# Mid-market missing middle housing in Victoria

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2022-06-25

architecture, aryze-developments, british-columbia, development, family-housing, housing, infill-housing, missing-middle, pearl-block, townhouse-development, victoria

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I am a big fan of Victoria-based developer Aryze. And their [Pearl Block](https://aryze.ca/projects/pearlblock) project is a good example of why. Developed on [an awkward triangular lot](https://www.google.com/maps/@48.4424111,-123.333438,3a,60y,271.34h,90.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s00SWLYvyYvHquEnAQloX2Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656) that had been sitting vacant for nearly 65 years and that presumably every other developer had been overlooking, the project brought six family-oriented townhouses to the Oaklands neighborhood of Victoria, BC.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/de5dfc9f342e5125de21968c87a74c67.jpg)

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/005441aa00ae859488ea563a1b3649ee.jpg)

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4c544564c21b785b68fcd2e20d916f2f.jpg)

Each of the towns has 3 bedrooms. Each has a living room facing the street (but with privacy from the neighbor). Each has a large rooftop deck (with 5 foot parapet walls so no kids fall over). And according to the developer, each sold for less than the average price of a single-family home in the Oaklands area. Not surprisingly, the project also won all sorts of awards.

It is a great example of the kind of beautiful and mid-market missing middle housing that so many of us are always talking about. Why build 1 home when you can build 6? Why build 6 homes when you can build 18? Still, there remains far too many obstacles in the way of any sort of housing that doesn't conform to the status-quo:

https://twitter.com/TalktoARYZE/status/1540376487605329920?s=20&t=bKIUB5Agb5KKFoVW2emBjw

It shouldn't be this difficult. And it shouldn't take this long. Actually, let me rephrase this. It _can't_ be this difficult and it _can't_ this long; that is, if we're expecting to actually come close to meeting the demand for new housing. There is no great mystery as to why the [missing middle](https://brandondonnelly.com/tag/missing-middle/) is, you know, missing. We made it that way.

Keep up the great work team Aryze.

_Photography:_ [_Ema Peter via D'Arcy Jones Architects_](https://www.darcyjones.com/pearl-block)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/mid-market-missing-middle-housing-in-victoria)*