The Globe and Mail - 03.04.2020

FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2020 | THE GLOBE AND MAILO REAL ESTATE| H7

THEACTIONThe buyers are a Cana-
dian couple working in China
who flew over and purchased it
as a future property to live in one
day. The suite was tenanted and
the tenant stayed on. “It was
ideal for everybody,” the buyer’s
agent Ian Watt says. The seller
received several offers. The

buyers purchased in February

and the deal closed last week.

WHAT THEY GOTThe 536-square-

foot unit is in a three-year-old

building near Yaletown shops,

SkyTrain and parks. The one-

bedroom unit is contemporary

with galley kitchen, Italian cabi-

nets, thermo-acoustic heating

and cooling system, and flex

space.

The amenities include fitness

room, billiards, shared BBQ,

courtyard and garden plots.

THE AGENT’S TAKEThe unit was

priced right, in a central location

and in great condition. “It’s like a

Toyota Corolla,” Mr. Watt says.

“Great, reliable, not flashy. It is

what it is.”

But Mr. Watt says anyone

wanting to sell or buy should

hold off until viewings are pos-

sible again. “Realtors should take

a two-month pause.”

• KERRY GOLD

Condosellsoverasking,butagentsuggestsrealtorsnowpause

1133 Hornby St., No. 905,
Vancouver
DAVIEVILLAGE

Askingprice:$598,800
Sellingprice:$640,000
Previoussellingprice:
$411,900(2018)
Daysonmarket:8
Taxes:$1,675
Monthlymaintenancefee:$236.87
Buyer’sagent:IanWatt,Sotheby’s
InternationalRealty

DONEDEAL

F

or Tara Gallen, it started with
a cargo bike.
Ms. Gallen was looking
through a Facebook page for fam-
ilies who bike and saw mention
of a co-housing-style project that
was cargo-bike friendly.
Because cargo bikes are wide
and awkward, they don’t fit into
the average bike storage room.
Tomo House, on Vancouver’s
Main Street, will be a bike-friend-
ly project, with parking stalls for
car shares and space for cargo
bikes. The co-housing project
aims to be family friendly and in-
tergenerational, which means a
community of all ages.
Ms. Gallen, a transportation
planner, is living with husband
Aaron Donovan and two children
younger than the age of 5, in a
townhouse rental that they’ve
outgrown. They want a bigger
place and to be part of a support-
ive community where their chil-
dren can grow up in a safe envi-
ronment surrounded by other
children and people of all ages.
They joined Our Urban Village
(OUV), the group that is buying
into Tomo House at 5809-5811
Main St. near E. 41st Avenue,
which breaks ground this year.
OUV started back in July, 2015, but
Ms. Gallen and her husband only
joined last year. They’ve discov-
ered that co-housing requires a
lot of patience and the resolve to
move forward despite any hur-
dles. You have to be a firm believ-
er that life is better when you
share space with your neigh-
bours.
Once they move into Tomo
House, they will have that cargo-
bike parking space as well as
neighbours who have already of-
fered to walk their kids to school
and watch them after school. The
couple works full time and after-
school care is both costly and in
big demand, so those built-in
benefits are already a huge sav-
ings for the family.
Other cost-saving measures in-
clude a wood-frame construction
built using prefabricated panels,
as opposed to expensive con-
crete, and shared common spaces
such as a large laundry room.
“It takes the edge off,” Ms. Gal-
len said. “We want to stay in the
city and we want our city life, but
being in the city can be tough on
families. After-school care is hard
to come across. It’s expensive, so
this is something that enables us
to benefit from all the wonderful
things that being in a city pro-
vides, such as being able to bike
wherever we go. So having those
community supports in place is a
huge part of our reasons to go in-
to co-housing.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has
bolstered their decision to join a
co-housing community, she said.
While sharing common spaces, a
kitchen and meals with a group
of people might seem like a chal-
lenge when everyone is being
told to stay two metres apart
from one another, Ms. Gallen and
other co-housing members say
the benefits outweigh the set-
backs.
“It’s about resiliency,” she add-

ed. “Where I see families having

to do backbends to manage their

lives in an urban lifestyle, having

a community that is there to mu-

tually support each other means

we are more resilient, when

things like this pandemic hap-

pens. We didn’t get into co-hous-

ing to survive a pandemic, but we

do all experience those shocks

and stresses that put pressure on

our lives, and that’s where co-

housing really shines, that’s

where it makes us resilient. And

it’s about both giving and getting

help.”

