River District Will Home Across 15,000 Residents – Find Out What is Happening

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It was a huge surprise that most people were not aware about so much space in metro Vancouver, thus River district being a mystery to most of the people.

Don’t get shocked to know that it covers 130 acres of area and it can provide home to over 15,000 people. It includes 7.2 million square feet of residential space, 260,000 square feet of office space and 250,000 square feet of retail space. As if that was not enough, it also includes an elementary school, parkland and daycare centers.

River District is being constructed since over a year and now, it seems that the vision is turning into reality. Three projects are already built which includes over 600 homes and the fourth one is being constructed now, after which only the final fifth will remain. However, the fifth one is in the permitting process right now. When the construction will be over, there will be five interconnected neighborhoods which will provide over 7000 houses. These homes include everything from the townhouses and low rise apartments to the high rise towers.

In the early second half of this year, one town centre will be ready which will be followed by the second town centre. The town centre is a social hub, as the name suggests will be at the centre of the town and will be the heart of the community.

Now about the three, five and ten year plan, all the public and commercial components are anticipated to be completed in the next three years. However, the boutique and other retail anchors will take five years to get completed. Apart from that, the planning includes the residents-only facility buildings with the fitness facility, squash courts as well as yoga and dance studio. The residential development that is still left out would be completed in five to ten years. The completion of the entire master plan is predicted to be finished in 15 years.

Two sites have already been allocated to schools. The reason behind this is that, it has been the number one element which the buyers look out for when buying the residential property, as according to them, it is kids who bring the neighbors together and build a natural and authentic network. The number two element that buyers look for is shopping. People desire for the social aspect at the walking distance where they can go for shopping or having coffee to meet up friends after a long day’s work. While the third component, proximity to nature has been taken into the consideration, the fourth one, walk-ability has also been considered. So, irrespective of the place you are at, you will never be more than ten minutes away to the coffee shop. You can easily park your car and then ride on bike or walk across the path safely. Well, transportation facilities are also being planned.

What is exciting here, is to see, after five years, how the River District has been evolved and turned out to be!

Naz Allahyari is a Vancouver real estate agent specializing in selling or buying a home in North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and as well as condos in Downtown Vancouver.

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Family Friendly Housing will now be a Mandate in New Westminster

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With changing times, single family accommodations are becoming lesser and lesser affordable. So, how can a city create homes for families? New West has taken the right steps to combat this by ensuring that new developments have units that are large enough to accommodate families. It is the first city in Vancouver to mandate a fixed number of three bedroom units per new development.

It’s now mandatory for all new development projects to have at least 30% of two and three bed room units. Owned projects should have at least 10% of three bedroom units. Rental projects should have a minimum of 25% two to three bedroom units and minimum of 5% should be three bed room units.

For many young families, a single family home becomes quite unaffordable. If the city has to grow, it has to ensure that residents get a favorable lifestyle and multi-family units can easily provide for that. Including high rises and traditional single family accommodations, New West ensures that families at all stages of life can afford and live in a neighborhood of their choice. The town is a mix and match of both styles of living making it an appealing place to look at for your next real estate investment.

Well, because of the lack of affordable units, many families look across the border, which in itself is a sign. Young families need not have to cross city borders to live a good lifestyle. Taking this as a challenge, the mayor hopes to provide the residents of New West a great urban life by placing restrictions on the development projects to build enough multifamily homes.

The two and three bed room units would be built on the lower floors of the buildings in order to address the affordability issue.

Other units with pent houses have a higher price associated with them. The policy also focuses on bringing the larger units to the lower floors in order to balance the prices and make housing an affordable affair in New West. Families of all sizes can now find comfortable homes within their budget. The city will benefit from such an arrangement with the ability to provide housing for a variety of ages and demographics.

This will also ensure that in this fast paced world, there is always space for families in our society. Even though the development industry expressed some concerns regarding such an arrangement, the mayor strongly believes that this is a good step towards the well being of the young and old families that have been home hunting for an affordable and comfortable living.

The law would be effective from Jan 2016 and all future development projects would require to comply with these laws.

The trend for single bedroom and studio units will now steadily shift towards multifamily units making the city more family friendly that caters to the needs of families of all sizes and demographics giving it a more friendly-neighborhood effect!

Naz Allahyari, is a full-time Vancouver Realtor® & Specializes in selling or buying a home in North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and as well as condos in Downtown Vancouver.

Image Credit: http://goo.gl/lGfrR0