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Globe and Mail
30-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Despite rise in Vancouver rental vacancies, affordability is still a distant dream
As the vacancy rate goes up in Vancouver, renters do have more options – unfortunately, those renters don't include lower-income households. 'We are still far from an abundance of affordability in our time, especially for those on living wage incomes,' said Andy Yan, associate professor of professional practice in urban studies at Simon Fraser University. 'We define that group as those households earning less than $50,000 a year. There is very little new housing for them.' Prof. Yan was responding to a newly revised city of Vancouver report called the Housing Vancouver Progress Update 2024, which measures the city's proposed housing targets. Last year was a record year for rental apartment approvals, as the number of applications for rental buildings grew and the number of condos conversely, shrank since 2022. By way of comparison, in 2018, when the condo market was strong, the number of condos approved was 4,511, and the number of purpose-built apartments approved was 1,018, according to the city report. In 2024, 832 condo units were approved, and 5,587 apartment units got the green light. A key reason behind the inversion from condo to rental unit is the market downturn. Because there is more rental supply coming onto the market, the rents for new apartments should come down. But because of the high cost of land, construction, insurance, financing and other costs, developers are more likely to hit pause than lower rents, said Prof. Yan. One of the slides in the report showed that 73 per cent of approvals of market rental housing were for households making $90,000 to $200,000. Only 9 per cent of rentals approved were for those making $60,000 to $150,000 and 4 per cent of rentals were suitable for households earning $20,000 to $100,000, which are categories generally known as 'below market.' The report noted: 'Additional senior government partnerships are needed to deliver housing for low- to moderate-income households.' 'This is the biggest question: do market developers keep on building in the shadow of declining rents?' asked Prof. Yan. 'There are rental units coming into the pipeline at the high end, but if you look at the data from the city and a recent Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation rental report, the units with rents over $1,750 have a 2.4 per cent vacancy rate. Any units with rents less than $1,000 a month have a vacancy rate of 0.9 per cent. When high-end rental markets reach a more balanced state, will the appetite for construction continue while lower-income tenants remain hungry?' Just because a project gets approval doesn't mean it will get completed any time soon. David Hutniak, chief executive officer of Landlord BC, said the 'geopolitical environment' and economic uncertainty could curtail rental construction. 'My concern is that rental projects are being shelved because the numbers don't work,' said Mr. Hutniak. 'That has longer-term implications – none of them good – and that's why we need all levels of government to come to the table to eliminate the numerous barriers so that we can keep building new rental housing.' The city's annual progress report summarizes what most Vancouverites already know: that a lot of expensive housing got built in the hot-market years before the pandemic, and not enough truly affordable housing got built. It states that 'rental demand remains strong for housing that serves low- to moderate-income households but slows for supply at higher rents.' Opinion: High-rise towers not the answer to the housing affordability crisis in Vancouver, critics say After so many years of policy aimed at delivering affordable housing, now that the city is finally approving rentals in record numbers, how is it that so much of it remains unaffordable? City councillor Pete Fry said the city analysis is missing the net loss of rental housing units and how they relate to household incomes. 'So, while development approvals are meeting targets for rental housing, the definitions of 'market' or 'below market' are mercurial and don't necessarily capture local needs, only what the market will bear,' said Mr. Fry. 'Unfortunately, amidst new policies, like the city leveraging public-owned land to build market [rental] instead of affordable housing, increasing calls from the development industry to reduce the amount of inclusionary zoning, and generally rising costs for everything including infrastructure and construction – we are heading in the wrong direction for affordable housing, and in my opinion, desperately need significant senior government intervention to reverse that trend.' The federal and provincial caps on international students flowing into the province in 2024 had a significant impact on the current supply increase in Vancouver, according to the CMHC. But the CMHC also forecasted an increase, not a decrease, in rents. The CMHC forecasts a vacancy rate of 2.1 per cent this year, which is higher than 1.6 per cent last year in Metro Vancouver. By 2026, the CMHC projects a vacancy rate of 2.4 per cent. But it also forecasts the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom to go up to $2,605 by 2026, higher than the estimated $2,461 average this year. And by 2027, the average rent for a two-bedroom in Greater Vancouver is projected to go up to $2,758. Despite those projections, Mr. Hutniak said his members are telling him that the rental market has become more challenging. 'Many are experiencing increasing tenant turnover as tenants take advantage of the softening market, which has presented them with more choice and lower prices,' said Mr. Hutniak. 'For rental providers, the process to secure new tenants for vacated units is taking longer at lower asking rents, with negotiation likely an option for savvy renters who monitor the market.' The City of Vancouver gets into the rental game Landlords are trying to prevent turnover by offering free access to amenities, or free parking, or forgoing the 2025 allowable rent increase, he said. 'We know that there are a meaningful number of new rental buildings coming on-stream, which is going to further exacerbate the current situation.' Craig E. Jones, associate director of Housing Assessment Resource Tools at University of B.C., said the overall vacancy rate of 1.6 per cent is low, and it has to get to 3 per cent to be considered healthy. But as a proponent of purpose-built rental housing stock, he said it's going in the right direction as more rental gets built, and although rents aren't coming down significantly, they are slowing down, said Mr. Jones. He looked at apartments by age and found that the many apartment buildings constructed between 1960 and 1979 only went up by 1.1 per cent from 2023 to 2024. 'I don't think it's about looking for average rents to actually come down. I think it's about seeing average rents increase at a more reasonable rate. We're not seeing those big 6 to 10 per cent increases year over year any more,' he said.
