New Ideas for housing starts in Vancouver

Mini-apartments give B.C. renters a new option

Vancouver city council clears way for architect's plan to strengthen affordable housing by adding lock-off suites to existing apartments.

A city architect is about to test the Vancouver public's appetite for a new form of housing, informally called lock-off suites and nicknamed by some as “mortgage helpers in the sky.”
They're rentable mini-apartments inside apartments, a concept that was pioneered at a housing development at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby several years ago, and recently approved by city council.

Oliver Lang is planning to unveil this week the first project in Vancouver under the new bylaws, a small four-unit block in Kitsilano – a west-side neighbourhood close to beaches that has traditionally been home to a wide mix of residents and housing types. Three of the units will be built with separate suites.

“We did this because we're looking at how to making urban living really desirable and give people a house-like feeling in the middle of the city,” he said. Mr. Lang, who was until recently also an architecture professor at the University of British Columbia, won a Governor-General's medal last year for an innovative apartment complex he designed that is built around an interior courtyard.

Like in that complex, Mr. Lang plans to build units that have windows the width of the entire lot and daylight on both sides of each unit by using an interior courtyard – a configuration that makes it easier to build in a lock-off rental suite as well. The design aims to accomplish the goals of a recent city housing initiative: to create more types of affordable housing in this ultra-expensive city and giving buyers more flexibility with their space.

“There are lots of apartments in this area, but they're all one-bedroom,” said Mr. Lang. “The moment people have children, they have to move.” The units he's planning will allow owners to rent out the locked-off suite until they need the extra bedroom, at which point they can convert it back to being part of the apartment, just like people in single-family houses can do with basement suites.

City Councillor Andrea Reimer said council jumped on the idea during a recent round of discussions on its Short-Term Incentives for Rental initiative.

“This is a practical, contemporary example that had a lot of merit.”

Ms. Reimer said the city bylaw doesn't actually create any more living space in the city, unlike another recently passed housing initiative that will allow people to build or convert garages into small laneway houses.

But it does two other things that help with affordable housing. It gives the buyers proof of a legal stream of income that can help them get a mortgage, which is especially important for young buyers. And it gives both owners and tenants the protection of the Residential Tenancy Act, which does not cover people who rent rooms in a shared house.

The city specified that the suites had to be a minimum size of 280 square feet, with the possibility of going down to 205 square feet under special conditions, including access to a garden space.

While Mr. Lang's project is the first to go up for sale, Vancouver could see a proliferation of lock-off suites in coming years. They will be permitted in the areas to be developed around the Olympic village, which has room for a couple of thousand units. And they have already been included in the zoning for a new development on the Fraser River, East Fraserlands, which has been going through city planning processes for several years.

Michael Geller, who came up with the idea of creating lock-off suites when he was overseeing the development of SFU land for housing, says he got the idea from students who were complaining about the university's housing plans.

“They were complaining that they didn't like it because they'd never be able to live there. Then I realized we could create the equivalent of basement suites, but in apartments and townhouses.”