The one bedroom condo is the new single family home.

To truly understand Vancouver’s crazy housing market, it’s important to understand that homeowner’s desire to own vs. rent really hasn’t changed that dramatically over the years, but their expectations regarding what type of Vancouver property they will own most certainly has!

The ideal home a generation ago was a single family home with a backyard, garage, and a white picket fence. Due to the run up in Vancouver land prices over the past 20 years, a single family home is now out of reach for most people, but condos most certainly are not. Sure, prices for attached properties have also skyrocketed in the past couple years, but most 1 bedroom condos are still relatively “affordable”, and least in today’s low interest rate environment.

These smaller 1-2 bedroom Vancouver condos are now going to act as the single family homes for first time buyers, rental property investors, and have really replaced the single family home demand which has cooled significantly.

Where real estate investors should be focused

Families are adjusting to living in smaller condos, even with 1 or 2 kids. It’s like this in Asia, Europe, and in a lot of the rest of the world, and will soon be the norm in many North American cities as well where available land is scarce (New York, San Francisco, Toronto, etc.)

If you’re an investor, unless your plan is to redevelop, smaller, 1 bedroom condos is where I would be placing my bets right now!

Looking for some advice in the Vancouver real estate market? Contact our property management and real estate company here.

Chris Stepchuk

Dec 26, 2017