The Sarnia-Lambton Real Estate Board is encouraging homeowners to consider creating a legal secondary unit -- to help address the city's housing and rental shortage for college students and labourers coming to work on the NOVA expansion.
President Donna Mathewson said they've directed their realtors to educate clients on the possibility, now that the city has opened up more zoning areas to allow the units in existing or new dwellings. She said it could help people get into the market for the first time.
"When a first time home buyer feels like the dream of homeownership is just that little bit out of reach, if they look in an area of the city that does allow second units, at least that gives them an option," said Mathewson. "They could have an income until such time that their income could catch up with what the housing is doing and they could take over the entire home themselves."
Mathewson said it would also help address the city's housing and rental shortage.
"We have college students who are coming in, we have more foreign students now than what we did before, as well we definitely have more workers in town than we've had previously," she said. "With the natural shutdowns that we have in the spring and in the fall, we always have extra workers, but now with the NOVA project that puts on top of that a need for more housing for those workers too."
More information, including a map of areas the units are permitted, can be found here.
The unit must contain its own entrance, a private sleeping area, kitchen and bathroom.
The Real Estate Board says 157 properties worth just over $51 million sold in April, representing a 10-year record high for the month.
The average price of a home so far this year is $323,000, up nearly nine per cent over last year.
The highest number of residential home sales was 17 sales in the $280,000 to $300,000 range.
