Coriolis' report says single-stair on single lots isn't viable even at 1.75 fsr, but 1.2 FSR townhouses may be in some places. Not a good sign for building SES in general.

When you don't build enough studio through 2-bedroom housing, people end up renting and sharing larger homes with 3+ bedrooms because single-family homes with lots of bedrooms are generally not the housing that we've historically under-built It's very hard to get people in Berkeley to believe this

Details on how moving chains interact with bedrooms will depend on housing stock and household composition. Here is the Metro Vancouver breakdown, lots of opportunity for households in 3+ bedrooms to split up or downsize into 1 or 2 bedroom homes.

Another cost of sprawl: “In a province that has, most commonly, the lowest cost of gasoline purchases, we still have the highest average transportation spending,”

Want to increase the supply 3+ bedroom homes? Building dense, market-rate apartments with mostly 1-2 bedrooms does just that, resulting in mostly 3+ bedroom vacancies after the second round of moves that were triggered by the new homes. papers.ssrn.com/sol3...

🚨 PUBLIC HEARING ALERT 🚨 Tonight #NewWest council will hold a public hearing to allow four- and six-plexes on 3,000 properties. Gentle density, good! Unfortunately every single letter sent in is in opposition. Bad!

Nice summary of a great vacancy chain study first-authored by my great UBC colleague Limin Fang.

Building dense new apartment buildings frees up much more affordable housing, including larger homes like detached houses! In this study, homes were a whopping 44% cheaper in the second round of moves/vacancies.

Our monthly happy hour is this Thursday, May 14, starting at 5pm. Drop in whenever you can make it! Conveniently located at Rogue Wetbar inside Waterfront Station. There are some major items coming up, even before the October election. Lots to talk about!

Downsizing boomers won't fix the housing market for families with kids. Cities need to legalize (including zoning for) 6-storey, single-stair, small lot apartments. These allow 3 bedroom+ homes where land has long been too expensive for detached houses.

Our monthly happy hour is here! This Thursday, April 9, at the Rogue in Waterfront Station. Starts at 5 pm, drop by when you can! Let's celebrate spring by thinking about what new beginnings the year could bring for housing action in Vancouver!

"...growth in advanced economies has become increasingly biased toward knowledge-intensive activities that prefer large cities. Second, Canada’s urban regulations make it unusually hard for those cities to grow."

YIMBY Edmonton councillor reading landlord Facebook groups about the effect of new housing supply on the housing market: “I don’t think anyone expected this many units to hit the market at the same time”, “tenants have options”, “you have to be realistic about pricing”, “free months of rent”.

On the inevitable evolution of sprawl.

If developers always build up to the maximum (density, height, etc.) that’s allowed in your city, that’s a sign that your zoning rules are substantially restricting housing supply.

Come say hi and meet some pro-housing neighbours at AHV's pub night! This Thursday, March 12! At the Rogue in Waterfront Station, starting at 5 pm. Whether you're a regular or a first-timer, we hope to see you there!

Vancouver's long overdue first Official Development Plan will be considered at a public hearing, starting Tuesday, March 10th, at 6pm. This post describes the plan and how to send your support, and critiques!

Wealthy buyers in Manhattan are merging 2-3 townhouses into one mansion. It's just the tip of the iceberg, and a dramatic example of how not building housing makes existing housing less affordable. www.bloomberg.com/gr...

On "growth should pay for growth": homeowners are all too happy to accept higher property values (created by growth in population, jobs, and public infrastructure), but refuse to pay for the costs that make growth possible. Is that fair?

A storey in four acts as captured by local news media: 18 storeys is too high, we’d be fine with 4-6 storeys 6 storeys are too big, we'd be fine with multiplexes Multiplexes are monstrosities, we are fine with existing post-Second World War bungalows ...

Funded inclusionary zoning is great. Unfunded inclusionary mandates are a tax on new housing.

