For anyone with a drawbridge mentality, it’s very sad. Victoria, British Columbia, has been discovered. Although Victoria is on an island with no fixed link to the ‘mainland’, that doesn’t deter the many people from ‘away’ who have their eyes and hearts set on making Victoria home.
But what about the ordinary guy or gal who lives here, wants to stay here, wants to grow roots and raise a family here? It’s very difficult. Rental vacancy rates are almost non-existent (about one half of one percent according to a recent news report!), and with the price of real estate in Victoria having doubled in the past five years or so, the dream of even the most modest single family ‘starter’ home is fading fast for many – including even the most disciplined penny pinching home 'wannabe'.
Affordability is all about supply and demand, and there is no shortage of demand here. That’s why secondary suites are everywhere in Victoria. They offer many young, and sometimes not so young, Victoria lovers an affordable way to rent a place to live in their city of choice. But not only that.
Secondary suites are ‘mortgage helpers'. The income boost from a secondary suite can mean the difference between owning a home in Victoria, or of being frozen out of the real estate market.
Unfortunately, a large number of these secondary suites are illegal under Victoria’s existing bylaws. That means the tenure of tenants is legally ‘iffy’. And it means that home owners who rely on income from illegal secondary suites live under constant uncertainty as to their ability to make their next mortgage payment.
But it seems that the City of Victoria may be on the verge of becoming one of the more enlightened local governments within the Capital Regional District. Victoria seems to be teetering on the brink of relaxing the rules concerning ‘secondary suites’.
A recent study recommended Victoria change its existing bylaws to remove two significant impediments to ‘suiting’ a home. One recommendation was to remove the existing requirement for off-street parking for two vehicles. A second recommendation was to permit suites in homes built before the year 2002 – under the existing bylaw, homes newer than 1970 aren’t eligible.
This is certainly a step in the right direction. But it's only one step – as the study noted, the proposed changes, if implemented, will only qualify about 800 additional homes, and of those, only some homeowners will ultimately create a suite.
Victoria is only one jurisdiction among 13 in the Capital Regional District, and the secondary suite situation varies from one to another. For example, the District of Saanich has the largest population of all, but doesn't permit legal secondary suites. It does allow for extended family situations, so that individuals 'related' to the resident home owner may have their own kitchen – in effect, an inlaw suite. But beyond that, it's reported that Saanich has no current plans to change its restrictive position on suites.
With continuing population growth and limited space for residential expansion (except upwards) Saanich, along with other surrounding communities, will come under increasing pressure to reexamine this issue.
In the meantime, do the 'secondary suite police' patrol neighbourhoods looking for telltale signs of illegal secondary suites? It's doubtful – enforcement in most jurisdictions seems more reactive than proactive, based on complaints from neighbours. In other words, hit and miss.
Hit and miss enforcement is hardly a sound basis to 'invest' in a property on the basis of it's advertised 'suite potential'. If you're toying with the idea of buying a home with 'mortgage helper' potential, do your homework first. Check with the municipality concerning the current state of play of their secondary suite bylaws.
Bye for now,
...Victoria's blogging real estate professional.
