housing
FEWER HOMES FOR MORE PEOPLE
New construction of purpose-built rental homes has been on the rise in Metro Vancouver, it's true; supply, however, is not keeping up with population growth.
The past decade has brought an increase in the construction of purpose-built rental homes not seen since the 1970’s. Each of Canada's five largest markets have grown their rental stock since 2010, ranging from a 7% increase in Toronto to a 35% increase in Calgary, while here in Metro Vancouver the stock is 12% higher. While this is undoubtedly a positive for the supply of rental homes in these markets, it belies the longer term trends which saw declines in the rental stock in the decades prior. To wit, from 1990 until 2010, Metro Vancouver’s rental stock declined 7%, while Toronto was the only market which saw an increase over that period by a modest 2%. What’s more, of course, is the massive population growth experienced by each of these markets over the past decades. Since 1990 the population growth of Canada’s five largest markets has ranged from 24% in Montréal to 79% in Calgary, while we’ve grown by 43% here in Metro Vancouver.
The recent trend of purpose-built rental growth has not made up for the losses experienced over the past decades, or for the robust population growth. As such, when we look at rental homes per 10,000 people across each census metropolitan area, only Montréal has been growing its share since data was first collected there in 1998, up by 9%. The other major markets have all seen significant declines since 1990, with Metro Vancouver’s purpose-built rental stock per capita declining by 42%. The silver lining going forward is that purpose- built rental starts are up dramatically here in Metro Vancouver, with a record-setting 9,867 in 2022, 44% more than the previous high. That’s a step in the right direction, but we have a long way to go to catch up.
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