Trying something to help visualize land usage per household (which I think is one of the most useful ways to think about cities)

Hotels are a much more efficient way to accommodate temporary visitors than full-year whole home rentals. Building them helps address the housing crisis and benefits both visitors & residents.

Edmonton stays with 8 homes per lot! Vancouver will get there some day!

valentine's day isn't just for couples, it's also a day to celebrate love. for instance, i would love it if housing prices came down.

ICYMI: The Problem with Public Hearings

From the people that brought you "Where are the schools for all these new homes?" Coming soon to a public hearing near you "We should build less school"

Our monthly happy hour is tomorrow, Thursday February 12! Starting at 5 pm at Rogue in Waterfront Station. Whether you're a regular or a first-timer, this is a great way to meet some pro-housing friends and neighbours. Hope to see you there!

Are "pre-rebuttals" a thing, like "pre-zonings"? If so, here's a pre-rebuttal from @jensvb.bsky.social and I to the latest argument that supply doesn't matter (from CCPA, sigh). The Key: Doubling up is the demographic indicator demonstrating our shortage. homefreesociology.com/2025/07/06/h...

Feb. 26 in Squamish: Prominent local journalists Justin McElroy, Tyler Olsen & Jennifer Thuncher will discuss what works covering local elections. A lot has changed in 4 years, but in our experience, people still want to hear about why rent is too high.

"the biggest problem is likely increasingly strict land use regulation in the West. Peng estimates that this has gobbled up almost all meagre technological gains, and accounts for about 40 per cent of the productivity dearth."

ANOTHER poll, same result: Vancouverites want more housing options!

Based on realistic scenarios given the current development pipeline, Rennie, in a report for the City of Vancouver's ODP, projects Vancouver will have around 875,000 residents by 2034. council.vancouver.ca...

This brand new 3 bedroom home in an 8-unit townhouse is going for less than average market rent at $1,650. That's rezoning for housing choice in action!

The $113-million mess of a community centre I wrote about this week is 100% funded from “development charges.” It is going in a neighbourhood with zero population growth. In part, these charges are a tax on newcomers to subsidize existing wealthy homeowners. globalnews.ca/news/1163476...

ICYMI (gift link for the first few clickers): How ‘single exit stairway’ buildings could make cities better and safer

New from me: A brief for @rooseveltinstitute.org on the logic of YIMBY policymaking and its applicability to other domains. What principles underlying the YIMBY agenda are transferrable to thinking about energy, healthcare, and other areas? Short 🧵 to follow. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Congrats to Council on approving another area rezoning to allow apartments. Special thanks to Councillor Peter Meiszner, Sarah Kirby-Yung & Lucy Maloney for asking tough questions about the lack of viability in this zone. Watch video in thread! 1/9

BC Today w/ Michelle Eliot: Does B.C.'s real estate industry need a kickstart? Featuring our own Peter Waldkirch www.cbc.ca/listen/li...

What's strange to me as a foreigner is that Vancouver is supposed to be enlightened at urban planning AND supposed to be socially progressive. How do the politicians justify the housing restrictions to themselves?

Public Hearing Tomorrow (Tuesday): Council considers more apartment zoning that is not economically viable, this time for the Rupert & Renfrew plan area.

OneCity is holding a contested mayoral nomination, and their two candidates, William Azaroff and Amanda Burrows, were on the Cambie Report. Link to the full episode below. Here's what they had to say about housing (see follow up posts for alt text):

Ring in 2026 with some good vibes talking housing with your pro-housing friends and neighbours! Our first happy hour of 2026 is coming up: When: Thursday Jan 8, starting 5 pm (drop by when you can!) Where: Rogue Wetbar in Waterfront Station

Another example, this time from Australia. Everywhere you look, the supply-demand balance strongly determines changes in rents. morehousing.substack.com/p/inverted-v...

Perhaps inspired by BC, a key difference is that California's transit-oriented development law requires zoning to be put in place, whereas BC's does not (only requiring that cities not reject a rezoning application *because of* an allowed density). It will be interesting to compare what happens!