Demand for housing in British Columbia still far exceeds supply, experts say, although data from the latest census show that housing growth is higher than population growth across the country.
Statistics from Canada said on Wednesday that the growth of apartments in a building with five or more floors has far outpaced other types of housing across the country, although single-family homes remain the dominant form, accounting for about half of all homes.
There are 866,340 single-family homes in British Columbia, representing 42.4% of the housing distribution, an increase of 1.7% from the last census in 2016.
There are also 221,850 apartments in buildings on five or more floors, which make up a total of 10.9 percent of all homes in the province. This increased from 177,830 such units in 2016, which then accounted for 9.4% of all homes in BC.
Increase in apartments across the country
Across Canada, there are nearly 1.6 million apartments in buildings with five or more floors, or 10.7% of all homes, up from 9.9% in 2016.
Andy Ian, director of the city program at Simon Fraser University, expected the rise of condominiums. He said he expected the trend of young people not being able to “climb the property ladder” to continue, largely due to land area and price.
“Everything is expensive now,” Ian said. “[Millennials] they may not be able to afford the price of the land, but they want to buy something, so it mostly comes in the form of an apartment. “
Andy Ian says more and more young people are being forced to visit apartments and flats as the cost of home ownership becomes increasingly unaffordable. (Harman / CBC News)
Nathanael Lauster, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, said housing was a “major obstacle to growth”, but also noted that the census did not measure demand or need.
“We’re just not building new, additional single-family homes anymore, so it’s just going to be an increasingly excellent and luxurious kind of market here,” Lauster said.
Leo Spalteholz, a housing analyst at Homes for Living, a group of community volunteers trying to make Greater Victoria more accessible to tenants and homeowners, noted that the influx of people moving to Canada’s shores during the pandemic has also intensified competition in the real estate market.
“It doesn’t take many people to arrive to overload their homes. Even before the pandemic struck, inventories of properties for sale in Canada were actually quite low, and then suddenly these people moved.
Statistics released by the British Columbia Department of Labor earlier this month show that more than 100,000 people moved to the province in 2021, the highest annual total since 1961.
“It’s pretty scary”
Alia Griffin, 38, has lived in the same basement apartment in East Vancouver since 2010. She said her landlords had sold the property and the new owners had given her two months’ notice to evict, claiming a family member was planning to move in. Griffin said she was “blinded” by the news that she was due to move out in June.
“The rent was very reasonable and we are now looking at a market that is twice or more than what we are paying for now, for less than what we have now,” she said.
“It’s pretty scary, to be honest. I’ve never been in that position before.”
Sign up in front of a small rental building in Vancouver with a waiting list. (David Horemans / CBC)
She said she paid $ 984 a month before her husband moved and the rent rose to $ 1,025. She said they may now be forced to move out of town.
“I am one of the people who did everything right. I have no debts, I went to school, I found a decent job and I am in this position because rents have risen much faster than salaries, “she said.
“Owning a home for my generation without supportive and super-rich parents is simply impossible.”
The housing crisis is also affecting smaller cities
Pemberton recorded a higher population growth rate than any other community in British Columbia with at least 1,000 people between 2016 and 2021 (Justin McElroy / CBC News)
Spalteholz said he expects growing population growth across the province, not just in urban centers like Vancouver.
“Some of these smaller markets have just been completely overwhelmed with newcomers and have simply put the market in a state of crisis, both in terms of rents and housing prices.”
A report on trends from the Vancouver Economic Alliance found that between 2014 and 2021, more than 89,000 people moved to Vancouver Island. Meanwhile, the housing stock has increased by only 28,000 units, it said.
Affordability and housing availability affect people of all ages and demographics, said George Hanson, the alliance’s president.
The adults also pushed
Isobel Mackenzie, an advocate for the elderly in British Columbia, says the elderly are forced to live in unbearable housing situations. (Maggie McPherson / CBC)
Advocate for the elderly Isobel Mackenzie said only about half of homeowners over the age of 65 live in single-family homes. The other half lives in an apartment, condominium, town house or modular house.
The census shows that 504,475 people aged 65 and over in British Columbia live in a single-family home, an increase of 418,145 in 2016. It shows that 73,930 live in apartments in five-story buildings, up from 58,310.
Mackenzie said moving to apartments makes sense for the elderly because it is often cheaper than owning a home, often requires less maintenance and has fewer or no stairs.
But since about a third of seniors live on less than the minimum wage, she said she is concerned about the elderly tenant. She noted a recent trend of long-term tenants facing exile, sometimes illegally, because they live in controlled-rent apartments while market value has skyrocketed.
“When this happened, [seniors] “They are in a catastrophic shock over the new rent they will have to pay,” she said.
“At the end of the day, they often cannot pay the increased rent; they just don’t have the money. “
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