Kelowna condo marketing itself as solution to city’s housing crunch

It’s no secret that Kelowna is growing, and with an increase in population comes more competition for housing.

Now, one condo development is marketing itself as the solution to that problem for buyers who are looking to get into the market.

However, not everyone agrees that’s the right way to deal with the city’s housing crunch.

The 105-unit Glenmore Central condo project, which is under construction in Kelowna’s Glenmore area, has a unique sales pitch: the developers are making a point of saying they are not marketing the project nationally or internationally.

Instead, they are billing the development as a chance for locals to get into the housing market.

“We want this to be a building and a neighbourhood on the Glenmore central lands that people are proud of and can identify as their home, as opposed to an investment opportunity,” Corey Makus, VP of Traine Construction and Development, said.

It’s one reaction to the pressure Kelowna’s growing population is putting on the local housing market.

“This is a very viable option to still have ownership as an attainable option for many people moving here or who have lived here for some period of time,” Makus said.

UBCO Economist Ross Hickey sees the same challenges for people looking to get into Kelowna’s competitive housing market.

“It is going to be tougher unless we see housing supply come online quick enough to meet the demand,” Hickey said.

However, he doesn’t agree that limiting the developments’ marketing campaign is the solution.

“When we start to limit and restrict who can enter into these markets, typically bad things happen. One of those bad things can be that we have a lack of investment in housing markets in British Columbia because we are deterring those foreign dollars from coming,” Hickey said.

Instead, Hickey sees more permissive zoning as the answer.

“That allows supply to be created fast enough to meet that demand. Because if you think of the other way to make housing more affordable, it is to kind of push that demand away, pushing that demand away is not ideal, because that would put downward pressure on prices,” Hickey said.

So while the developers and the economist see different solutions to Kelowna’s housing crunch, for some individual buyers, the solution to their housing search will be the completion of the Glenmore Central condo project in the fall of 2019.