Low supply playing role in rising home prices in Kamloops

With his budget, Jain says he can afford a studio or one-bedroom apartment on the North Shore. By comparison, his budget could have bought him a decent townhouse in a central area a few years ago.

“As someone in his early thirties I would like to start a family. I would like to, I don’t know, have guests over and that space might [be] too small,” said Jain.

Other young people are in the same boat as Jain — competing against multiple bids.

Mortgage broker Travis Colman has been working in the hot Kamloops market for eight years. He says that these bidders can offer $30,000 to $150,000 over the asking price.

“It becomes really frustrating when you find a home you think is going to work for you and it’s in your price range and you get excited and you make an offer and somebody else with deeper pockets comes along,” said Colman.

The issue of affordable housing is multifaceted and has a myriad of potential solutions.

To address a lack of supply, the city of Kamloops set urban densification as a target in their Official Community Plan, released in 2017.

The city says they are encouraging suites on single‑family lots (where permitted through zoning), mixed‑use developments through infill, micro‑suites, row houses, and stacked townhouses.

“You’re seeing a lot of redevelopment, a lot of densification, within our core areas. And there’s a lot of benefits to that,” said Marvin Kwiatkowski,

As a recent example of this, council approved City Gardens in December 2021— what they call the largest residential permit in the municipality’s history. City Gardens is a 525-unit building with one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units designed for families of different sizes.

This was made possible through land assembly — looping together adjacent lots to create a parcel big enough for a development. But not everyone wants to sell their land to a developer.

Kwiatowski said that only three per cent of Kamloops land is able to be developed, and that all the “easy” land has already been developed. The remaining land, thanks to Kamloops’ unique terrain, is harder to tackle.

“It’s very costly, it may be on steep hills, it may have groundwater issues,” he said. “A lot of the lands would be treed, there’s fire hazards there.”

According to the 2020 KAMPLAN Indicator Report, at the end of 2020, the development of medium-to-high density housing like apartments and condos was above target, but “missing-middle” properties like townhouses and duplexes were below target. These properties are generally more affordable for new homebuyers but offer more space than apartments and condos.

Colman said that even when projects get approved, it can be a decade before they’re on the market.

Prices are also driven up when residents from higher-priced markets sell their houses and use the equity to easily out bid first-time buyers.

“We have people coming from overseas, coming from Kelowna, coming from Vancouver, where it’s already massively more expensive than it is here, and so demand is really really high, and [inventory] is quite low and it’s been historically low for the last couple years here,” said Colman.

Despite this lack of inventory, some are determined to settle down in Kamloops.

“[When] demand gets really high, all it does is drive that price point higher. We are seeing lots of demand, there are still people who want to live in Kamloops and surrounding area, there’s just not a lot here for them right now,” said Colman.

As for Jain, he isn’t so sure.

“To a point it is almost hopelessness, to a point where you’re thinking, hey maybe I should move either down to the states or even go back to India where at least I have a roof over my head.”

by Stephanie Swensrude

Low supply playing role in rising home prices in Kamloops

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