extravagant british columbia
Throughout the past few years, housing has been escalating drastically. Unsurprisingly, many different people struggle to live in B.C.: professionals, students, low income renters, and even people living in tents. Everyone struggling has the fear of moving out or having to displace themselves from their homes.
According to the census taken in 2021, British Colombia ranks as the most unaffordable province in Canada. Most of the unaffordable housing roots from the people living in downtown: the heart of Vancouver.
The main factor affecting housing affordability is the ongoing imbalance between supply and demand. There is a much higher demand than the existing supply. Additionally, because fewer consumers are listing their properties, there is an absence of new buildings and fewer resales, which means that the supply is not growing concurrently.
Additionally, the B.C. government solely permits rent to raise by 2% annually. This causes landlords to crash out as they struggle to maintain their business with it's following skyrocketing costs. David Hutniak with LandlordBC agrees that landlords are crashing to meet the rising costs as landlords' mortgages, utilities, and insurance have dramatically increased.
Moreover, the census states that home ownership in Canada decreased to 66.5% in 2021 from it's climax in 2011 of 69%.
"B.C. at 25.5 per cent and Ontario at 24.2 per cent had the highest rates of unaffordable housing nationally in 2021," said the report. "This was largely because of the higher rates of unaffordable housing in the renter-heavy large urban centres of Toronto at 30.5 per cent and Vancouver at 29.8 per cent."
Marie-Josee Houle, Canada's first federal housing advocate, states. She additionally states that "Housing and housing affordability is becoming more and more out of reach for most Canadians,''.
Due to the sky rocketing costs of homes, first time buyers in B.C. are inclining towards purchasing condominiums as they're referred to the "gateway to home ownership".
"B.C. had the largest share of condo dwellers among the provinces in 2021, with 23.6 per cent of households calling a condo home,". This report also includes the 32.5% of households in Vancouver.
So much so that a report claims that, according to the Canadian Housing Statistics Program, more than 75% of condominiums in B.B. and more than 60% of those who live in Ontario that didn't live in by a homeowner were owned by individual Canadian Investors. The report also states that the overall incomes in each household is decreasing the core needs for housing. Yet an estimated 1.5 million Canadians are continuing to live in costly, deficient, and improper conditions.
british columbians and albertans
Coincidentally, many Vancouverites have considered moving to Alberta considering their housing expenses are half of Vancouver, with an average $1.2 million. Furthermore, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $2,936 per month in Vancouver.
Although the considerable weight of expenses invokes many Vancouverites to move towards affordable places to live, Albertans are attracted to Vancouver as a result of the "Lifestyle and family and the environment" Henry Goldbeck declares in a host show BC Today.
"As our hobbies are very outdoorsy, we spent a lot more money in Alberta going on vacations to B.C. for lake days and ski trips," Cynthia Pfeiffer explained in an email to CBC.
survey findings
Housing, homelessness, and poverty is listed as 39% of British Colombians' top concern, more than twice as high than the second-ranked issue: healthcare, at 18%.
An overwhelming 73% of respondents say they support progressing the construction of rental homes, especially economical options, by easing local rezoning.
Furthermore, 77% support the distribution of public land to non-profit and cooperative housing complexes in order to facilitate the construction of new, inexpensive homes.
Additionally, 67% of respondents favour removing development expense charges for these kinds of projects, and 66% are in favour of staff members receiving permissions for consistent non-profit and cooperative housing developments.
Finally, 68% of respondents are in favour of including affordable housing targets in housing needs reports in order to meet the unique needs of Indigenous people.
Why is housing in B.C. so expensive?
There are many reasons as to why housing in British Colombia is so expensive, however the main cause is the demand outgrowing and dominating the supply. Supplies aren't rising with new constructions of homes nor are people listing their homes for sale.
"Last year, we got no less than 950,000 new immigrants, non-permanent residents, people from Ukraine, students. This year, I estimate roughly 1.1 million. None of them carries their house on their back" Mr. Tal describes. This tells us there will be an estimated amount of over a million people seeking housing this year.
Variations of factors are the roots of unaffordable housing for countless Canadians. During COVID-19, home prices jumped by 46% due to the pandemic and drawn-out course of low interest rates. As housing prices are temporarily high and low, Mr. Tal affirms that "Any slowdown is only a blip. This is a very tight housing market."
In short terms, extended volatility within the housing market is expected, especially if the BoC continues it's adjusted interest rates. Unless major initiatives are taken to boost the stock of housing, home prices are expected to increase in the long term. "The long-term trajectory of this market is up if we don't do something about supply," says Mr. Tal.
Continued volatility within the housing market is expected in the short term, especially if the BoC continues to adjust interest rates. However, unless there are major initiatives taken to increase the supply of housing, we expect home prices to continue to go up in the long term. “The long-term trajectory of this market is up if we don’t do something about supply,” says Mr. Tal.
Although the answer may clearly appear to be that the Canadian government needs to develop the housing supply, restoring housing affordability in Canada would be a complex task. according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) it require an additional 3.5 million affordable housing units to be accessible on the market by 2030.
Mr. Tal advices, “We have to provide the reduced development charges, the fair HST payments. Basically provide incentives to developers to build apartment buildings. That is a big part of the solution.”
Besides, there are multiple obstacles would need to be confronted in order to achieve such results. Delays establishing this initiative, lack of skill, supply chain issues, and the fact that increasing supply would put upward pressure on the expenses of construction are all included barriers.
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