Secondary suites

The average house in much of the Capital regional district is between $450 000 and $500 000. At this price it becomes very important for most people to be able to rent out part of the house to make ends meet. A $425 000 mortgage will cost about $2700 a month. Being able to collect a rent of $750 to $1000 a month makes it possible to own this sort of a house.

Problem is that most local governments do not allow them to exist in residential neighbourhoods.
View Royal is actively seeking out and getting rid of them. Most local governments turn a blind eye to them.

The blind eye leads to a problem - a lot of the secondary suites are basically not at all acceptable housing.

Meanwhile, the City of Victoria has announced that they will look at lifting the secondary suite restrictions. I am very glad that they are doing this. It would be nice to see all the secondary suites be recognized and be up to a basic standard of living space. It would also be nice to see higher density in neighbourhoods and for there to be more affordable housing. The higher density will reduce the footprint of the city on the planet - a good thing on many levels.

What would like to see after that is an easier process to strata a house into two units and basically allow this to happen in any neighbourhood.