It's a sunny day with a hint of Indian summer in the air and green shoots of grass dapple the tiny front yards of four small houses in a new neighbourhood on the edge of Langford.
Visitors are milling through the houses, checking the kitchens for cupboard space, peering into the small closets and sticking their heads into the crawl spaces in order to picture what it would be like to live in this place.
"I'm going through a lot of different options," said Joy Brownsword from the driveway of one of the earth-toned single-storey houses. "I just recently retired and I'm on my own now. I don't need a big house but I've always lived in a house and I don't want to live in a condo."
Brownsword has driven down from Shawnigan Lake for an open house at Kettle Creek Station, the latest phase and the first residential one of the Goldstream Meadows development just west of Langford Lake. It's one of several projects being undertaken in the West Shore communities by Turner Lane Development Corporation's Les Bjola, best known as the development manager for Bear Mountain.
Turner Lane has developed a housing project ready to capitalize on the recovering housing market.
Midway through this open house, Turner Lane marketing manager John Kelly reports that two or three sales have already been made. He adds the company has successfully identified a niche product -- small houses with yards below the area's median price.
At $538,500, the regional median price in September is getting close to its $558,000 peak in April 2008 and is considerably higher than its dip to $475,000 in January 2009.
House prices have always been lower in Langford, where the median has dropped to $456,900 in September from a peak of $490,000 in May 2008.
The Kettle Creek houses range from $289,000 for a basic 56-square-metre two-bedroom house to $389,000 for a 140-square-metre two-bedroom house with a basement. Adding extras can push those prices up, but it's lower than the median September price in Langford for a single-family house or $357,500 for a townhouse.
Still, not everyone is sold on Kettle Creek and its tiny lots, which range from 195 to 335 square metres.
Richard Dobbyn has concerns about its proximity to the industrial and commercial phase of the development, which includes a new Sysco Food Services warehouse and the Steve Drane Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership. Dobbyn likes the forested area behind the backyard, but has reservations about the E&N railroad tracks between those woods and the houses.
"Something has to jump out for us to make a switch," says Dobbyn, who is now living in View Royal.
A former resident of Langford, he sounds hesitant to return to the area. "Everything is close together. Downtown near city hall, it's a nightmare for traffic," Dobbyn says. "There are limited parking spaces. It's all condos. I think there'll be a stop light at every intersection. I think even going to work, we are going to be sitting in a lineup. As you know, when things expand, the transportation corridors have to expand to handle all the traffic."
Dennis Barnabe has a more upbeat take on Langford. He has lived in View Royal for the last seven years after retiring to this region from Letellier, Man.
"This is good for me," he says. "It's good for everybody around here. It's great for Langford, all the box stores. The future is around here."
Sharon Robertson is one of the first new residents of the subdivision.
"It's pretty exciting ... it's like you're living in the country and you are still close to everything else," she says.
She moved from a townhouse in Langford, but now she's happy to have a place with its own yard and no strata fees.
The first phase of 48 homes at Kettle Creek Station have sold and 14 of 32 homes in Phase 2 are also gone.
The overall plan calls for 450 of the small-lot homes on 14 hectares.
Another 850 homes are to be built on an adjoining four hectares. It will include steel and concrete condos, although Bjola says it is not yet determined how tall any of those buildings will be.
