St. John's Municipal Plan Review 2012 ... - City of St. John's

9 St. John’s Municipal Plan Review 2012: Background ReportPlanning Issues in St. John’sHousingThe City’s Department of Building andProperty Management shows that anaverage of 550 single detached houses arebeing built in St. John’s annually. Between2000 and 2011, there were 6,042 singlehouses built; of these, 17 per cent (or 1,036houses) contained subsidiary or basementapartments.average (79 per cent).The price of new housing has been steadilygoing up, increasing by 19.6 per cent in2008, 11.5 per cent in 2009, and 15.5 percent in 2010, which caused the average priceof a new single-detached house in the St.John’s CMA to reach $325,436.In 2006, there were 41,540 dwellingunits (this includes single houses, semidetachedor double houses, row houses, andapartments) in the City.The dominant housing form is the singledetached house which constituted 42.5 percent of the total housing stock. Units inapartment buildings were the least common,constituting 14.2 per cent of the stock.Almost one-half of all units were constructedbefore 1971, and a third of those (5,700houses) were built before 1946.Between 2002 and 2010, the average costof all houses (newly built and old) in theSt. John’s CMA rose 108 per cent, from$113,081 to $235,241. This increase isgreater than in other Atlantic Canadian cities(Halifax 70 per cent, Moncton 52 per cent,Saint John 65 per cent) and the CanadianEveryone needs suitable, affordable housing,whether by rental or purchase. The Cityof St. John’s Affordable Housing Charterand Action Plan 2011-2013 (locatedat: http://www.stjohns.ca/cityhall/pdfs/affordablehousing.pdf), states that:“Housing prices and rental rates are risingsharply at many times the rate of inflation,and the rental vacancy rate has beenamong the lowest in Canada since 2008.In the housing market, the task of securingadequate, affordable housing is becomingextremely difficult for people across theincome spectrum. The rapidly expandingeconomy has consequences that mustbe addressed so that growing prosperityproduces benefits for the whole community.The experience of other communities showsthat widespread housing instability has highsocial and economic costs.”