Feature: Micro-condos find right fit in Vancouver as affordable housing

Vancouver in west Canada has been called the world's second-most expensive city, only after Hong Kong. The average cost of a home is around 640,000 Canadian dollars (about 513,207 U.S. dollars), which is beyond many young people who have just landed a job or got married. How to solve this thorny issue? Some real estate developers and designers in this city have come up with a new concept -- micro-condo.

A micro-condo, about 300 square feet or 30 square meters, is for sale for around 80,189 U.S. dollars, less than a sixth of the average cost of a home in Vancouver.

Bill Morrison, president of Platinum Project Marketing, explained his ideas to Xinhua.

"The biggest thing is we have to be more responsible toward the affordable design and that's it. And the real key to that is designing with volume. So we think about terms like cubic space instead of square footage. So we try to design using all the area rather than just the square footage," he said Thursday.

Morrison said their 36-storey tower, which will be completed in three years, will include about 120 micro-suites. They will have all the basics -- a kitchen, washroom, living space and a patio.

Every inch must serve a purpose in this small place. The bed slides out from under a platform, instead of pulling down from the wall. The closet slides out on a hidden track.

"We've tried to eliminate a lot of swing doors, and we've tried to eliminate a lot of hallways, because these traffic spaces tend to take away from that utility," Morrison added.

In another micro-condo building, Balance Micro-Suites will see its first residents in about six weeks. Several of their 56 units are sized at 297 square feet and are selling for around 87,406 dollars.

Charan Sethi, president of Tien Sher Homes, told Xinhua that the city and lenders were doubtful that the micro concept would work, but then the project got backing from a major Canadian bank after their agents toured the building. The micro suites are nearly sold out.

"It was quite a mindset change getting the media to accept it, get the people to accept it, get the banks to accept it, so it was a long process," Sethi said.

He said the spaces will help young people get a foot into Vancouver's competitive housing market. A monthly mortgage payment on this unit would cost about 481 dollars.

"Everybody talks about the affordability factor and the new, the next generation of people who don't have any homes have a very difficult time getting into the marketplace. This allows them to get into the market place for the same price or even sometimes less than the rent itself," Sethi added.

Ian Kent, founder of Nomad Micro-Homes, said there was a housing crisis right now, as they found some people were sleeping under stairs in shared houses, especially students and people without regular incomes.

It's time to address the problem and the micro homes could offer the solution to urban housing shortages, said Kent. Endite