The 270 s.f. micro-loft announced in Vancouver

Can you say $675 a month to rent your very own newly renovated residence in an up-and-coming neighborhood within a vibrant city? That’s affordable to someone with a $25,000/year salary.

Mini-condos on the rise in walkable urban areas, and developers in Vancouver, Canada agree, announcing thirty 270 s.f. units to be completed in March 2011.

Apparently having City support for mini-residences is a new thing, “We took a position against these kinds of units 20 years ago, but times have changed. We’ve got to support any kind of rental housing,” Tom Durning of the Tenant Resource and Advisory Council.

Keys to attractive high style/low cost compact design for the $5 million mixed-use building include looking to Asia and Europe for inspiration, higher ceilings, lighter-colored materials and larger windows,kand a fold-out Murphy Bed.

“So many people contact us, not with a specific size they want, or specific amenities, but they tell us where they want to be in the neighbourhood and how much they can pay. So often that amount is just not achievable for anything but a very specialized product like this. By cutting away the non-essentials, that is the only way to get to that price-point in Vancouver. These types of sizes, quite honestly, don’t shock people in other cities. I think it’s a learning curve here,” John Stovell, general manager of Reliance Properties.

Stovell puts it best, “It’s not gentrification. It’s accommodation.”

However, these aren’t the smallest residences the City of Vancouver will allow you to rent. Check out the 195 s.f. ‘mortgage helpers’, where condo dwellers lease out portions of their homes to others.

About The Author

neilkt