See how 10 friends built their dream community in a new web series

Affordable housing in Vancouver has become a big talking point — and with good reason. When there are a reported ​​117,000 households who need help affording rent for their current homes, it can be tough to keep communities together, especially if you want to live near your friends. 

The fear of losing their community was very real for a group of 10 friends who all met through Engineers Without Borders while they were in university. 

Whenever they were together, the group often played with the attractive fantasy we all have: buying a property in a remote location as a group, and building a personal community where everyone can thrive together with their chosen family. And, being all engineers, they certainly had most of the skills at their disposal to make this common fantasy a reality.

In a new three-episode series from Vancity, you can see how these friends bought a four-acre plot of land in Gibsons, BC, with the hope of turning it into a 10-lot community — equipped with a garden, communal areas, and room for their growing families. 

The initial email

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In the first episode of the series, they take us back to 2017, when this idea of living close to one another was still a kernel of an idea. As the affordability of Vancouver started to mount, Tess Hunt, one of the group’s members, sensed that their little community was feeling the pressure of the housing market.

“The most likely outcome was that everyone was going to go in slightly different directions,” says Tess in the first episode.

Tess’s mom sent out an email to the group that contained a property listing for a vacant lot just up the street from where they lived, on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.

“She didn’t even ask me first,” says Tess in the episode. “She just sent it to me, [my partner] Kaan, and a bunch of our friends that she had had her own conversations with.”

Getting ready to offer

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After the initial email went out, members of the group called Tess to express their interest in getting the property. With five group members who had already inspected the property, and the other five going off trust, they were all ready to make their offer.

The problem was, how were they going to get the money?

Even though each member of the group had different levels of savings, financial risk tolerance, and mortgage eligibility, they thought, between the 10 of them, they had a lot of buying power. 

The trouble was, the kind of project they were proposing and the uniqueness of their purchase made it difficult for them to secure a mortgage with the bigger banks. They didn’t necessarily hit a “traditional box” that fits within a mortgage category, so they were stuck looking for alternatives.

And that’s where Vancity came in.

Flexible mortgage for a unique purchase 

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Vancity has a flexible mortgage option known as a Mixer Mortgage™, which offers competitive rates and flexible features. Similar to splitting the dinner cheque, it helps divide the cost of home ownership between two or more people based on their financial situation(s).

Its flexibility means you’re able to choose from a variety of mortgage options to find the rates and terms for your lifestyle and budget while providing peace of mind with additional insurance designed for multiple-owner arrangements. Plus the legal support you need to protect everyone’s best interests.

The Mixer Mortgage™ was the perfect option for this purchase and helped support this group financially as they prepared to tackle the actual hands-on work of building this community.

Working on the property

Vancity

After securing their mortgage through Vancity, and their offer was accepted, the group tackles clearing the property and getting it rental-ready.

The property included a house with great bones, but it needed a little love. Their goal now was to fix it up for a rental tenant to help them with their mortgage and provide some affordable housing in the area. The renovations on the house were straightforward, but when the group shifted focus to designing their homes and the communal areas, things became a little more complex.

They assumed they could just take the four-acre lot and split it up into eight equal parcels. But once they started consulting with their planners on rezoning, that ideal was going to have to change rather quickly. The property had to be rezoned from “Rural Residential” to a “Comprehensive Development Cluster Housing Area.”

The Sunshine Coast regional district already had a good foundation with their community plans, and the group was happy to take inspiration and pull from their neighbours.

With the plotting of the property completed, the group hosted an open house where they presented this plan to the community and got valuable feedback on how to move forward. But, with the challenges of making the property as sustainable as possible, there were a whole host of other challenges ahead of them.

“Building Together” follows these friends all the way from concept all the way to their “Move that bus!” moment every home makeover is looking for. Catch up on the series by watching episode 1 here.

To stay updated on when the next episode drops, or to learn more about the Mixer Mortgage™, visit Vancity’s website.