Statistics from Canada said Wednesday that the increase in apartments in a five- or more-storey building 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 detached houses in BC, representing 42.4 percent of the housing allocation, an increase of 1.7 percent from the last census of 2016. There are also 221,850 apartments in buildings with 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 percent of all homes in BC.
Increase of apartments throughout the country
Across Canada, there are nearly 1.6 million apartments in buildings with five or more floors, or 10.7 percent of all homes, up from 9.9 percent in 2016.
Andy Yan, director of the City program at Simon Fraser University, was waiting for the condominium to rise. He said he expected the trend of young people not being able to “climb the ladder of the property” to continue, mainly due to land space and price.
“Everything is expensive now,” Jan said. “[Millennials] “He may not be able to afford the land, but you want to buy something, so it comes mainly in the form of an apartment.”
Andy Yan says more young people are being forced into apartments and flats as the cost of owning a home goes even further. (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 houses anymore, so this is just going to be an increasingly special and luxurious 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 landlords, noted that the influx of people moving to the Canadian coast during the pandemic also boosted competition. in the real estate market.
“It does not take many people to arrive to flood housing. Even before the pandemic struck, stockpiles of real estate for sale in Canada were actually quite low and all of a sudden, we moved these people.”
Statistics released by the BC 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 very scary”
Aliya Griffin, 38, has lived in the same basement apartment in East Vancouver since 2010. She said her owners sold the property and new homeowners gave her a two-month eviction notice, claiming a family member was planning to move. Griffin said she was “blind” to the news she had to leave in June.
“The rent was very reasonable and now we are looking at a market that is twice or more than what we pay now for less than what we have now,” he said.
“It’s very scary, honestly. I have never been in this position before.”
Road sign outside a small rental building in Vancouver with a waiting list. (David Horemans / CBC)
She said she paid $ 984 a month before her husband moved in and the rent increased to $ 1,025. He said they may now be forced to move out of the city.
“I am one of those people who did everything right. I have no debt, I went to school, I got a decent job and I am in this position because rents have gone up much faster than salaries,” he said. he said.
“Owning a home for my generation, without supportive and extremely wealthy parents, is simply impossible.”
The housing crisis is spreading to smaller cities
Pemberton saw a higher rate of population growth than any other community in BC. with at least 1,000 people between 2016 and 2021. (Justin McElroy / CBC News)
Spalletholz said he expects growing population growth across the province, not just in urban centers like Vancouver.
“Some of these smaller markets have just been flooded with new arrivals and have simply put the market in a state of crisis both in terms of rent and end of house prices.”
A trend report from the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance found that between 2014 and 2021, more than 89,000 people moved to Vancouver Island. The housing stock, meanwhile, has only grown by 28,000 units, he said.
Affordability and housing availability affect people of all ages and demographics, said George Hanson, president of the alliance.
The elderly also pushed out
Isobel Mackenzie,’s advocate for the elderly in British Columbia, says seniors are being forced into inaccessible housing. (Maggie MacPherson / CBC)
Advocate for the elderly Isobel Mackenzie said that only about half of homeowners over the age of 65 live in single-family homes. The other half live either in an apartment, in condominiums, in mansions or in modest houses.
The census shows that 504,475 people aged 65 and over in BC. live in a detached house, an increase from 418,145 in 2016. It showed that 73,930 live in apartments in buildings above five floors, from 58,310.
Mackenzie said turning to apartments makes sense for seniors because it is often cheaper than owning a home, often requires less maintenance and has few or no stairs.
But with about a third of seniors living on less than the minimum wage, he said he was concerned about older tenants. There has been a recent trend of long-term tenants facing eviction, sometimes illegally, because they live in rent-controlled apartments while market value has skyrocketed.
“When this happens, [seniors] “They are facing a catastrophic shock around the new rent they will have to pay,” he said.
“At the end of the day, they often can not pay the increased rent, they just do not have the money.”
