Europa Construction Ltd.

Well, I think we have come to a final conclusion on the notion of building a "Laneway House", it's not worth the investment! $500per foot for construction is way over the top a big piece of that going directly to the City of Vancouver for licenses, permits and fees! So, that plan has bee scrapped. It was a great opportunity to do a thorough analysis and frankly, I would not know why anyone would actually build a Lane Way house knowing now what we do. It is not a good investment at all. Thanks for your interest and if you are thinking of perhaps building a Laneway house, get in touch with me and I'll share my perspective with you. Cheers for now - Glenn

Some of you with some knowledge of the Vancouver Real Estate market will know that, $500 per square foot is... well, cheap for accommodation but, hear is the issue. Building a Carriage House will cost us $300k.The Bank will probably not increase our Mortgage to accommodate the Carriage House on the same ratio it would if we were to say, buy another condo! Vancouver people often build Carriage Houses on their property because it offers additional revenue to pay for their expen...sive mortgage. Here is the problem in my opinion. If, the Bank will advance us 50% on our Mortgage at renewal to account for the value of the Carriage House on our property then, we spen $150k from savings! If however, I take the $150k from my equity and $150k from savings to total $300k, I could use it to buy 3 $500k condos which I could rent for possibly $2k per month each and give us close to brake even! In year to come, if we need some equity in retirement or for an opportunity, I could sell one or more of the condos and use the equity as I please - I could not do that with a Carriage House because the Carriage House does not have a "Strata" title - my money is locked up unless I sell our home! Not a great plan? No, not a great plan! So, what about moving the wife and daughter's practice out of the house and into the Carriage House as was the preliminary idea? Move them into one of the condos and charge them rent! Hmm Maybe - will let you know - your ideas welcome! See more

An update to our idea of building a Carriage House in place of our Garage. I have been in contact with a couple designers I've worked with in the past and at this point I have not been given much "good" news. It seems that, in spite of our slower Realestate market, they are all very busy and not able to give me the attention I need for a month or so. A call to City Planning for clarification also was not good news. I was under the impression that I might be able to "borrow" ...unused FSR (Allowable square footage) from our main house and use it in the Carriage House - no go! I also need at least a one car garage to house my bike lift and mini workshop which in total will be about 200 square feet. This means we are left with only 620 square feet for the Carriage House and at $300k, that just under $500 per square foot for new accommodation! Holy Crap! That's too expensive I'm thinking! Time for a reevaluation of the plan and strategy! Will get back to you folks on this. See more

Well, it has been a long time since I posted to this page. We (wife and I) have decided that building a Laneway House might be a good alternative for us to building an entirely new home. You see, my wife is a very busy and successful REALTOR and works from her home office. Her practice has now overtaken (or should I say, dominated) the entire function of the main level of our home (note I said "home" not house). Consequently there are inconveniences and stresses related to ru...nning a busy business practice from home and now to couple that with the potential of my daughter joining her in the fray... it's coming to a critical logistic impasse. So the solution, we need more room. I'll be posting some interesting information some of you may be interested in following, some of it personal, some of it practical and some of it crazy but, life is like that right? So, here we go! Stay tuned! See more

This new project is located in the Municipality of Surrey, BC and is on ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve) land with a well and septic services. Before a building permit can be provided, there are a few more hoops to jump through. We will need a certificate showing the well conforms to the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality and a document showing the septic service has and is currently authorized by the Province of BC.