When Raven Woods, a master-planned development located in the Roche Point neighbourhood of Metro Vancouver’s North Shore, was originally built, it was one of the first businesses in North Vancouver to sell residential units on leasehold land.

Leasehold land, according to the government of British Columbia, is: 

A long-term residential leasehold is a form of homeownership where a person (the lessee or leaseholder) purchases from the owner of a building (the lessor or leasehold landlord) the right to occupy a premise for a long-term, fixed period (more than 20 years, and usually for 99 years, on first sale). This is sometimes referred to as “prepaying the lease.”

In the case of Raven Woods, the land belongs to the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, who traditionally held the territory.

A rocky road to the shift in sentiment toward leasehold

Cal Pye, a realtor now with Babych Group Realty, was part of the original sales and marketing team for the project. Having worked in the area for over three decades, Pye has seen a shift in sentiment toward leasehold properties over the years.

But it hasn’t been a straightforward line getting there.

“The leasehold aspect has always been a contentious issue with those that don’t educate themselves about the details,” he points out. “But the confidence of the investment and the huge community spirit of Raven Woods has overcome the fears associated with the lease (from) when we started in 1994.

The buyers and their realtors who do some due diligence on the value and the community soon realize what a wonderful place (it is) to live while being comfortable with the ownership details.”

Leasehold land: A previous stigma preventing people from understanding nuances & benefits — but much of what’s left

Sarah-Jane Copeland, lands manager with Cheam First Nation, also contributes her thoughts on how people think about and work with leasehold land:

“People’s perceptions and understanding of leasehold land has changed a lot over the past decade,” she notes. Before, “(They) just wanted to kind of hide it, not really have it at the forefront.”

But Copeland believes that this previous stigma prevented people from truly understanding the nuances at hand.

“There are actually quite a lot of benefits to leasehold land as well,” she adds. “Usually there’s no property transfer tax, tax rates could be lower, it’s all different. But I think currently the reality of the situation is that First Nations land (includes) some of the only large land masses that we have left, especially since Metro Vancouver is very geographically constrained.”

‘Everyone has to start somewhere’ but education and partnership are keys to success

Copeland advocates for accessing and developing these large parcels of land to help address growing housing pressure needs, but to do so in a way that truly understands the needs of the Indigenous bands she works with.

The key word, according to Copeland? Partnership.

“I think the main thing is making sure that all parties involved have an understanding of the main goal you’re working toward and being respectful of the laws and policies that these First Nations already have,” she shares.

Aiden Mauti is a Toronto-based consultant with Creative Fire, a 100 per cent Indigenous-owned consulting and communications firm.

Like Copeland and Pye, he believes in the significance of both education and partnership when it comes to real estate sales and marketing practices for leasehold properties on Indigenous land.

For realtors who are interested in learning more but aren’t sure how, Mauti’s advice would be to just get started.

“It’s such a journey that there’s always going to be a critique, there’s always going to be a different opinion of what ‘good’ looks like,” Mauti says. “Everyone has to start somewhere.”

A journey that’s just starting

And while land acknowledgements and showing support on Truth and Reconciliation Day are major steps in progress toward national attention and recognition of Indigenous issues, Mauti believes that the journey for Canadians is just getting started.

“I think there’s just a lot more learning to happen on what reconciliation really means, beyond an orange shirt or even what we see in the industry of wanting to just hire more Indigenous people for the sake of it,” he adds.

The real estate development space has seen a rise of Indigenous-led projects, such as kʷasən Village and Sen̓áḵw in Metro Vancouver, and YZD in Toronto. The land’s history has been incorporated and welcomed, rather than avoided, in their ongoing sales and marketing efforts, with the Squamish nation calling the Sen̓áḵw project “reconciliation in action.”

Resurgence over reconciliation

Mauti reflects on the words of Kahnawà:ke Mohawk writer, researcher, policy analyst and political strategist Taiaiake Alfred:

“Taiaiake talks a lot more about resurgence over reconciliation,” he notices. “A resurgence of cultures — how could we enable the next generation of Indigenous people to support their own self-determination, for whatever that might look like.”

Something to consider both within the real estate industry and beyond.

Photo credit: aquilinidevelopment.com