Home-buying hope lives in Langford

Like to buy a house and settle down, but can't swing the mortgage payments on that average $482,000 single-family home in Greater Victoria?

You're in luck if you're from Langford -- the city is advertising a pair of brand-new homes at $150,000 each.

"It's the real deal and this is what you get," Mayor Stew Young said Friday. The homes are fully finished inside and out, including a dishwasher and the yards are landscaped.

"Everything is real. It's their house, but basically they get it at half-price."

Except for the smaller size, "you can't tell the difference" from the market-priced homes in the rest of the subdivisions, he said.

It's Langford's homegrown affordable housing initiative, which requires new subdivisions to set aside 10 per cent of homes as affordable. Subdivisions of fewer than 10 lots make a cash contribution.

Each of the advertised bungalows is under 1,000 square feet, one with two bedrooms and the other with three. There's just a single bathroom, no basement but a finished garage.

The homes are in two new subdivisions along Happy Valley Road, where large tracts of land have been rezoned for several hundred new houses.

But as they say about prize contests, some restrictions apply. You have to have been a resident of Langford for at least two years, with a household income less than $50,000 and the tax returns and pay stubs to prove it. You need the five per cent down payment and must be pre-approved for a mortgage.

Resale of the homes is controlled -- you can only sell to someone on the Langford waiting list, approved by the city's committee, and for the same price you paid. After five years, you're allowed a $2,000-a-year profit. If you stay put for 25 years, it's yours free and clear to sell for top value.