I have two words of advice around finding a suitable property for a development: be patient! I have to remind myself all the time. In fact, it’s a critical practice for the entire development process.

Spend some time getting to know your local market, as well as the city’s Official Community Plan and/or Neighbourhood Plans. My development ideas evolved as I got to know the local market. I started out thinking we would find a piece of bare land, build a duplex, live in one half and sell or rent the other half. When I came to terms with how expensive land is here, I had to think bigger to make the numbers work: maybe we could do a triplex or a row house? Certainly, the more sellable or rentable units you can fit on a piece of land, the more financially viable the project. But then you start butting up against rezoning challenges. You can’t just add density anywhere. To add significantly more density to a given lot, you’d better choose a spot that’s already bustling. The City of Victoria planners I spoke to encouraged me to look at busy corner lots for my higher density schemes. The trouble was, we didn’t want to live on a busy corner and didn’t know many other families who would want to either, given the choice.

The higher density options also meant a higher build cost and more money up front, which for us, would necessitate working with one or more partners. The project was getting bigger and more complex than we were likely ready for.

So we scaled back. What if we just built our own home with a suite? Nope, also not financially viable. We didn’t have $700,000, which is the minimum price tag given the cost of land (best case $300,000 for a small lot in an ok spot) and build cost (assuming $200/SF and 2000 SF) for a high performing house.

In a way, the property we eventually found dictated the project, but working out some schemes with round numbers was a good way to both learn what the viable options are, and to hone in on what was most important to us.