The project: apartment renovation motivation

Vancouver’s housing prices suck. Getting on the property ladder (not a foot – but a half a big toe) in this city requires $300,000. Minimum. You love 1-bedroom apartments, right? As for proper houses with stairs and gardens? One billion dollars. Youch.

vancouver view The project: apartment renovation motivation

How tall's your ladder? It's a steep climb from sea level.

Some stats?

  • Average Vancouver home price: $638,000 (Living in Canada, Jan 2010)
  • Average price per square foot (downtown apartments): $800 (New York Times, July 2010)
  • Average detached bungalow price: $905,000 (Reuters, July 2010)

Vancouver’s so goddamn gorgeous that starter homes are more likely teeny, tiny apartments. Still, there’s lots to love in this city – and we’re not going anywhere (3 cheers for our Most Livable North American City victory in this year’s Mercer survey. And those Olympics weren’t bad either).

The project goal: ladder-climbing

Impatient in most things, I want a house. A house with a view. Not a shitty view with stuff in the way. A good view. The prices above don’t reflect views at all – they’re just your bog standard quiet-leafy-street kinda houses. A decent job and good saving habits are one thing – but this city’s property ladder is s-t-e-e-p. I need more cunning than that.

vancouver one bedroom The project: apartment renovation motivation

Hold on tight! You can window-wash your way up Vancouver's property ladder

I need to flip it. Flip it good.

So, how to get from A (now – bottom rung ) to B to C to D (good view – no need for ladder)? A little maneuvre called the flip.

  1. We gulp and get on the property ladder. Buy our first apartment. Somewhere ugly, but with potential.
  2. Using more time than money, we survive our complete home renovation. Revamp it to ten shades of sensational.
  3. Then… eventually… when the chaos has a nostalgic tint, we sell and do it again.
  4. Repeat as necessary until that ocean view is ten times closer.

So won’t you join in? It’s time to meet my ugly baby. Subscribe now or enjoy email updates straight to your inbox. It’s going to be a bumpy old ride.

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Full photo credit to kennymatic (who has a ton of amazing Vancouver photos) and mlinksva [via Flickr Creative Commons].