{"id":15639,"date":"2020-05-20T15:15:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T22:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?p=15639"},"modified":"2020-05-20T09:29:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T16:29:11","slug":"covid-19-changes-condo-design-trends-with-demand-for-home-offices-larger-balconies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2020\/05\/covid-19-changes-condo-design-trends-with-demand-for-home-offices-larger-balconies\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Changes Condo Design Trends with Demand for Home Offices &#038; Larger Balconies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Real estate investors and developers are eyeing a future where homeowners demand home offices and larger balconies as a result of habits formed during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The challenge for developers is how to build those units while still abiding by municipal regulations; the challenge for buyers who want to have a home office is that it adds square footage and cost to the property.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Developers such as Reliance Properties have in the past decade made extra efforts to add sliding doors, in-wall beds and other innovations to maximize space.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cEveryone would like a bigger place, and everyone would like a den and a home office, but, at the end of the day, affordability and the fact that units are denominated and costed by size, will mean that not everyone can get that,\u201d Reliance CEO Jon Stovell told Business in Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One way to include a home office in a condo design, therefore, is use slidable walls to hive off part of a larger room.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But Stovell said that, because City of Vancouver regulations set out a required percentage of two- and three-bedroom units in many projects, installing a sliding door or divider instead of a solid wall between two bedrooms would result in the city counting it as one large room not two.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Stovell has also been lobbying the city to allow condos to have small windowless rooms that could be used as workspaces.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">City regulations stipulate that all bedrooms have windows. Stovell said the city will not allow large windowless closets because of a fear that they could be turned into bedrooms.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Asked if it would work with developers to provide more home offices, the city said in a statement that \u201cthis is an opportune time to advance strategies to support work from home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Large balconies are also likely to be more in demand if people want home offices.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The city restricts balconies to be a maximum of about 8% of a unit\u2019s size, Stovell said. It also includes the square footage of larger balconies in a unit\u2019s size.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Stovell wants to be able to build larger balconies and not have that space counted as part of the total floor-space ratio that developers are allowed to build on a project.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe balcony has become oh so precious, even in adverse weather conditions because, for a lot of people, there is no other way to get fresh air,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Common areas in future condominium developments are also likely to change with people\u2019s increased concern about touching surfaces.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So doors that open automatically and do not need to be pushed are likely to become the norm. Stovell said facial-recognition cameras to open garbage room doors could also become commonplace.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cYou will be able to get in your elevator and say \u2018Level 9\u2019 and not have to push a button,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">While Stovell has been working to make smaller homes as comfortable as possible, the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) has long advocated that its members buy larger units instead of micro-suites.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Millennials will likely soon want to have children and move to larger spaces, said Jennifer Hunt, REIN\u2019s vice-president of research and a real-estate investor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The pandemic has \u201camplified\u201d REIN\u2019s advice, because many workers who never worked at home have been forced to adopt that lifestyle option.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hunt expects a growing demand for condominiums that have home offices.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe always skew to a larger size unit,\u201d added Beedie Living\u2019s executive vice-president Houtan Rafii.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If competitors are building 550-square-foot, one-bedroom units in a neighbourhood, he said Beedie Living will likely build some that are 625 square feet to ensure that niche is filled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rafii added that homes used to be built with small alcoves that included built-in tables large enough for computers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The alcoves fell out of favour when technology enabled people to more easily move around with their laptops, and Rafii thinks that they could make a comeback.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we see a trend moving back to homes with dedicated work stations.\u201d \u2022<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biv.com\/article\/2020\/05\/covid-19-pushing-changes-vancouver-condo-design\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">COVID-19 Pushing Changes to Vancouver Condo Design<\/a> by Glen Korstrom | BIV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real estate investors and developers are eyeing a future where homeowners demand home offices and larger balconies as a result of habits formed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge for &hellip; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2020\/05\/covid-19-changes-condo-design-trends-with-demand-for-home-offices-larger-balconies\/\">read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>COVID-19 Changes Condo Design Trends with Demand for Home Offices &amp; Larger Balconies &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2020\/05\/covid-19-changes-condo-design-trends-with-demand-for-home-offices-larger-balconies\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"COVID-19 Changes Condo Design Trends with Demand for Home Offices &amp; Larger Balconies &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Real estate investors and developers are eyeing a future where homeowners demand home offices and larger balconies as a result of habits formed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge for &hellip; [read more]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RoryClipsham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@RoryClipsham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rory Clipsham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/05\\\/covid-19-changes-condo-design-trends-with-demand-for-home-offices-larger-balconies\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/05\\\/covid-19-changes-condo-design-trends-with-demand-for-home-offices-larger-balconies\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rory Clipsham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\"},\"headline\":\"COVID-19 Changes Condo Design Trends with Demand for Home Offices &#038; 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