How to Find Out What Is Being Built on Your Street

The garden

I once owned a townhome that sided onto the most beautiful English garden. It belonged to my neighbour, it was stunning, and it was a real asset to my property.

What I did not know was that they had quietly sold to a local private school. Before I knew any of it, the garden was gone and a large red brick school was going up in its place. I lost the view, gained the midday noise, and lost a couple of hundred thousand dollars in value that I could have protected if I had known early enough to sell ahead of it.

Streets change. Almost all of that change is public information before it is visible. I just was not looking.

What you can find out in advance

Building permits. Every approved project is public record. The City of Vancouver publishes issued building permits through its open data portal. Two duplexes approved next door means eighteen months of construction and a different streetscape at the end.

Rezoning applications. These signal bigger change, and they are posted publicly, often with a comment period, before anything is approved.

Development applications in the wider area. One project matters less than a pattern. Several applications within a few blocks means the neighbourhood is shifting, not just one lot.

City policy and area plans. Vancouver now allows multiplexes of up to six units on many former single family lots, and plans such as the Broadway Plan and the provincial transit oriented areas allow far more density near rapid transit. These tell you what the city intends, which eventually drives everything else.

Which way it cuts

Development can mean years of noise and a street that no longer looks like the one you bought on. It can also mean the area is being invested in, which historically supports value. Same information, opposite conclusions, depending on whether you are buying for three years or fifteen.

The street that decides your value is the one that exists in five years, not the one you toured.

I track this every week

I monitor permits and applications weekly across Kitsilano, Dunbar, Point Grey, Kerrisdale, Arbutus Ridge and the Cambie corridor. Ask me what is coming to your street.