The building includes seven apartments and four units in side-by-side duplexes.Darren Sutherland/Darren Sutherland/Snowchimp Creative
Long-time renters Caroline Pippy and Ceilidh Munroe may have finally found a foothold on Vancouver’s onerous property ladder. The couple has lived in an iconic Vancouver building in the inner-city neighbourhood of Strathcona above the Wilder Snail café, at 795 Keefer St. where it meets Hawks Street.
The building, formally known as the Angiolina Court, includes seven apartments and four units in side-by-side duplexes fronting on Hawks Street built in 1910. The corner café has, for many years, served as a community hub in a neighbourhood that is more like a village. Now, the couple has the opportunity to buy into the complex, as part of a group of buyers who’ve made an offer, subject to financing, through a collective ownership model.
Co-ownership is an increasingly popular pathway to home ownership and generally involves a group of people on title with a shared mortgage. A popular option is an equity co-op with shareholders who form a company and own a percentage of the property – an old style of ownership that was popular before strata condos came along. It’s generally more affordable than freehold ownership because financing is more restricted, and the buildings tend to be older, with fewer modern conveniences such as laundry machines in every suite. Because they were around decades ago, equity co-ops also tend to be in some of Vancouver’s highly desirable neighbourhoods, like English Bay. Other co-housing models involve shared spaces and activities, depending on the group.
Co-ownership generally involves a group of people on title with a shared mortgage.Sophie Lin
For Ms. Pippy and Ms. Munroe, buying into their apartment gives a sense of security that, for many renters in the city, is proving increasingly elusive.
“Ceilidh and I are both in our early 30s, and we’ve had a lot of friends leave Vancouver specifically, or leave the province in general, just for affordability reasons, and just not really seeing a future here in property ownership,” said Ms. Pippy. “And also, housing stability, I think, is a really big issue. There’s a lot of stress around it, even if you’ve got a good renting situation, there’s always the fear of rent evictions or a tenuous landlord relationship or demolition or development. That is not unique to Vancouver, but it does feel like one of the more major stresses here. And I think a lot of people who leave the province leave for stability as well. I see that a lot.”
The building also has a café, which for many years has served as a community hub in the neighbourhood.Darren Sutherland/Darren Sutherland/Snowchimp Creative
The idea of collective ownership is also appealing to the couple, because they already know their neighbours and are getting to know the community members who are buying into the property.
“We need to kind of come up with a way to govern,” said Ms. Munroe, “that doesn’t just rely on people having voting shares. Like, we’re going to have to put a lot of work into forming those relationships and making them strong enough that we can disagree with each other and have conversations and come to, eventually, solutions that will work for the group, which I think is going to be a lot of work. But it’s also exciting to form that all together.”
Long-time Strathcona realtor Rick Stonehouse listed the property in the spring for $9.8-million. The property, which has been updated and well-maintained, had been on and off the market for the past few years. For the sellers, who live on site in the side-by-side duplex, the offer makes sense because of the age of the building, he said. Had the units been separated for sale, legal requirements such as fire walls and sprinklers would have been hugely expensive and their installation would destroy much of the character of the one- to four-bedroom units, which range in size from 400 square feet to 1,700 sq. ft.
Mr. Stonehouse guesses that one of the units would sell for around 75 per cent of a comparable strata unit. As a co-op, one of the duplex units, for example, might sell for $1.2-million to $1.5 million, he estimates. As a regular freehold unit, that same unit would likely sell for around $1.8-million.
He’s seen several shared ownership arrangements in the area, and they are an appealing option for some buyers.
“It’s really not that difficult. It’s like buying with a partner, except you’ve now got six partners, or eight partners, or whatever, right?”
For Caroline Pippy and Ceilidh Munroe, buying into their apartment gives a sense of security that is proving increasingly elusive for many renters.Sophie Lin.
Buyers’ agent Noam Dolgin is the co-founder of Collaborative Home Ownership Initiative BC, a matchmaking service for shared property ownership opportunities and interested buyers. In 2021, Mr. Dolgin helped guide the successful co-ownership purchase of eight historic cottages on a property in Horseshoe Bay, which included outside investors. In response to the call for buyers in the Wilder Snail building, he received more than 100 responses.
“I’ve never seen such an overwhelming response to a project,” he said.
The buyers’ offer has been accepted, and the sellers have given the group several months to pull their financing together, as well as comply with other conditions of sale. The sellers are keen about a collective ownership, and their tenants buying or staying and renting at the property, said Mr. Dolgin.
“It just kind of came together naturally,” he said. “The moment we mentioned it to the tenants of the building, more than half of them were immediately interested in joining and making this happen. There’s just something about this location, this building in Strathcona, and Strathcona’s attitude around community.”
Collective ownership is also appealing to Ms. Pippy and Ms. Munroe because they already know their neighbours and are getting to know the people who are buying into the property.Sophie Lin
To make the purchase viable, he’s looking for outside investors who want to support collective housing, similar to the Horseshoe Bay cottages.
“And then, in theory, over time, as those tenants choose to leave the building on their own accord in the future, we could then sell off or find additional partners to join the collective and expand the community. This is the beauty of collaborative real estate, not just in the end product of who owns it, but in the entire process.”
Soledad Ronco lives in Strathcona and is looking to buy into the project and possibly live in one of the duplex units. The mom of two had been looking for years for an opportunity to buy into a co-housing project, but the timing was always off. She likes the idea of co-housing because it’s not “every man for himself.”
“When I first heard about [co-ownership] it was, I don’t know, like 20 years ago in Denmark. This is the model they use, and it seems to work. So, I was like, ‘I want that, and I don’t want to move to Denmark.’ And then I realized, ‘oh wait, there are some people doing it here in Vancouver. I can actually be a part of this. Cool. I’m in!’”
The building is located in the inner-city neighbourhood of Strathcona.Darren Sutherland/Darren Sutherland/Snowchimp Creative