CBC
20-05-2025
- General
- CBC
In the wake of tragedy, Vancouver's Sunset neighbourhood grows closer and stronger
Social Sharing As a child, Rob Nijjar figured South Vancouver's Sunset neighbourhood must be the city's downtown core — it was always a bustling area filled with people from around the world. He did everything in that community. It was where he saw his first film, visited a bank for the first time and shopped for groceries. He grew up there. "It's a really, really genuine, down to earth place that welcomes everybody," Nijjar said. "It doesn't matter your economic level, what culture, what language, no English at all. You're really, really welcome here." Now, as executive director of the Sunset on Fraser Business Association, he said the community has come together even stronger in the wake of the Lapu-Lapu Day festival tragedy on April 26, which left 11 people dead and many more injured. "It was absolutely devastating," Nijjar said. "You take it so personally." Andy Yan, an associate professor in Simon Fraser University's urban studies department, said the Sunset neighbourhood is one of the most diverse places in Vancouver. About 83 per cent of residents identify as being part of a visible minority, while 53 per cent are immigrants, Yan said. "The city of Vancouver is certainly diverse, but it's within Sunset that it is hyper-diverse," he said. "It brings in people from around the world into this incredible part of the city." But, Yan said, it's also an underappreciated area. It's certainly not the neighbourhood that's advertised to tourists, and Yan said when he paid a visit to the site of the festival tragedy in recent weeks, he noticed sidewalks that were cracked and not maintained as well as they are in other parts of Vancouver. It's not perfect sidewalks or tourists that make the community, though. It's the people who live and work there every day. At Friends on Fraser, a salon near Fraser Street and 43rd Avenue, owner May Duong said she visits the site of the tragedy, just two blocks away, multiple times a day. "When we have free time, we come there, we pray for [those lost]." She said she's been checking in on her customers who live in the area a little more, calling them to make sure they're doing alright. Duong takes the name of her business, which she's owned for 25 years, to heart: all her customers are her friends. "We pray together." A few blocks south of Duong's shop, cafe owner Nikhil Kurundvade said community members have been coming together over a cup of chai to grieve. "In India they [say] chai is not just a chai, it's an emotion," he said. "Chai basically connects people." He arrived in Vancouver 11 years ago, at age 23, with his high school sweetheart. They went to university together and now, have opened up a cafe in the community that Kurundvade said has always been so kind to him. "When I was a student, I was looking for a job and I was kind of going through different shops and stores or cafes and everybody was so welcoming," he said. "They offered some free snacks, free food." He said business owners promised to let him know when a job opened up — which they did. He worked in the community for about eight years before starting his own business, which he hopes will give back to newcomers the way others helped him. That's why he's been gathering with community members to connect and rebuild, stronger than ever. "We get together, have chai or have coffee and then discuss, and we get a chance to grieve what happened and how we can prevent something like this from happening in future," Kurundvade said. "It's so unfortunate that this happened, but we are trying our best to cope with the incident that took place."
CBC
14-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
New housing minister says supply, not costs, root of Canada's real estate crisis
Social Sharing New federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson said the way out of the real estate crisis that has consumed housing markets in Canada is to increase supply, not reduce costs. "I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable," he said to journalists as he headed into his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday. "It's a huge part of our economy, but we need to be able to deliver more affordable housing." Robertson was Vancouver's mayor between 2008 and 2018. During that time, data from the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation shows the average price of single-family and semi-detached homes rose 179 per cent across the broader Metro Vancouver area. "We've seen increases like that across Canada over the past decade," Robertson said, defending his record. "I wasn't getting the help I needed from the federal government when I was mayor, or the provincial government, of all stripes. We need, as a government in Ottawa, to be delivering and partnering with cities and provinces." He noted that his experience as mayor gives him a unique perspective on what sort of assistance is needed federally to help those at the more grassroots level of this problem. Robertson legacy a mixed bag: urban studies expert Urban studies professor Andy Yan said Robertson's remarks today show there is one takeaway he may not have absorbed from his years in the mayor's chair. "He perhaps did not understand how much it's also about finance and demand," said Yan, who teaches at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. He pointed out how Robertson had promised to end homelessness when he became mayor in 2008, though homelessness, too, ended up surging under his watch. But Yan said Robertson needs time to settle in to his new role before anyone passes judgment. "It's literally his second day on the job. One has to give him the opportunity to see what he learned, the lessons in being the mayor of Vancouver." On Tuesday, journalists asked Prime Minister Mark Carney if appointing Robertson to Housing indicated the government does not want housing prices to go down. "You would be very hard-pressed to make that conclusion," Carney said. "We have a strong view on housing and a very clear policy," he said. He added Robertson brings the type of experience needed to tackle some of the housing cost problems. During the election campaign, Carney revealed one big part of his solution is the creation of a new government entity called Build Canada Homes, which would directly oversee the construction of affordable housing. During the campaign, the prime minister also pledged to remove the GST on the purchase of a home at or under $1 million for first-time buyers.
