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Affordable home ownership key to society’s future, says top McGill architect

I had dinner last week with some old friends in Ottawa at their home, a cozy old bungalow not far from downtown and steps from the Rideau Canal. It's a leafy older neighbourhood and property values are climbing.

But a quick look at online real estate listings revealed the potential selling price of their detached home would be lucky to get you a one- or small two-bedroom condo in downtown Vancouver.

A detached home like theirs in a desirable neighbourhood can now go for upwards of a million bucks.

Vancouver is the leading edge of an affordability crisis that's beginning to eat at home ownership in other big Canadian cities as more people migrate to urban centres and planners try to cap sprawl.

Affordability is the driving force behind architect Avi Friedman's work. The McGill professor founded the university's affordable homes program and is considered one of the world's foremost housing experts, TheTyee.ca reports.

Friedman gave a lecture at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University recently on ways to expand affordable housing options for people with incomes between $35,000 to $80,000. In an interview afterward with Tyee journalist Jackie Wong, Friedman says his vision focuses on accessible home ownership.

"I don't want to discount renters," Friedman says, "but I believe categorically in ownership. It is important in life to create a personal capital."

But for many, home ownership in Vancouver, a magnet for both Canadian and overseas newcomers, has become unattainable. Real estate prices are far outstripping income rises. Home ownership, says Friedman, is crucial because it helps anchor people and allow them to fully participate in society.

Friedman argues the system needs changing at its roots, including the way homes are built, where they're built, how big they are and how they're sold.

The biggest obstacle to finding innovative solutions is the lack of dialogue among different levels of government in the region, he says. Politicians also need to fight against NIMBY (not in my backyard) sentiments of voters.

"I often see leaders - councillors, elected officials - capitulating too quickly to NIMBY sentiment because they're afraid to lose elections," says Friedman.

The most common reaction is opposition to increased residential density, he says.

"The tendency is to believe if there will be more people (in a neighbourhood), somebody will eventually suffer. Which is not the case."

Friedman also advocates designing homes to fit the buyer's income prospects. Friedman was behind McGill's Grow Home project in the early 1990s, a basic two-storey townhouse designed to allow residents to add rooms as their resources and needs changed over time.

Built in Montreal, the units were about half the price of a comparable home at the time, with more than 10,000 built and sold.

He's also criticizes the way homes are built. Friedman believes there are lessons to be learned from the efficiencies of the auto industry, where automation and mass production of parts help keep costs down.

Vancouver also has a particular problem with speculation, which makes developers less inclined to build affordable housing.

"They want to go after the fancy condos on which they can make tons of money," he says. "There needs to be some way to explain that you can make a lot of money building affordable housing."

Both builders and home buyers need to lower their expectations, Friedman adds. Do you really need a dream kitchen, for example?

"That doesn't mean aesthetics and quality materials must be sacrificed in the name of housing," he says. "Building smaller and more efficiently using space and materials will be key for the sustainable, financially accessible future of home construction."