With traditional co-housing, a

group of people get together, pur-

chase the land and develop it. In

that way, they build affordable

housing to suit their own needs,

as opposed to what the market

designs for them. A key part of co-

housing is that it operates as a

community, so that meals and

child-rearing duties are often

shared, and people just look out

for each other. But in Vancouver’s

pricey property market, it’s not a

smooth process.

Tomo House is one of the few

co-housing projects to make it as

far as it has, and it is not typical of

the co-housing model. OUV

members are not the developers

of the building, so they were not

involved in buying the land, lead-

ing the design and permit proc-

ess, managing contractors or as-

suming the risk. They have some

crucial input with the Tomo de-

velopment team (design work-

shops are held for the members),

but they are mostly hands-off,

which is why they call themselves

“co-housing lite.” Their model is

believed to be a first for Canada

and there are still several units

available.

Developer Leslie Shieh, co-

founder of Tomo Spaces, says

their collaboration with the fu-

ture residents of Tomo House

separates them from developers

of projects that are for a specula-

tive market, or a “fictional cus-

tomer who’s based on market

trends.” She says she hopes that

co-housing lite will help more

people get into co-housing.

“In the co-housing lite model,

as the developer, we get to know

the families we are building for –

who they are and what they like

to do,” Ms. Shieh said in an e-mail.

“Buying a ready-made home is

easier [at an open house or a

show home], but I think it’s also

important to create models for

people to get involved in making

their own homes.”

Little Mountain Cohousing

(LMC), which is also under way, is

following the traditional Danish

model of co-housing. The six-

storey 25-unit project, built to

passive-house standards and de-

signed by Cornerstone Architec-

ture, is much further along than

Tomo House and opens its doors

in the fall. With LMC, the mem-

bers had to jump through all the

same hoops as a developer, in-

cluding working with the city, ob-

taining permits, obtaining fi-

nancing, design, construction

and working through the many

development hurdles.

Charles Montgomery, owner of

Happy City urban design consul-

tancy, has bought into LMC, and

he also consulted on Tomo

House. He calls the LMC experi-

ence enjoyable but also “time

consuming and arduous,” and he

didn’t even come on board until

the group had already purchased

the land assembly on Quebec

Street near E. 33rd Avenue.

“It’s become clear to me that

standardized co-housing in Cana-

da, for most people in this real es-

tate climate, is an option for peo-

ple who have the money and

time. That’s why I’m increasingly

thinking that the co-housing lite

option is valuable for more peo-

ple, because in the co-housing

lite option the developer takes

the risk and the developer deals

with the headaches of architec-

ture and engineering and financ-

ing and jumping through the

hoops at city hall. And the com-

munity of future residents gets to

focus on considering how they

want to be together as a commu-

nity and relate to the world and

each other and support each oth-

er, which is what co-housing is all

about.”

Mr. Montgomery says so com-

plex is the process that a small in-

dustry of consultants has

emerged to help co-housing

groups. The Little Mountain

group hired Cohousing Develop-

ment Consulting (CDC) to help

them navigate the journey, and it

has still taken several years.

“In the olden days, maybe

when co-housing was first con-

ceived in Denmark, it was

thought to be something where

residents could get projects going

and start themselves and see

through the process, but it’s so

complicated here it’s impossible

for groups to do it themselves,”

says Kathy McGrenera, one of the

CDC project managers.

Once a group forms and ap-

proaches CDC, the consultants

hold an initial workshop to open

their eyes. That’s “a sobering mo-

ment,” Ms. McGrenera says.

With traditional co-housing,

there are the upfront costs. The

initial contribution is typically

around $30,000 for each house-

hold, which goes toward the

down payment on the land, she

says. Once construction begins,

members contribute another 10

per cent of the value of their unit.

