Rental prices in Vancouver’s Butterfly tower shock, disgust neighbours

Some rental unit listings are popping up for inside The Butterfly tower in downtown Vancouver as the skyscraper nears completion, and the asking monthly rents are shocking some residents.

Daily Hive saw a one-bedroom unit listed on Facebook Marketplace asking $3,400 per month. The apartment features a reflective wall that wraps around the bedroom set against white tile flooring and glossy white cabinetry.

The property management company shared a tour video on YouTube. The video peeks inside the closets and marble-tiled bathroom. Twin white sinks with gold-coloured faucets don’t offer any counter space, and the toilet paper holder is embedded into one of the columns supporting the sinks.

Rent It New Property Management highlights the building’s amenities, including an Olympic-sized lap pool, a hot tub, and a car and bike-share service for Butterfly residents.

“Award-winning designs and world-class amenities offers unparalleled elegance,” the rental description reads.

But not everyone is as jazzed as Rent It New about The Butterfly’s rental units.

“Reject from Star Wars”: Butterfly neighbour questions who expensive units are for

Rent It New Property Management Group/Facebook Marketplace

Dustin Lee Hiles is a professional opera singer who has lived across the street from The Butterfly for the last few years. He chose his apartment on Nelson Street because it’s close to St. Paul’s Hospital — where he goes regularly for treatment of a kidney condition.

Hiles pays about $1,800 to rent a 700-square-foot unit in a 115-year-old heritage building. That’s the type of housing he thinks the West End needs — not rents way out of budget for the average working person in Vancouver.

“This has to be a f*cking joke, right?” he told Daily Hive in an interview. “In the West End, they’re building all of these luxury apartments. But for who? None of us.”

Hiles recently stumbled upon a Facebook Marketplace ad for another one-bedroom rental in The Butterfly for $5,100 a month. He shared photos of the listing in a local West End Facebook group, which sparked dozens of comments outraged at the price and criticizing the unit’s design.

Hiles pointed out that $5,100 per month is more than $61,000 per year. Using traditional guidance that housing is affordable if it costs less than 30% of someone’s pre-tax income, a couple would need to make a salary of at least $200,000 to reasonably afford The Butterfly unit.

What’s more, Hiles said even if he had that much to spend on rent, he wouldn’t choose The Butterfly. Because he thinks it’s ugly.

“It looks like some reject from Star Wars,” he said. “It looks like Jar Jar Binks is going to come through the door. It’s tacky.”

Rent It Now Property Management Group/Facebook Marketplace

Hiles isn’t the first to criticize The Butterfly’s interiors. Some Vancouverites compared the white and reflective decor to a medical clinic or a lab when the first interior photos of units for sale went online.

The sidewalk outside The Butterfly is still closed to pedestrians as construction on the project finishes, but the rental ads advertise a move-in date as early as February 1.

The older low-rise buildings next to The Butterfly will be torn down to make way for Curv, the next luxury project coming to Nelson Street.

Hiles believes it may only be a matter of time before he has to leave if the buildings on his side of the street must go to make way for a new development.

“It’s just for rich people,” he said of the new developments coming to the West End. “It’s disparaging. Because we work really hard. And at the end of the day, we don’t have paycheques that can get us a shoebox.”