B.C.’s land title laws are standing in the way of vancouver welcoming a form of housing that could add to diversity in the city and help to improve housing affordability.

Throughout Eastern Canada, the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, row townhouses owned as freehold property have existed for centuries.

Victoria has been asked to change the law that is preventing vancouver from seeing this form of housing become commonplace here, but the provincial government is slow in responding.

Freehold or fee-simple-owned attached zero-lot-line row houses are a common form of inner-city and suburban housing both new and old – almost everywhere except vancouver. This form of housing uses land more efficiently than probably any other form of ground-oriented housing – housing in a form that has direct access from the street.

Typically, a row townhouse is a twoor three-storey single-family home attached to other townhouses. It is usually built along a street with its own front and rear entries. In most other places in the world, the townhouses are built so that owners can buy the individual unit. They typically own the entire footprint, including any front or rear yard.

We’ve seen row houses in vancouver, but with the exception of one experimental project, all are owned communally as condominium homes under B.C.’s Strata Property Act, rather than outright in a freehold form under the Land Title Act, like most detached housing.

The freehold form of ownership is often viewed as a superior form of ownership, as the homeowner feels he or she truly owns a piece of real estate from top to bottom, rather than owning a right to a limited defined area and then sharing in the ownership of all of the common property, like most condominium developments. Freehold ownership allows owners to determine how they use and maintain their own properties, often including yards, without the complexity of a governing strata corporation.

But these townhouses don’t exist in vancouver. That’s because B.C.’s Land Title Act is missing a crucial provision that allows adjoining neighbours to register an agreement on the property’s title that governs how they jointly deal with the common wall – or “party wall” – they share.

The late Art Cowie, who was a vancouver MLA, city councillor, Park Board commissioner and professional planner, worked tirelessly before his death more than a year and a half ago to make freehold row townhouses a reality in vancouver. He went out on a limb and assembled a couple of singlefamily lots on Cambie Street at 33rd Avenue and went about building three row townhouses to showcase this form of housing.

Before he could get final approval to start the project, the visionary Cowie ran into a problem. City lawyers weren’t prepared to allow the three units to be attached to each other. They would have to be built with a one-inch space between them, each with its own free-standing concrete firewall. Each unit had to be designed and built as an individual building, adding to the construction cost.

An arcane deficiency in the B.C. Land Title Act caused the city to require this convoluted approach to building row townhouses.

The act doesn’t provide for a legal agreement, spelling out the maintenance and use of the party wall, to be registered as a “positive covenant” on the property’s title to ensure in perpetuity that current and future owners are obligated by the party wall agreement. “Negative covenants” can be registered on title, but positive covenants can only be registered if they are registered in the name of a municipality, which can then, in theory, enforce them. A positive covenant states on title what owners are required and obligated to do, such as maintaining a party wall and the wires and pipes that run through it. A negative covenant is a statement on title saying what owners can’t do.

Over the past few years, a few other B.C. municipalities have allowed true attached freehold row townhouses to be built. The municipalities have become signatories to special positive covenants to bring the party wall agreement into effect. These covenants have been registered in favour of the municipality. As far as I know, none of those covenants has yet been tested in a dispute between owners where the municipalities, as a party to the covenant, would be stuck in the middle of that dispute.

The city of vancouver has refused to follow this cumbersome workaround deficiency in the Land Title Act. First, such a process likely exposes the city to some liability in enforcing a positive covenant.

This process also requires a whole new bureaucracy to administer party wall agreements for what could potentially be hundreds if not thousands of these homes, if freehold row townhouses are a housing form made available in vancouver.

Instead, the city has requested that the provincial government amend the Land Title Act to include a provision that allows owners to register positive covenants for party wall agreements that will forever be attached to the title of the land. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba already have such legislation.

The city originally made this request to the province in 2008.

Last week, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations told me that the ministry has been working with the city of vancouver and other stakeholders to understand the issues related to freehold row housing and to ensure an appropriate legal and policy framework is in place to support interested municipalities.

The spokesperson said discussions are still in a “preliminary consultation phase”, which will continue into early fall 2011.

Preliminary consultation? That’s slow progress after three years. If vancouver is ever going to see this form of housing that’s ubiquitous in many other cities, things are going to have to move a little faster.

When Dana Smithers was preparing a home for the real estate market, she told the owner that his valued collection of samurai swords must come down from the walls.

“That was gruelling for him,” says Smithers of the elegant, if lethal, weapons.

However, if a property is to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible, any item deemed personal — from family photos and memorabilia to political or religious art, meaning anything that might distract, offend or provoke — must go temporarily into storage, Smithers insists.

According to the North vancouver-based pioneer of the relatively new home-staging business, the process of “depersonalizing” a home and “pre-packing” expressions of one’s personal life is key to selling the property for as much, and as quickly, as possible.

