Socially Responsible Residential Real Estate Development
Trade wars between the US and Canada have been front of mind for the first half of 2025. There have been several predictions over the months calling for increased prices, construction delays and supply chain disruptions. We’ll look at a series of forecasts over a three month period as the situation has changed and evolved. …
Are you in this situation with your building permit application? Many so called experts will tell you they can help you. But can they? Let’s investigate. There were approximately 340 applications for a Residential Building Permit submitted to the District of Saanich’s Building Department during the first five and a half months of 2025. Each …
The BC Step Code began in April 2017 with the first of 5 steps. We’re currently at Step 3 for Part 9 buildings of the BC Building Code (BCBC). In 2027, Step 4 will be enforced, and five years later Step 5 becomes the minimum standard for energy efficiency when building low-rise residential buildings in …
We’re in a housing crisis. The best solution is to build more homes, more places for people to live. The current housing stock is insufficient, both in quantity and in quality. There’s not enough and the existing stock is by-and-large not built to contemporary standards. Current construction is generally not sized appropriately for growing families: …
The Liberals have released a campaign platform (Build Canada Homes) for the Parliamentary election to be held on 28 April 2025. The platform includes a new housing initiative. Here, I’ll give a brief history of the national housing acts in Canada, present the details of the current plan, identify the main shortcoming in this proposed …
The immediate appeal of the Gentle Density Leaders’ Summit was connecting with others who are building small-scale multi-unit housing. I self-identified as a developer even though I’ve never developed a property in British Columbia or anywhere else in the last 15 years. Developing real estate became a recent aspiration for me with the new small-scale …
The Province enacted a mandate in summer 2024 to end single family zoning in most communities in British Columbia. This mandate required nearly all municipalities to modify their Zoning By-laws by 30 June 2024. Most did. Some asked for exemptions. I’m not aware of any exemptions that were granted. If you are, please let me …