditionally sold.
We managed to get our place before it hit the market as we saw the coming soon sign while viewing a neighbouring unit.
I think folks married to the idea of car dependant/SFH neighbourhoods are vastly underestimating the effect of the “missing middle” housing. There could be so much more offered between condos in the sky & front drive suburban homes, but developers still prefer to go for a large volume of greenfield development.
I’m reading
Sustainability Matters right now which is focused squarely on Calgary’s urban development and has some rather disheartening stats/historical tidbits however. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but the Plan It initiative had a target of splitting new comers to the city equally between inner city & new suburban developments over a 10 year period… in reality it ended up being 90% suburban if my memory is correct.