WATCH ABOVE: In Kelowna, B.C., where there is no lack of short-term rentals, the mayor is applauding new measures, saying he has no doubt the impact will be huge and immediate. As Klaudia Van Emmerik reports, it could mean hundreds of units going into the long-term rental pool.“Many of my friends who grew up in my community, who grew up the same way I did, have had to leave. They would love to come back, but they simply don’t have that choice,” she said.
“While council was presented with a lot of good data that supported the value of fourplex housing in Mississauga, the councillors voted against the motion. They did not reject it based on a data-based response. Their rejection was on the desire for more consultation. It was repeatedly pointed out to them there will be ample time for public consultation as part of this second phase.
James McKellar, professor emeritus of real estate and infrastructure at York University’s Schulich School of Business, said: “If you drew a box and you drew a vertical line in the middle and a horizontal line in the middle, you would end up with four squares. And that’s a fourplex. It just opens up so many new or better ways of housing people.”“The City of Toronto banned these kinds of multiplex units in 1929,” he said. “And so, we got stuck with single-family housing.
“We just can’t afford this kind of single-family housing. But more importantly, it doesn’t satisfy a growing part of the market as people age,” McKellar said, adding that for an aging population looking to downsize, the current housing market is not well suited.McKellar said a fourplex offers a solution for this conundrum.
While the immigration boom in the 1980s meant many new immigrants were making a beeline toward suburban centres like Brampton, Ont., and Mississauga, the next generation may not have such an easy time finding affordable homes in the cities they grew up in.For many, the decision to move away from their hometowns means moving away from aging parents.
It would be easier and cheaper to lay down pipes and sewer lines, he said, and to create this infrastructure if housing were denser.