They pay the balance of the pur-

chase price at occupancy. Pur-

chase prices for Little Mountain

run between $460,000 for a one

bedroom to $1,060,000 for a four-

bedroom unit. They try to build

20 to 30 units, so the ideal is to

assemble three city lots.

Tomo House, designed by MA

+ HG Architects, is 12 strata

homes on two standard lots, in-

cluding three affordable home

ownership units with price re-

striction covenants to ensure

long-term affordability. In their

unique situation, they do not pay

the developers at the beginning

of the project. There are no offer-

ings for sale and no deposits

made until presale conditions are

met. Ms. Gallen and her husband

paid $10,000 upfront to OUV, as a

commitment to the project,

$8,000 of which will be returned

to the couple, to be used as the

down payment on their unit. The

remaining $2,000 will be used for

various group fees. Prices for each

unit haven’t yet been finalized.

Once they have bought in, they

will form a strata corporation.

With conventional co-housing,

the group becomes a limited lia-

bility company of shareholders

throughout development. Once

they gain occupancy, the compa-

ny dissolves and they legally be-

come a strata corporation, al-

though the building will look and

operate very differently from a

strata property. But the strata ar-

rangement works best in order to

obtain financing, or to buy or sell

a unit, Ms. McGrenera says.

There are risks, including the

likelihood that the group will

change, because people often

drop out along the way.

“There are many groups that

fail,” she said. “It’s a big leap of

faith, with the cost of real estate

in Vancouver, for a group to make

the leap to purchase a multi-

million dollar property together.

And in the early phases, they

don’t know each other very well –

that’s a stumbling block. I may be

biased, and not to be self-serving,

but if they don’t have good advice

from consultants, it’s hard.

“And the big risk is that if they

aren’t tightly managed they will

come in over market and then it’s

very difficult to attract people to

the project. ... It’s really crucial

that the project is managed really

well, so it doesn’t go over.”

Ms. McGrenera has lived at

Quayside Village co-housing in

North Vancouver, B.C., for 22

years. She works full time on Van-

couver’s Little Mountain co-

housing project and North Van-

couver’s Driftwood Village Co-

housing, which began construc-

tion last fall. That project still has

two townhouses available for

purchase. Without the additional

developer profit and marketing

costs built into the project, she

said co-housing groups could

save about 15 per cent of overall

costs. But in building common

spaces, the money gets eaten up

anyway, so the goal is to come in

at no more than market value.

The savings tend to be the long-

term benefits of owning in a

shared space.

“They get a home and a bunch

of extra common space for the

same price as a regular home, and

they usually put in higher quality

construction, and more green

building initiatives, so that adds

some cost.”

The process, she says, “has to

be as quick as a regular developer,

if they want to keep costs down.”

“And they get really good at it,”

she added. “In doing that, they

learn to collaborate, which sets

them up well to live together af-

terward, because they had to

make all these hard decisions to-

gether.”

She’s a big believer that co-

housing is worth the effort. A few

nights prior, her co-housing

members had a sing-along while

standing on their walkways.

Group meal nights have been sus-

pended, but they’re delivering

food to neighbours who are in

self-isolation. Their movie night

went on as scheduled, but every-

body sat two metres from each

other.

“I love living in co-housing, so I

was happy to contribute to more

getting built,” she said. “There is a

whole community of support

whenever anything happens in

life. Although the epidemic is go-

ing on, I think we still have to

have some sense of normalcy or

we will go crazy. It’s nice to open

my door and see neighbours and

wave atthem. Yesterday, because

everybody knows I work at home,

I had four neighbours drop by. It

was lovely.”

Shared-livingconvertsjustwaitingforthekeys

Inanunusualmodel,

Vancouverco-housing

groupistakingamostly

hands-offapproach

asdevelopersplan

theirfutureresidence

KERRY
GOLD

OPINION

VANCOUVER

Members of the Our Urban Village group, which is buying into Tomo House, a Vancouver co-housing project,

meet for a Christmas celebration.TARAGALLEN

Tomo House is seen in an artist’s rendering. Designed by MA + HG

Architects, the project at 5809-5811 Main St. breaks ground this year,

and will feature 12 strata homes on two standard lots.TOMOSPACES