Mortgage helpers in the sky

They’ve been called “mortgage helpers in the sky,” and they are a new twist on the granny flat. They are “flex suites,” or condominiums that are designed to be subdivided. Households can close off a portion of the unit, designed as a small efficiency opening on the hallway, to rent it out. Like accessory units in the back of single homes, they both offer an affordable housing option and help to make the primary units affordable to the family by lowering the mortgage payments. A change in zoning developed in cooperation with the City of Burnaby, BC, allows the flex units in multifamily buildings and townhouses.

Flex suites are the brainchild of Michael Geller, president of Simon Fraser University Community Trust, developer of UniverCity, a sustainable, smart growth community affiliated with SFU near Vancouver. UniverCity’s first neighborhood, the Highlands, has 1,000 apartments and townhouses built or under construction along with a village square, neighborhood shops, and the first phase of an extensive pedestrian and bicycle pathway system.

The project features programs to address affordable housing and sustainability, including “green streets” with pervious pavers and “bio-swales,” and buildings with green roofs. The community includes a transit pass program and provisions for cooperatively owned cars. Through an “innovative finance model,” houses include geothermal energy and other sustainability features “without adding to the capital cost of the purchase price,” Geller says. He told New Urban News that the project features Canada’s first neighborhood-scale green building guidelines. Geller has been in charge of the Community Trust for seven years, and is stepping down now that UniverCity is nearly a quarter built (the project will eventually include 4,500 units). Geller is planning a trip about the world, then a return to real estate consulting and development.