Living in Nanaimo is cheap compared to the Lower Mainland, but is regular commuting across the Salish Sea for work practical?
With detached single family homes in Vancouver now costing somewhere between $1.4 million and $1.8 million compared to just over $358,000 for a similar home in Nanaimo, forcing many people out of that real estate market, crossing the strait to free up income from high mortgage payments makes sense, if you can afford the commute.
High Vancouver housing prices have fuelled migrations to the Island, Kamloops, the Okanagan, and elsewhere in B.C. for decades and for many people commuting from the Island to jobs in the Lower Mainland, northern B.C., Alberta or wherever well-paying jobs are, is part of living in on the Island or a least a short-term consequence of moving here.
In 1998, Greg Nowik, owner of Universal Mortgage Architects, sold his house in North Vancouver for $499,000 and moved to Nanaimo. That same house today would sell for $2.4 million.
"There are some stats out there that say, by 2020, two thirds of the population is going to be living in multi-family over there," Nowik said. "It's just bizarre and then they had that house that went for $735,000 over list price in Vancouver. Well, just the over-list price could have bought you a nice home and a rental property here."
Nowik's mortgage brokerage maintains offices in Nanaimo and Coquitlam. Over the years he has whittled trips to Coquitlam down to about one round trip about one week out of every month, which still costs about $5,000 annually for ferries fares, fuel and other travel expenses.
"If you can work from home and you don't have to be there, why wouldn't you live here?" Nowik asked.
In cases where people must commute to the Lower Mainland regularly, there are ways to minimize travel costs, by, as in Nowik's case, commuting less frequently or by using walk-on ferry service and public transit.
"With modern technology you can work more remotely … it's also about bringing business here. It's not all about just commuting back and forth," said John Hankins, Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation CEO.
Nanaimo-based companies, such as commercial design firm Hired Guns Creative, Inuktun Services, Seamor Marine, Real Estate Webmasters, promote the region's lifestyle and comparatively low cost of living to draw talent to Nanaimo while servicing clients abroad.