

A near-one-acre site will be developed for affordable rental housing in Vancouver’s historic and prestigious Shaughnessy neighbourhood, where residents have rallied in the past to stop high-density rental development.

The 37,938-square-foot parcel, which currently hosts two single-detached houses, sold October 25 for $12.7 million.

“This deal marks a historic shift for Shaughnessy,” said Mark Goodman of Goodman Commercial Inc., Vancouver, who brokered the transaction.

Goodman noted the site has qualified for the City of Vancouver’s Affordable Housing Choices Interim Rezoning Policy. The proposed development is a four-storey rental building with 85 rental suites.

The benchmark price of a detached house in Shaughnessy as of October was $4.8 million, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, making it the most expensive housing market in the city.

“The new owner is taking the property through the rezoning process in order to facilitate the construction of a purpose-built rental development,” Goodman confirmed.

It was not clear how a price of approximately $12 million per acre would relate to affordable rental apartments. The per-unit cost of the rental units, based just on land value, works out to $147,000 per apartment before demolition and construction begins.