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West Point Grey is a pricey neighbourhood. Of the three properties on the market in the area Tuesday, a seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion was priced at $28 million and a four-bed, six-bath pied-à-terre ran for the lucky-sounding sum of $18.88 million. The third property, a four-bed, two-bathroom shack, was listed at a meagre $14.88 million. “Build your dream home nested in the heart of your own ‘Stanley Park’,” the listing stated.

Bremner said he saw rundown properties “the size of football fields” while on a recent walking tour in the neighbourhood with advocacy group Abundant Housing Vancouver.

“I saw just how dilapidated and derelict many of them are. The rest are owned by numbered corporations, largely out of country, passing amongst each other to avoid property transfer tax,” he said, adding with a laugh that the properties were so large that “you could build six storeys … and not see your neighbour.”

Asked whether developers could make a profit turning such costly properties into affordable rentals, Bremner said he ran the numbers and believed they could.

“I went to folks that I know that know the business … and I said: ‘Tell me I’m nuts. Tell me, do the numbers work or do the numbers not work?’ And they came back and immediately said the numbers absolutely work,” he said. “I was really bolstered by that.”

Last month, Bremner voted against the city’s Housing Vancouver strategy, which aims to combat homelessness, revitalize low-density neighbourhoods, tame real estate speculation and boost rental housing. He said he voted against the plan because he thought its targets were too low, unclear and not properly resourced. He called his own motion a “very clear” way to turn some 150 underutilized acres into rental housing.