Terry McIntosh, a renter that has lived in an apartment on the top floor of a home for 25 years, in Vancouver, on Nov. 24.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
Terry McIntosh was alone in his apartment when the chest pains began, but all he had to do was knock on the door of one of his neighbours in his East Vancouver apartment building.
His neighbours rushed him to the hospital where it was confirmed he was having a heart attack. When he returned home weeks later, they took care of him.
It’s just one example of how the 10 residents of the seven-unit apartment building at 1171-1177 E. 14th Avenue have formed a tight-knit community over the years.
But now that their new landlord has announced a plan to renovate and reduce their affordable rental building into four strata condos, they’re living under the shadow of eviction.
It’s unusual that a developer would convert an existing rental building to condo units, say industry experts – and there are policies that work against it, says commercial broker Mark Goodman. Mr. Goodman said in his 22 years in real estate he’s never seen it, but if allowed, it could open the doors to a new world of redevelopment.
“Put it this way: in all my years, I’ve never ever seen conversion of a rental apartment building into strata, in any part of Metro Vancouver,” says Mr. Goodman.
“If this happens, it will be the first time I’ve seen this happen, and it will be interesting to see how things unfold. This will set a precedent for all of those legal nonconforming ‘revenue homes,’ as we call them, for lack of better word. They’re not quite apartment buildings, but they’re not single-family homes.
“This is a juicy story from a legal, an economic, and a political standpoint,” he said of the E. 14th application, which is still under review by the city.
Tenant Dany Yannece would lose the cozy two-bedroom apartment where they’ve enjoyed a reasonable $1,800 a month rent for the past six years. It’s also home for their dog, which wasn’t easy finding with so many pet restrictions.
“It’s so disheartening,” says Mx. Yannece. “Our rent is so low that some of us will need to go into low-income housing. You are pulling apart a community in this building that cares for one another and also displacing us … I’m queer … and you’re moving me further and further from my community.
“When I first found out, I was crying at my desk at work,” the clinical counsellor says.
The view from McIntosh’s balcony.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
Their old three-storey building is on a 50-foot-wide lot in the Broadway Plan area, which is protected by the city’s enhanced tenant protections, known as the tenant relocation and protection policy.
The landlord is going through the steps required under the policy.
Mr. McIntosh, a botanist and university instructor, has had various roommates over the years and currently shares the space with a Ukrainian refugee.
“It’s hard getting back to sleep sometimes at night,” says Mr. McIntosh, who turns 75 next month.
In an e-mail response, the city said that conversions from rental to strata are “uncommon,” but allowed under the Strata Property Act, if the owner follows the tenant relocation plan.
Tenants are entitled to lump sum payments depending on how long they’ve occupied their unit. Mr. McIntosh has lived in his suite for 26 years, a comfortable two-bedroom with a large rooftop space. He currently pays $1,300 a month, and he’d be eligible for 12 months’ rent if evicted. But he would rather keep his home.
Mx. Yannece has lived in their unit for six years and is eligible for five months’ rent in compensation. But again, the money can’t replace their home.
“Even if they give us a chunk of money, it might help pay two or three months of rent. And then what?” Mx. Yannece asks.
Tenants who face eviction due to redevelopment within the Broadway Plan are given the right of first refusal to return to the new rental building, either at their original rent or with a 20-per-cent discount off market-rate rents, whichever is less.
However, if converted to strata, first-right-of-refusal no longer applies.
The tenants showed The Globe and Mail a letter from the property manager that said: “The units will not be renovated and re-rented. Instead, the building will be redeveloped into a strata. This means that there is no option of ‘first refusal’ as someone had asked me. The units will be for sale once the building has been redeveloped.”
The letter also states that the building is aging and needs work. The tenants say their apartments have been well maintained.
The city confirmed a building permit application for the renovation had been made.
A bus heads up Clark Drive in Vancouver, on Nov. 24.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
The city said most apartment blocks are protected from conversion to strata by a city policy that requires one-for-one replacement of any lost rental units. But the site on E. 14th is considered low density, similar to a house, duplex or multiplex, which is not protected by the policy.
But there’s another policy that should kick in, says Mr. Goodman. He said the application should go before the city council, according to the Property Strata Act.
Any rental building with more than six units needs council approval. And council would have to consider the interests of the tenants and the need for rental housing over privately owned housing in the area.
It’s not lost on the tenants that the conversion of their homes to strata condo units runs counter to city and provincial policies calling for more affordable rental housing near major transit areas, such as their own.
Ironically, they are living in an old form of the multiplex that is being touted as the way of the future by both the city and the province.
There are many of these old “missing middle” buildings throughout Vancouver – including former houses and boxy buildings built on single-family lots in the fifties and sixties, says lawyer Ron Usher, who sat on a panel that examined B.C.’s real estate profession and the need for regulation.
And now, these rental buildings could be under threat.
“They are the multifamily equivalent of the Vancouver Special,” says Mr. Usher, general counsel for the Society of Notaries Public of B.C.
This particular case he says, “encapsulates the larger picture of what is going on in town.”
He added: “This is not going to provide new affordable homes for people. It will provide people with serious income the ability to buy a condo,” he said.
He points out that the building is in a highly desirable location, about a 10-minute walk to a couple of SkyTrain stations. But clearly, he says, the owner wants to “unlock the value.”
Mx. Yannece and Mr. McIntosh wonder if other small rental buildings will slip through the cracks, allowing owners to convert them.
“It feels like they found a loophole,” Mx. Yannece says of the strata conversion.
“I’m mourning it. I’m grieving. It really makes me sad, " they said, tearing up. “We’re all sitting ducks. Anyone who’s been living anywhere for a while, your rent is lower.
“It’s housing insecurity for all of us, and it’s finally come for me, this twisted rite of passage we all go through.”
A representative for the owner, Andrzej Kowalski, said that Mr. Kowalski was not available for comment.
When listed in 2021, it was marketed as “a very well-maintained, updated building that generates over $135,000 a year in gross income.”
The building contains seven licensed suites, including three one-bedrooms, two two-bedrooms and two three-bedrooms.
Most of the kitchens and bathrooms had been redone, and the building has new windows, according to the listing, which priced the property at $2.88-million.
In the listing, the building was called “a multiunit cash machine.”