Seriously, would you like to try it? One of the great things about laneway homes is that people can build them on their property to rent out. To you????
Reading the Vancouver Sun online, I saw this story on laneway homes available to rent in the city of Vancouver, including one in our very own neighbourhood.
These are all nice homes, well-built and well-designed, comfy and yet with enough storage for most people. They range in price from $1100 (for less than 500 square feet) to over $2,000 (for 700 square feet or more) which may seem high for a lot of people, but the rental situation in Vancouver means that these homes are quite reasonably priced. In the larger homes, two bedrooms mean that two room mates can split the rent.
A detached home in this town comes at a high rental price.
Is laneway living for you? Would you like to give it a try?
The Lady Who Lives Down the Lane 
I live in Kamloops and I rent a whole 3 BR, 1 bath heritage house with basement, yard in the downtown area for less than $1000 mo. Yes, there are lots of good paying jobs here and no traffic jams! And no, it’s not a dump, it’s close to buses, shopping, the hospital and walking distance to over 35 restaurants too! I left the coast for quality of life and i got it with perks!
Vancouver is not for everyone, I know. It’s true, there are many great communities in BC where you can live for much cheaper than Vancouver. For instance, my aunt and uncle made their summer vacation residence their permanent address when they moved full-time to Keremeos. My parents loved living in Nelson. My daughter is in Kamloops right now on business, and she likes the town very much. My sister enjoyed living in Williams Lake and my nephew still lives there. But I love Vancouver, I love living here, my job is here, my friends are here, and best of all, my kids are here. For me the best part of living in the laneway will be having my family just a few steps away, and creating a hub where the rest of the family can gather for special occasions. I have lots of friends who live in other cities and I always enjoy visiting them, but I’m prepared to pay the price for living where I do. Thanks for writing!
Is there any chance that the future of laneway housing in Vancouver is going to run up against the plethora of lanes littered with BC Hydro power poles? BC Hydro refuses to consider this upgrade to their electricity delivery systems. New York made the change in 1923 and for 90 years its buildings have been constructed without the constraints resulting from wires hanging right where windows could be. Looking at laneway image posts form other countries I can only wonder, how would it work here, with PCB-filled transformers on rotting ancient wood poles hovering above lanes that could have had cafes in them?
Bill, I have to agree with you. We have the connections all ready to take the power from the pole under the back yard to the main house, eliminating the overhead supply. It’s a good start, but it would be even better to have a pole-free laneway. Those poles add nothing, and living on the seismic fault line and waiting for the big one to make the lanes into giant masses of dangerous live wires just increase the reasons to bury them.