Over-under 40 years old: When can I afford to purchase a home in Vancouver? Right now, I would say over. I think of the Vancouver housing market as gambling. Skill can get you so far, but in the end, only the house(ing market) wins.
Vancouver is facing a housing crisis. Surprise! Rents have steadily crept up over the last ten years with no sign of stopping, especially in the UBC Endowment Lands. A quick scan through Craigslist shows that young people are lucky to find a room to rent for under $1000. We know that inflation in Canada has finally cooled since the heights of 2022, but rental prices are not following suit. Housing prices are also consistently rising, and haven’t been in a buyer’s market — an economic situation in which housing is plentiful since a couple of months in 2019, according to the Greater Vancouver Realtors Board.
It is also widely accepted that purchasing homes in the Greater Vancouver Region (GVR) is ludicrous. The benchmark for detached homes in August was $2,048,400 — a disheartening number for students with homeowner ambitions.
Just as housing prices anger Canadians across the country, immigration has become more contentious through its inherent link to the housing crisis. Population growth in Canada has jumped to its highest rate since the 1950s baby boom, reaching the height of about 1.3 million new people last year, 97.6 per cent of that population growth driven by international migration into the country, according to Statistics Canada. Unfortunately, the housing market has not kept up with the increase in demand. There is only 1 house being built for every 4.2 people entering the country, a serious supply deficit.
Canada’s housing plan has three pillars: To build more homes, make it easier to own or rent a home and help Canadians who can't afford a home. Canadians. An overwhelming increase in immigration shares a large portion of the blame for this lack of supply, as the private sector cannot move fast enough, despite politicians' claims to “build, build, build”. To meet affordability levels set out by the federal government, Canada's average construction rate would need to increase by at least threefold housing starts per year, which it has not.
It is clear to me that there is a mismatch between Canada’s policy for immigration and how it plans to tackle the housing crisis. As a grandchild of two immigrants, I understand firsthand the critically important role immigration has played in elevating Canada to a global power. Immigration is essential in fostering diversity, driving economic growth and addressing labour shortcomings across sectors. However, I feel strongly that Canada is at a breaking point; the continuous unchecked flow of temporary workers and oblivious international students continues to put strains on our housing market.
Let me first unpack those last two points: Temporary workers and oblivious international students. Why single out these two groups when discussing the housing crisis? Because these are the two groups of immigrants that are slipping through the cracks due to reckless policy.
Let’s start with the temporary foreign workers. Post-COVID, many businesses couldn’t find labour, so they looked outwards. In theory, it was a good idea, as there were just not enough people willing to fill vital jobs in service, especially construction. But, as I mentioned, home building is still well below the federal government’s target of 500,000 new homes over the next decade.
You may still be skeptical of my disdain for the number of foreign workers entering our country, but guess who else is? The United Nations.
In August, the UN released a report that called the Temporary Foreign Working Program “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” They cite unethical treatment in the employer-employee relationship as foreign workers already have limited rights. They even called upon the federal government to sunset the use of closed work permit regimes, and completely revamp its foreign worker strategy by creating a dedicated oversight body to maintain coordination between federal, provincial and municipal participation.
But beyond temporary foreign workers, our current international student policy also contributes to the housing crisis.
Across Canada, international students are responsible for funding the majority of higher education institutions' operating budgets. In 2023, there were just over one million international students in Canada, and just over 200,000 in BC, according to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. It cannot be overstated how important this revenue source is for Canadian higher education. These students also contribute to the workforce and make better additions to the economy than foreign workers considering they are simultaneously upskilling. Yet, in my opinion, this is where the benefits end.
International students suffer the same problems Canadians face, but most are unaware of the reality of the situation before they arrive, hence my statement on international students being “oblivious”. Statistics Canada found that international students are more likely to live in unsuitable housing than Canadian-born residents. Even Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, has said in a press release that the current system is “so lucrative that it has opened a path for its abuse.”
Miller was referring to the 13,000 international students that have claimed refugee status, up over 600 per cent since 2018, calling it a “backdoor into Canada.” With non-permanent residents of Canada on the rise, experts in the field admit that it is putting a strain on housing. David Hulchanski, a professor of housing and community development at the University of Toronto, has identified a clear link between non-permanent immigration and housing availability. He says that the spike in non-permanent residents has had a substantial effect on housing affordability.
