housing
LESS-URBAN COMMUNITIES OWNING RENTAL
Metro Vancouver may have achieved an all-time high in rental apartment completions in 2019, but the spatial distribution of these additions warrants comment.
Having been beating the rental housing drum for many years, taking issue with Metro Vancouver’s historical high of 5,590 purpose- built rental apartment additions in 2019 might come across as confusing or—worse— confused. So let’s start by emphasizing the macro-level positives of the increased pace of rental housing construction. First, 2019’s completions were 0.9% higher than the previous high of 5,540 achieved in 2018, which in turn was 31% above the previous high of 4,245 in 2017, which in turn was 40% above the previous high of 3,032 in 2016, which in turn was 4% above the previous high of 2,917 in 2015. In the 25 years before 2015, an average of only 1,189 rental apartments were completed across the region each year, even falling below 500 in the mid-2000s. That rental housing additions— and those of the purpose-built variety in particular—are elevated relative to the
historicalexperienceisapositivedevelopment inthecontextofaccommodatinganincreasing andincreasinglydiversepopulation,especially as it relates to affordability. That being said, while few would be surprised that the City of Vancouver finished more rental apartments in 2019 than any other municipality in the region (at 1,381), others may be that NewWestminster was second with 781—despite having a population only one-tenth the size of Vancouver's. Langley also featured prominently in the rental apartment additions picture, tallying 685 completions in 2019. Going forward, Richmond, the Tri-Cities, and the North Shore communities— which together account for one-quarter of the region's population but only one-fifth of rental apartment additions in 2019— need to do more.
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