The Hong Kong Perspective of Housing in Vancouver

Kwok helped develop various areas in Metro Vancouver

A columnist with the Vancouver Sun interviewed a 96-year-old man named Stanley Kwok, who was instrumental in developing the former Expo 86 land into a downtown core filled with condos, that writer Douglas Coupland has called "City of Glass".

Kwok was originally from China, graduated in Shanghai in 1948 and then fled to Hong Kong. He then moved to Vancouver in 1968.

A big project was developing the Expo land

Not only has he had a hand in developing Vancouver, but also Whistler, Victoria's Inner Harbour, Metrotown in Burnaby, and an entire waterfront in Dubai.

When Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing was interested in buying the Expo 86 land, Kwok represented him in the negotiations and ran Concord Pacific.  

As Vancouver is facing a housing crunch these days, with not enough houses people can afford, let alone rent, Kwok's solution is to build higher. 

The era of single-family housing in Metro [Vancouver] is "more and more difficult" to maintain, he said. "So you start living in apartments. Other cities have grown up that way. It's just a different way of living. Why do we have to stick to the past?"

Does Kwok know that Vancouver is in a earthquake zone? Surely building too high is not a good idea? And for some people their goal is to have a detached house for their family. 

Perhaps even more surprising is his idea of what affordable housing should be, again compared to Hong Kong.

Vancouver now known as the City of Glass

"When Hong Kong talks about affordable housing, what they consider is providing a certain amount of square footage per person. That's all they're concerned about. They don't care what it is. They're very small. But here it's different. Here they say the standard has to be this or that. They say, 'To house a family not only do you have to have a bedroom for the parents, you also have to have a bedroom for each kid.' That makes it more expensive. And somebody has to pay for that."

While Kwok may claim this, there are families living in basement suites, or two or three people sharing a one-bedroom place. Everyone is trying to make do with the situation they've got. But he cannot and should not compare apples and oranges. 

He also inadvertently reveals how callous the housing situation is for the poor in Hong Kong. He believes just giving people tiny spaces to live is better than nothing. Perhaps he hasn't seen subdivided flats and cage homes?

The Astronomical Price of Living in Kelowna

Kelowna's downtown is right by the lake with clear water!

Uber launched its service in Kelowna on June 6 so I was keen to try it out while I was there. On the way to downtown Kelowna, the driver, a Caucasian man in his 60s said the city was growing so fast that infrastructure could not keep up, and so Uber met the need.

He said public transportation didn't help and not everyone has a car.

A shop window motto to live by

We changed the topic to the weather and he said the best weather is now, as May it's still rainy, but gets very hot in July and August. Two years ago where there was a heat dome and 619 people, mostly elderly died in British Columbia. 

The driver said temperatures in Kelowna shot up to over 40 degrees. I remarked that no one must have gone out those few days and he said it was pretty quiet.

On the way back, a South Asian man in his 30s picked me up in his Rav 4 hybrid and he said the city was becoming more and more unaffordable. He said he arrived in 2017 and rented a two-bedroom apartment for C$700 a month. Now the same place costs a whopping C$2,200 to lease.

He said a four-bedroom house six years ago would have cost C$800,000, but now is C$1.5 million.

I asked how people could afford to live, and he said they had to work. Although I pointed out that salaries weren't going up as fast, he didn't have an answer. Perhaps for him, driving for Uber helped pay his bills.

When I asked about the population in Kelowna he said it was 300,000 but officially it's 156,800... but one can see the construction of numerous condo buildings on main streets densifying the city.

Some giant inflatables for kids to play with

Highway 97 is the main highway that goes through the city and everything is about a 15-20 minute drive away which is very convenient. Our hotel is near Orchard Park, a very large shopping mall, and it took about 15 minutes to get there by foot. It seems daunting to cross the road, particularly the highway, but as long as you're patient to wait for the light, then it's safe to cross the intersections.

The summer sales were in full swing when we checked out the mall yesterday and did our part in buoying the economy. One store selling children's clothes were up to 75 percent off, another shop had T-shirts half off so they were C$6.99, while a pair of pants at Baby Gap were supposed to be C$30 and was now $8.99.

It was interesting people watching at the mall. The girls who hung out together wore similar styles of clothing so they looked like twins, but no one dressed particularly well... which is probably what happens when you live in a relatively small city.

Meanwhile the downtown core is not too big and easily walkable. It's also conveniently located right next to Okanagan Lake, where residents and visitors can walk around part of the lake for exercise, or kids can play on the numerous playgrounds, basketball courts, fountains and even the small strip of beach, and there are several washrooms around too!

Sails by R. Dow-Reid

There's a memorial for the soldiers who died in both World Wars and the Korean War, and further down the waterfront is a giant white sculpture called Sails by R. Dow-Reid, installed in 1977.

Near there is the main street downtown where there's a Lululemon, banks and many cafes, fast-food outlets, and restaurants. We tried one called Bohemian Cafe that served mostly healthy food like roast chicken sandwiches, soups and rice bowls. 

We had the soup of the day, Moroccan Stew that was hearty and had a slight kick, as well as a banh mi -- well their version which was a flattened baguette with roasted chicken, cilantro and lime, pickled carrot, onion and jalapeno. I asked if the jalapeno could be taken out, but they said it was already mixed in. Mixed in?

When the sandwich arrived, the filling was indeed all mixed together, not the individual ingredients placed in the baguette in layers. But it was still delicious, also with a fresh chilli finish. 

How did people afford to live in this city when prices were almost comparable to Vancouver? How do they afford Lululemon and pay their rent or mortgage? It was quite baffling.