It is important to understand that both immigration and housing are not the sole responsibility of the federal government. Steps must be taken provincially to address federal problems through provincial solutions. So with the link clearly outlined, there is still hope that housing costs will lower, especially as the campaigns for BC’s next Premier heat up.
The NDP is delivering 80,000 new homes currently, and if re-elected plans to build 300,000 homes over the next ten years. They made similar claims in 2017 when the ten-year goal was 114,000 but only reached 18,659 units completed by 2023.
As for the other side of the issue, the NDP claim to be decreasing the unproductive red tape involved in modern-day housing construction. They’ve done this by rezoning land near transit stops and cracking down on short-term rental sites such as Airbnb. Many of these changes are fairly new, so time will tell if they are effective long-term — and personally, I am not yet convinced that these interventions have had any significant effect so far.
I appreciate how, while they’ve been in office, the NDP has experimented with new policies. I do wish, though, that as a more liberal party, they would focus on more non-market housing options, like what the City of Burnaby is doing.
Non-market housing exists in Vancouver, but it is not headed by the provincial government. This would be a large swing for a housing market as deep into private forces as Vancouver, but it is still an effective method of providing affordable housing.
The Conservative Party, by contrast, has little record to go off of — they have not formed a majority government since 1928. The party’s flagship housing policy, the “Rustad Rebate” will remove $3,000 in income taxes per month to cover various housing costs for both renters and homeowners, including a 30–40 per cent tax on housing, the “Step Code”.
The Conservatives have also identified three main pillars in cutting red tape: rezoning and redevelopment permits will be approved in 3-6 months, the government will engage in “pre-zoning,” and specific shedding of bureaucratic approval related to engineers and architects.
The Conservatives have many more outlined housing proposals than the NDP, but with no results to show for them, it is unclear whether they will be implemented. However, I do believe they would be more willing to strong-arm the system into modifying policy than the NDP. Their platform is built upon the idea that people are frustrated with the lacklustre current administration and that they want change immediately. I do believe they will attempt to make changes quickly, but I can’t fully trust said change to be effective. But if the Conservatives believe they must be removed for the time being to bring down housing prices, that is a sacrifice I may be willing to accept, at least until the crisis abates.
The Conservatives do not address immigration in their platform, and the NDP claims their government has handled record immigration successfully. Both parties will surely react differently to any immigration policy updates federally, and I expect the Conservatives to react with more opposition to anything pro-immigration than the NDP.
The argument I make is that the federal government has neglected its citizens to boost GDP through immigration, with housing prices a casualty of this feckless policy choice. Immigrants enter and are burned by the same woes as Canadians, leaving no one happy. I am not satisfied that either party is equipped to approach the housing crisis in BC effectively.
On the left, we have the NDP who have been in power as the housing crisis has grown. This immediately makes me skeptical that they will initiate any major change. How can I trust the party that has repeatedly told me that they will fix the crisis, when prices have continued to soar since the NDP took office in 2017? The party that cried wolf. Naturally, my frustration with the NDP’s inaction may make you think I am excited by the conservatives, but I am not.
The Conservatives could be the refresh BC needs, but their policies are sanctioned by some questionable people (I’m looking at you, John “climate change skeptic” Rustad). I mean, they released their costed platform on October 15. Four days before the election. That is absurdly late into the campaign cycle. My views on housing and immigration likely sound more aligned with Rustad’s party, but I cannot in good conscious state that a Conservative government will perform better than the NDP. What I will say is that sometimes a change in the status quo may be necessary to tackle an issue by alternative means.
There exists a scenario in which the Conservatives can properly execute housing policies that will bring down prices. But I believe it is more likely that despite the NDP's past failure, they have the experience and the pressure from British Columbians to change their approach to housing. The housing market will remain a gamble for the time being — so maximize your odds and vote with your brain.
This is an opinion article. It reflects the contributor's views and does not reflect the views of The Ubyssey as a whole. Contribute to the conversation by visiting ubyssey.ca/pages/submit-an-opinion.
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