Hey guys, welcome to episode one of our infill
series. Now this series is something that we've been getting a lot of requests from
people wanting to know the ins and outs of infill houses.
Now, if you go through all the way to the end of this series, you're going to distinguish
the difference between a good quality infill home and a home that might have issues, and
you could be bleeding money from, and if you stick all the way to the end, you're going
to know my tips on what I look out for, which will make all the difference when it comes
time to choosing the right home for your family. So, in this first episode, before we start
talking about tactics and strategies, I'm going to give you the big picture: Infill
houses, what are they, where can you typically find them? And I'll talk about specific areas
in the Calgary market.
Since I'm here in Calgary, what types of infills are there? And the pros and cons of buying
an infill home in later episodes, I'm going to be talking about things like pricing for
each type of home. What it looks like to build a home, what infill homes look like if you
were in the eyes of an investor, what kinds of lots make good infill homes?
And of course, I'm going to give you a tour on infills. So if you don't want to miss out
on future episodes, make sure you hit that subscribe button and a notification belts
you're notified when they do come out and for future reference, because we're going
to be going through a ton of information, hit that save button. So, you can always come
back and refer to this episode. Let's get started.
So, what is an infill house? Well, it's a development of a new home on an existing lot, usually
in established or older neighborhoods,. What types of infills are there?
Well, there's a few, there's a single family
home, which is why on house in one structure. And then there's the semidetached or a duplex
style. So one building, but they're usually two units side by side, there's townhomes.
In other words, row housing. And typically, you'll find these where there's four units
in one structure. And then there's condos. If the developer buys multiple lots together and
builds, and then there are mixed-use. So maybe something like there's developments on the
main floor, such as retail. And then there is residential on top.
So here in Calgary, where I am single family homes, they range anywhere from 1600 square
feet, all the way to 6,000. Now you can find them a little bit smaller than that, but it's
more on the rare side. You can find different styles such as a bungalow, two stories, two
and a half, three stories, and you can sometimes find them if it's zoned in the right area,
or if they’re asked for re-designation for the zoning, then, uh, you can actually build
a carriage suite, which is a separate living space on top of the detached garage.
or you can have a legalized basement suite. Most
of the infills that you find here in Calgary will have a developed basement. A home that
is for sale. This is a bungalow and you can see that, um, it is a new infill. And if you
take a look across the streets, that is a single-family home, a structure on its own
next are the duplexes well duplexes. They range anywhere from 1300 square feet
to about three thousand. And you can find the same style of homes and single-family
homes as you can in duplexes. So bungalow two, all the way to three stories, legalized
basement suite developed as well as a carriage house on top of the detached garage. Now,
if you want to see a tour of a net zero home infill that I did, uh, with my partner Jaz,
feel free to check out that link up a top or in the description below for town homes
or row housing. They're typically found in the Inner City
on corner lots on main roads. And this is where I'm standing right now.
I'm going to show you a townhouse and the backyard space. Typically isn't very big.
You can maybe fit a couch back there, but not a dining table or dining set and a couch.
The good thing is you do get one parking stall, which is usually a garage that is separated
from the rest of the stalls. And here is an example.
So right now, I'm in Banff Trail in the Northwest.
This is the Morley trail right here. It is one of the main arteries in the community.
And this development, happened about two years ago. And you can see that it is developed
with four units
and I'm going to show you the garage. So that is just the entrance to your single garage,
detached garage. You also have access to the backyard back there. So everyone gets their
own garage space. All right. So here is a side by side duplex or a semi-detached. This
one's actually listed by one of my colleagues, Caroline at Redline.
And this is kind of what your typical duplex infill looks like. So there's two units separated
by a party wall, which is evidenced by that wall right there inside.
So where can you typically find infills? Well,
you can typically find them in older neighborhoods, neighborhoods that have maybe been, rental
communities for a long time, where they're starting to turn around and builders are more
attracted because of the land value. It's a little bit lower cost of acquisition
and also other communities where, the homes are close to the end or the last cycle of
their economic life in Calgary. You'll find most of these infills in, uh, the city center
or what we call the Inner City. And what I'm going to do for you guys is I'm going to include
a downloadable map of Calgary communities, down below in the description.
So, make sure you hit that link and you'll be able to see all the communities, and they're
usually in communities where it's a little bit older where they have, you know, 1950s, 1960s,
single level bungalows, kind of like this one. So, we're here in Banff Trail, and this
is a typical looking bungalow. Actually, it's a very nice-looking bungalow, obviously that
one has been cared for. And these are the older style bungalows that you'll see.
And here are some other styles of duplexes
in the area. All right, let's talk about the pros and cons
of living in an infill. The pros, the first pro is higher density with a higher density,
comes more people and more people attracts more businesses. So, you'll find more local
coffee shops, restaurants and ice cream shops and who doesn't love ice cream.
The second is along with amenities is desirability. Now, because it attracts more people to the
area and the community. It becomes more desirable. So people want to live in an area where there's
more infills. So it increases land value because not only are people, competing with other
homeowners to live in the area, but they're also competing with builders and all of that
drives up land costs. There's also additional tax revenue from the
city because now they can charge more property taxes and all of this money can go towards
infrastructure, such as roads, signs, parks, and things like that.
The second biggest pro is utilization. So
this means getting rid of old homes that might have functional obsolescence and functional
obsolescence is the decrease in value of a property due to maybe a feature or a design
that is no longer desirable anymore. So for example, maybe you have an old bungalow with
three bedrooms and one bath, well, people would want two bathrooms now. So, properties
with one bath and three bedrooms just aren't as desirable, smaller homes will make way
for bigger homes to be able to, you have more family members in one household and floor
plans. Floor plans that will fit the modern family.
And lastly, having a brand-new home obviously increases the economic life of a home.
So you're using the same land, but you're
putting a new home which should last an extra 60, 80 years or so.
Now let's talk about the cons of having an infant for one is typically more expensive
than something that you would get maybe be in the suburbs and it could be smaller as
well. There's typically more traffic and in the community, because as single-family dwellings,
they're supposed to be one family, they could become two or even four.
In the example of a townhome, it could result in having more cars on the streets, even though
most of these infills, I mean, all of them will have a detached garage, but some people
like to park out in the front and you do lose the old charm of the neighborhood. As these
older homes get demolished, they were moved and making way for new homes.
So guys was that helpful?
Hopefully that's giving you some valuable information on infills or at least the basics
of them. And if you have any questions or have any other pros or cons that maybe I haven't
covered, feel free to throw it in the comments below.
And don't forget guys, this is only episode one in this infill series. So if you liked
this video and you don't want to miss out on the next video where we cover pricing,
whether or not it makes a good investment, how to finance one, make sure you hit the
notification bell. So, you know, when those episodes come out and if you've enjoyed watching
this video, please hit that like button so that it gets shown to more people that are
looking for infills. And lastly, we do have the downloadable map
in the description for Calgary communities, and you can see all the communities in the
city center or what we call here, the Inner City.
My name is Felix Chan with the LiveInnerCity real estate team, helping you keep real estate
simple. I'll see you in the next
episode.