The newest entry into affordable living in downtown Vancouver comes with rents starting at $675 -- for an apartment about the size of two parking spaces.

The newly redone bachelor apartments are in a heritage building, the previously condemned, 100-year-old Burns Block in the troubled Downtown Eastside.

The suites, at 270 square feet, are being called "micro lofts" and are the smallest self-contained rental suites in the city. They will be available in March 2011.

Renters get their own bathroom and kitchen. There's even a park just across Hastings Street, although it's the notorious Pigeon Park.

The suites are priced so they're affordable to someone earning $25,000 a year or working at a job that pays about $12 per hour.

The $5-million project was a partnership between Reliance Properties and ITC Construction Group, the largest construction company in Western Canada based on volume.