A member of the Squamish Nation listens during a blessing ceremony for the first tower at the Senakw development in Vancouver on May 8.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
When Squamish Nation chair Wilson Williams talks about the towering new rental buildings his nation has erected close to downtown Vancouver, his mind goes to his 19-year-old daughter.
Her aspirations of attending the nearby University of British Columbia have been plagued by a major question: “Can we afford it?”
The development, named Senákw after a Squamish village that sat on these very lands until the early 1900s, will have, among thousands of planned apartments, hundreds of subsidized units for Indigenous people. Eleven buildings will eventually sit on 10 acres of prime waterfront real estate in the city’s Kitsilano neighbourhood, a short commute from UBC and a quick walk to one of the city’s most well-known beaches. Mr. Williams’s daughter has applied for one of the subsidized units there.
“Everyone has a common issue of a housing crisis, and affordability in Vancouver is what people need,” he said.
His nation of roughly 4,000 people is relatively young in age and housing insecurity is a major concern – especially when their ancestral territory sits in some of the most expensive real estate markets in Canada.
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That’s why Senákw, a housing development taller than any other building in the neighbourhood, was built so densely. It’s also why it’s entirely comprised of purpose-built rentals, which will provide a larger stock of stable apartments for renters that typically rely on individual landlords.
The project is the largest Indigenous-built housing project in Canada, and it will be put to the test this summer when the first three towers become available, at a time when rent is tumbling in Vancouver’s weakened housing market. Experts agree that the number of units that Senákw is delivering are badly needed to maintain affordability and a healthy level of vacancy in Vancouver’s housing market. But they also say the project’s massive injection of supply, especially in smaller one-bedroom and studio units, could prove challenging to fill at a time when population growth has faltered, the economy is weak and demand has plummeted.
The project’s first three towers will add 1,400 rental units – more than half of the number of purpose-built rentals that hit the market in Vancouver in 2025. The site will eventually house 6,000 units.
Construction workers on the outside of the third tower.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The first three towers were completed just four years after the nation received project funding. That’s faster than some projects in Vancouver that can get bogged down in red tape, because it isn’t on Vancouver land at all. Instead, Senákw is on reserve land that was returned to the nation after a decades-long legal battle ending in 2003. Because of that the project is unencumbered by city bylaws, which allowed them to build denser than anything else in the neighbourhood, and shielded against NIMBYs in the area who wanted to stop them. It also meant they could avoid delays involving permits from the municipal and provincial governments.
The Squamish Nation is one of multiple First Nations in the area aiming to build tall, high-density developments. Mr. Williams said they share an existential goal with Vancouverites searching for stability in Canada’s most expensive region: They want affordable housing.
“We need that to sustain the vibrancy of that city, to retain services in the city like health and emergency services, and everything that makes our city the most beautiful city in the world,” Mr. Williams said.
The Squamish Nation is looking at developing other urban parcels of reserve land, including in North Vancouver near the Lions Gate Bridge. Meanwhile, other First Nations such as the Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh are also involved in projects throughout Vancouver, which are not necessarily on reserve land but on land purchased from the city.
“We don’t have to abide by certain policies and permits that everyone else has to in regards to building in the city,” said Mr. Williams. “We’re 60 storeys high, and we’re building 6,000 units, but we’re doing it in a way that’s fast-tracked compared to any other entity.”
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Jenn Podmore Russell, chief development officer for Nch’kaý Development Corporation – the Squamish Nation’s development arm that is building Senákw – said the nation’s sovereignty didn’t mean that they cut corners or started completely from scratch. Instead, it allowed them to streamline the permit process and reduced administrative burden, while following standards similar to other projects in the city.
For renters, the timing couldn’t be better. Giacomo Ladas, a spokesperson for Rentals.ca, said Senákw’s opening this summer comes as rents have already fallen by 14 per cent in the past three years.
“They’re adding supply in a softer market which in theory could bring rents down more,” Mr. Ladas said.
It may beg the question of why more supply is needed, but Mr. Ladas said the current average rental price of just under $2,700 is anything but affordable.
Andrey Pavlov, a finance professor at Simon Fraser University, said Vancouver managed to add just 2,300 purpose-built rental units last year, which the city boasted as the highest in four decades.
It was “celebrated like a huge number” but was “absolutely nothing,” Mr. Pavlov said, noting Seattle once built just under 18,000 rental units in 2018 in comparison.
“We need not 2,300 but 23,000 to catch up with the demand that’s out there,” he said.
Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a groundbreaking ceremony with Squamish Nation councillors Wilson Williams, back centre, and Khelsilem, right, at the Senakw housing development site on Sept. 6, 2022.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Ms. Podmore Russell said the city’s vacancy rate is still too low.
Senákw’s unsubsidized apartments will be more upmarket with modern finishings and amenities such as a gym, spa and pool. But Ms. Podmore Russell said the introduction of 6,000 rental units in the coming years will free up cheaper homes that might have been occupied by high-income renters because they didn’t have choices like Senákw.
She added Senákw will also be able to weather the current downturn in Vancouver’s market because the project was underwritten in 2021 and 2022, and average rents are still above that level today.
The starting rates for apartments are similar to Vancouver’s current average. One-bedroom apartments will start at $2,275 (a few dollars below the average), while two-bedroom units will go for $3,505 (slightly above average), but rates will get more expensive from there.
“We are generating more demand for rental on an annualized basis in Canada than we have inventory to support,” Ms. Podmore Russell said.
The project also sits on prime real estate, offering expansive views of Vancouver’s waterfront, with beaches and Kitsilano’s high streets nearby. It’s a short walk, bike or bus ride from downtown.
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But Senákw isn’t immune to market forces. Westbank, a major stakeholder, pulled out of the project as it dealt with the downturn in Canadian real estate. OPTrust, one of Canada’s largest pension funds, was able to buy out the shares, giving it a 50-per-cent stake in the first two phases of the project.
There’s also an emphasis on studio and one-bedroom units – a segment of the market that has been dropping fast as renters steer clear of cramped apartments.
Rentals.ca data found that in April, Vancouver saw the largest dip in major Canadian markets for studio and one-bedroom units, with rents falling by 8 per cent to $2,068 for studios and by 7 per cent to $2,358 for one-bedroom units.
“We’re seeing demand is really low from young Canadians,” Mr. Ladas said, noting they are often the renters that would go for one-bedroom and studio apartments.
He said Vancouver is also seeing a surge of incentives such as multiple months of free rent, free internet and cash bonuses to draw in renters during the market downturn – something Senákw doesn’t plan on offering.
“If these guys are coming in and saying ‘It’s such a beautiful apartment and we don’t need to offer anything because it devalues our brand,’ it’s not the market right now to do so,” said Mr. Ladas.
Members of the Squamish Nation participate in a cedar-brushing ceremony for the first tower.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The first 1,400 units will also only have 107 parking spots – an early decision that fell short of minimum requirements under Vancouver bylaws at the time, in order to direct funds toward a transit hub and bike storage instead. (Vancouver no longer has minimum parking requirements.)
Mr. Ladas said the lack of parking and incentives could create difficulties: “I think it could be a lot of vacancies for the near future.”
Ms. Podmore Russell, however, is not worried. She said the long-term outlook for the market is strong.
“You’re already starting to see some of the foundation of stability to the market, and within 12 to 18 months I believe we’re going to be having a conversation about needing more supply again, and at that point, we’re going to be too late,” she said.
Despite the market downturn, Ms. Podmore Russell said as many as 300 people a day are registering for more information as the project continues.
“I’ve been at this for over 20 years and I have never seen the level of interest,” she said. Up to 30 registrations a day is more common for similar developments, she noted.
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Other Indigenous housing projects in the city are also only being built as leasehold and rental properties because they could one day be set aside for their own members as their communities grow. The rental properties will also provide consistent cash flow to fund services in their communities.
“It’s taken us a hundred and some odd years to get these lands back, and we told both governments that our land’s not for sale,” said Chief Wayne Sparrow of the Musqueam Indian Band.
The Musqueam Nation, alongside the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, are working on a project called Jericho Lands to deliver 13,000 homes for 24,000 residents in Vancouver’s West Point Grey – a neighbourhood that hasn’t seen any population growth in 25 years.
All the homes will be rentals or leasehold condos on a long-term lease. Heather Lands is another project by the three nations that will deliver 2,600 leasehold units at 60 per cent of market value thanks to a partnership with the B.C. and Vancouver governments.
Mr. Sparrow said that, to an extent, the positive reception that they’ve had from governments to build densely is part of the reconciliation process.
While the nations say they’re building with their youth and future generations in mind, there is also an immense sense of pride from elders. Mr. Williams said he saw it firsthand when a elder in his 90s who attended every court hearing in the seventies, eighties and nineties came to tour the Senákw facility.
“He didn’t even have to say anything, he was just smiling and shaking his head,” Mr. Williams said.