Harris Green Park just got a new 16-storey neighbour that's making quite an impact.
The apartment building, called Neighbour, arrived in Victoria and has won a CoStar Impact Award for multifamily development of the year in Vancouver, as selected by a panel of local judges from the market.
Designed by Vancouver-based architecture firm Rafii Architects for the developer Townline Homes, Neighbour is a hybrid co-living and traditional apartment building with 295 beds distributed throughout 121 units ranging in size from 300 to 700 square feet. Each co-living suite features clerestory windows for enhanced day-lighting and wood floors furnished with beds, desks, and wardrobes, along with communal kitchens and living areas.
The building also features ground-level retail as well as a gym, lounge, work pods and a workshop for bicycle repair or craft projects.
Sustainability initiatives are a big part of the design and function of the building. Neighbour’s exterior walls, roof insulation and glazing provide added energy efficiency while green-roof assemblies regulate temperatures and manage water catchment. There are systems in place to detect water leaks throughout the building.
Completed in August 2025, Neighbour is the first large-scale co-living building in Canada, and represents a growing trend toward alternative rental models. Neighbour is also an early entrant in the rejuvenation effort along Vancouver's Pandora Avenue at the northwestern edge of Harris Green.
About the Project: As the first large-scale co-living apartment building in Vancouver, Neighbor had no regulatory precedent in Victoria. This required planning, staff education, and creative interpretation of the building code. Foad Rafii, the principal architect on the project, worked closely with KOR Structural and Williams Engineering Canada to develop specialized solutions while adhering to the building schedule.
The novelty of the co-living concept also affected fundraising. Traditional lenders viewed co-living skeptically, requiring exhaustive market research before committing capital to back the project, but Townline Homes persevered and made the novel project a big success.
What the judges said: "I liked the boldness to address affordability while staying profitable in a challenging market by using the co-living model," said Justin Smith, president of Hawkeye Wealth Ltd.
"Neighbour is intriguing as a new approach to residential in this market. It will be interesting to watch the blending of traditional residential with co-living, and could be a model for affordability," added Liz Firer-Gillespie, senior vice president of asset management for Balfour Pacific.
They made it happen: Daryl Simpson, president of Townline Homes and Foad Rafii, principal of Rafii Architects Inc.