The Vancouver Sun – Vancouver: Four-level Montgomery townhouses offer convenience

While the Montgomery townhouses at 43rd Avenue and Oak Street in Vancouver may not be considered affordable for most people, they do provide an interesting alternative to single-family homes on the west side.

The 27 Montgomery townhouses are on four levels — including a basement space, main floor living space, two bedrooms up and then a master suite on the top floor.

The UDI/Fortis Housing Affordability Index for B.C. found that less than 32 per cent of working households in Vancouver earn the requisite $91,199 necessary to qualify for the $2,432 a month mortgage payment required for the average new 1,463-square-foot townhouse in the area, with a median price of about $765,752.

Prices at Montgomery are a bit higher than the median, at about $1 million. However the townhouses are also bigger, averaging about 1,700 square feet. And they’re in the heart of the city’s coveted west side.

The same $1 million could buy a single-family home on the east side of the city, but that home is likely to be small, older and in need of a lot of work, said Chris Rowland, vice-president of the project’s developer the Listraor Group.

Many of the buyers at Montgomery are looking for single-family size without the single-family maintenance, such as yard work, window cleaning, sweeping pathways and other outdoor work, Rowland said. The project has attracted both offshore buyers from Asia and families moving up from condos in Vancouver or the suburbs, Rowland said.

Location is a big factor, Rowland said.

“It’s easy to get to the airport, downtown or to Richmond,” Rowland said. “It’s very central.” He said the 10-minute walk to the Canada Line station at Oakridge may be a factor in some people’s decision to buy there, but he doesn’t think it’s a big factor.

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