There's a lot of this, yes. And the suburbs aren't necessarily very suburban: I live in a 30 floor condo tower in Burnaby, and within 2 block radius there's a dozen similar towers and twenty more 30-60 floor towers in various stages of zoning hearings (8) / building approval (7) / digging big holes (2) / towers going up (3).
There are two major phenomena at play in Vancouver:
1. Across Metro Vancouver, the supply of land for single family detached houses is very constrained; this is pushing prices of detached houses up dramatically.
2. The City of Vancouver proper is very hostile to development, due to a toxic combination of NIMBYism, height restrictions to maintain "view corridors" of the nearby mountains, and social activists who think that building more housing will somehow make housing less affordable.
But if you're willing to live in a condo and you don't mind living a 20 minute train ride away from downtown, the cost of housing is far more reasonable than hysterical media reports would have you believe; and unlike detached houses, prices of condos have barely kept up with inflation over the past decade.
How confident are you of not getting a multi hundred thousand dollar assessment when the condo starts leaking or otherwise falling apart? Owning a condo worries me, no control over the maintenance, no ability to do any changes to it, no space to start a family.
The roof on your house can suddenly start leaking, too.
Vancouver was plagued by "leaky condos" in the 1980s and early 1990s, but that's over now: This happened due to a rapid expansion of condo construction using building designs suited for a drier climate. There have been no signs of problems in newer buildings.
Stata corporations are normally supposed to have depreciation reports prepared in order to identify upcoming costs; unfortunately these can be waived with a vote of unit holders, and most do. The best remedy here is to not buy a unit which doesn't have a recent depreciation report.
no space to start a family
In terms of $ per unit floor area, condos are cheaper than detached houses. Sure, you don't get a lawn... but you get access to lots of other amenities. I'm not convinced that raising kids in a condo is as hard as people think.
There's a lot of this, yes. And the suburbs aren't necessarily very suburban: I live in a 30 floor condo tower in Burnaby, and within 2 block radius there's a dozen similar towers and twenty more 30-60 floor towers in various stages of zoning hearings (8) / building approval (7) / digging big holes (2) / towers going up (3).
There are two major phenomena at play in Vancouver:
1. Across Metro Vancouver, the supply of land for single family detached houses is very constrained; this is pushing prices of detached houses up dramatically.
2. The City of Vancouver proper is very hostile to development, due to a toxic combination of NIMBYism, height restrictions to maintain "view corridors" of the nearby mountains, and social activists who think that building more housing will somehow make housing less affordable.
But if you're willing to live in a condo and you don't mind living a 20 minute train ride away from downtown, the cost of housing is far more reasonable than hysterical media reports would have you believe; and unlike detached houses, prices of condos have barely kept up with inflation over the past decade.