Vancouver Sun
25-04-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Why experts say federal election housing platforms are varying degrees of unrealistic
All three of Canada's main political parties are promising to get a lot of housing built fast over the next four years as people across the country continue to struggle to afford either their rent or mortgage. But experts believe the goals they have set are varying degrees of fantastical, at least in the short-term. Article content The housing crisis is an intractable crisis with no easy solutions, meaning it is unlikely that any party platform will provide a silver bullet, according to Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University. Article content Article content 'It really is a Gordian Knot,' said Yan, referring to the legend of Alexander The Great and the impossible-to-untie knot that he instead cut. 'The solution is then who wields the sword.' Article content Article content The federal Liberals, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, have promised to double the rate of home building through the creation of Build Canada Homes, a government-owned entity that would be tasked with developing housing on federal public land. Article content Other policies put forward by the current governing party include reviving the Multi-Unit Rental Building Tax Incentive, which the Grits say helped build thousands of units of housing in the 1970s, and cutting municipal development costs in half through federal investments in power lines and wastewater infrastructure. Article content Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives have promised to facilitate the construction of 2.3 million homes over the next five years through the selling of 15 per cent of public lands to developers and pre-zoning certain 'shovel-ready zones'. Article content Article content The party has pledged to bring in a number of carrots and sticks for municipalities, including tying infrastructure money to the pace of construction. Local governments that increase home building by 15 per cent annually will receive more federal funding, while those that don't will see their share reduced. Article content Article content The Liberals have also promised to partially axe the GST for first-time homebuyers purchasing properties valued at $1 million or less, while the Conservatives would scrap the tax completely on new rental housing construction, as well as on purchases of new homes worth up to $1.3 million. Article content As for the NDP, Jagmeet Singh's team say they would best both of their opponents through the construction of three million new homes by 2030. This would be accomplished through the replacement of the Liberals' Housing Accelerator Fund with a permanent $16-billion fund split into two parts — the Canadian Homes Transfer and the Communities First Fund. Article content The Canadian Homes Transfer would require all single-family zoning be upscaled to allow for multi-unit buildings and for municipalities to increase density around transit hubs — both measures brought in by B.C.'s NDP government.
Vancouver Sun
25-04-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
'A Gordian Knot': Why experts say federal election housing platforms are varying degrees of unrealistic
All three of Canada's main political parties are promising to get a lot of housing built fast over the next four years as people across the country continue to struggle to afford either their rent or mortgage. But experts believe the goals they have set are varying degrees of fantastical, at least in the short-term. Article content The housing crisis is an intractable crisis with no easy solutions, meaning it is unlikely that any party platform will provide a silver bullet, according to Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University. Article content Article content 'It really is a Gordian Knot,' said Yan, referring to the legend of Alexander The Great and the impossible-to-untie knot that he instead cut. 'The solution is then who wields the sword.' Article content Article content The federal Liberals, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, have promised to double the rate of home building through the creation of Build Canada Homes, a government-owned entity that would be tasked with developing housing on federal public land. Article content Other policies put forward by the current governing party include reviving the Multi-Unit Rental Building Tax Incentive, which the Grits say helped build thousands of units of housing in the 1970s, and cutting municipal development costs in half through federal investments in power lines and wastewater infrastructure. Article content Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives have promised to facilitate the construction of 2.3 million homes over the next five years through the selling of 15 per cent of public lands to developers and pre-zoning certain 'shovel-ready zones'. Article content Article content The party has pledged to bring in a number of carrots and sticks for municipalities, including tying infrastructure money to the pace of construction. Local governments that increase home building by 15 per cent annually will receive more federal funding, while those that don't will see their share reduced. Article content Article content The Liberals have also promised to partially axe the GST for first-time homebuyers purchasing properties valued at $1 million or less, while the Conservatives would scrap the tax completely on new rental housing construction, as well as on purchases of new homes worth up to $1.3 million. Article content As for the NDP, Jagmeet Singh's team say they would best both of their opponents through the construction of three million new homes by 2030. This would be accomplished through the replacement of the Liberals' Housing Accelerator Fund with a permanent $16-billion fund split into two parts — the Canadian Homes Transfer and the Communities First Fund. Article content The Canadian Homes Transfer would require all single-family zoning be upscaled to allow for multi-unit buildings and for municipalities to increase density around transit hubs — both measures brought in by B.C.'s NDP government.