“Once you put your home up for sale, it’s a piece of merchandise,” says the staging teacher and author of books that include Start & Run a Home Staging Business, from Self-Counsel Press. “The biggest mistake home-sellers make is that they’re not able to look at their property objectively.”

Taking a no-nonsense look at your well lived-in home and then giving it an unemotional makeover — whether by doing it yourself or by paying a stager to provide part of all of the services — is what home staging is all about.

Susan Evans of Home Suite Home Staging in downtown vancouver says: “A lot of people think it’s just a fun job, but there’s a big business component, too.”

Evans charges $225 for an initial consultation of a standard-sized house. That will include a room-by-room assessment, measurements and photos, followed by a proposal and cost estimate for a full staging.

In Smithers’ experience, consultation for a one-bedroom apartment (excluding furniture or fixture rentals) will cost $500, while a day in a house would be about $1,000.

Some realtors include a basic $100 staging consultation fee in their service package.

It’s then up to the homeowner to decide if he or she wants to hire a stager. In the end, reports Smithers, staged homes sell 50 per cent faster, and for six to 13 per cent more than those that have not been prepared for the market.

In starting the process, Smithers asks: “Who is most likely to buy? A couple with children, or pets, a senior, or a young corporate person? Or someone who wants to flip the property?

“Look at what’s being sold in your neighbourhood, who’s bought, and for how much,” she advises. By understanding the potential buyer, you’re in a better position to decide how much time and money to spend on staging, and what’s required.

Professional stagers — experts in home-design trends — will tell you to make it as simple, uncluttered and open-spaced as possible.

The next step, says Smithers, is determining the primary function of each room. In one home Smithers staged, the room designed as a den had come to house a pet rabbit and lots of junk. She restored it to its primary purpose. In the same home, a computer and related paraphernalia were removed from the space intended for dining.

“Function is first,” says Smithers. “And then find a focal point — maybe a fireplace or a great view. The focal point is the first thing you want people to see when they walk in. You want them to say, ‘Wow, I love it.’”

The next step is to “de-clutter” and “depersonalize.” As a professional stager, says Smithers, “you have to be a psychologist — you have to be tactful. And the seller has to be on board (the process). Ninety-five per cent of sellers are. The other five per cent are not ready to detach (from their home).”

Almost all homes, and definitely those 10 years or older, must be repainted. “It’s about refreshing the home — and painting is the No. 1 thing that people can do,” Smithers says. Neutral colours are strongly recommended. Expect to pay three to five per cent of the asking price on improvements, she adds.

When a vancouver-west-kitsilano-homes/” >Kitsilano homeowner asked Susan Evans how best to stage his long-neglected heritage property on a limited budget, she advised him to paint the entire four-bedroom house. “This was what was going to give him the biggest impact,” she says.

Many homes need new flooring, with hardwood being the preferred option. And for every major purchase or service, says Smithers, get more than one quote. Check out several home-stagers before shelling out for an entire package. “Have them make a presentation. Get references. That’s really important.”

“Furniture placement is key,” Smithers continues. “We usually take out about half of the [owner’s] furniture — you only want the essential pieces in each room. The further the eye can travel the bigger the room looks. Most people like a modern, clean look.”

Often it’s necessary to rent basic, neutral furnishings. Fluff Design in East vancouver is among local firms that rent everything you need to temporarily furnish a home — from fashionable couches and tables to colourful bedding and lighting.

Flattering lighting then “sets the ambience — it’s where the emotions are,” Smithers says, pointing out that you can buy all types of lighting relatively inexpensively at home-décor and big-box outlets. “Look for what’s trendy and modern.”

Finally, the accenting accessories are added: the universally acceptable art, colourful cushions and maybe a handsome plant or vases with flowers.

When Evans was asked to stage a small mill-house in coquitlam, again on as little money as possible, she and her designer exposed several antique sconce lamps that had been hidden by furniture or overlooked.

By removing about half the furniture, including the TV, taking down the window coverings (a trademark action of Canadian Staging Professionals, with whom she trained), and uncoupling an antique cupboard (or hutch) from the chest of drawers on which it sat, then repositioning the lower piece, the house acquired a new charm and spaciousness.

Sometimes, a stager will create a small “setting” or vignette, Smithers says. For example, in a master bedroom they’ll cluster a table with a lamp and book, and a comfortable chair. “It makes you want to sit and read and snuggle up. It’s the power of suggestion.”

Similarly, Evans demonstrates that by placing a small antique table in an otherwise empty hallway and adding a few accessories, an overlooked niche can be brought to life.

In fact, a byproduct of home staging is counselling homeowners on how to live well, Smithers says. ”I’ve had women walk into the homes that we’ve done and cry. They wonder why they didn’t do it themselves. It’s all about the transformation.”