Vancouver earns ‘D’ on housing affordability
It may
not be something to boast about, but it is most definitely something to
contemplate.
Last
week, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT) released an Economic
Scorecard report undertaken by the Conference Board of Canada examining Greater
Vancouver’s strengths and weaknesses in attracting labour and business
investment, compared with other cities around the world. This review was
initiated two years ago by then co-chairs Carole Taylor and Larry Berg.
I was
pleased to serve as a member of the GVBOT’s Scorecard Committee that worked
with the Conference Board on the study. Everyone who knows Taylor knows it is
hard to say no when she calls.
The
report benchmarks Greater Vancouver against 19 other global metropolitan
regions on 32 indicators grouped in two categories: economy and social. It uses
a report card-style ranking of A-B-C-D to assess the performance of
metropolitan areas for each indicator and each category.
Other
international cities in the study included Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai,
Seattle, Copenhagen, San Francisco, Rotterdam, Barcelona and Los Angeles.
Canadian cities included Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax.
Greater
Vancouver finished in ninth in the economy category, seventh in Social, and
ninth overall. The top five cities were Singapore, Copenhagen, Hong Kong,
Calgary, and Seattle. However, it must be noted that the study was based on
2014 data and Calgary’s standing did not take into account the collapse in oil
and gas prices.
It will
probably come as no surprise that Vancouver received a “D” grade on housing
affordability. The city ranks 15th out of the 17 metro regions for which
data were available. Only Hong Kong and Shanghai are less affordable.
Greater
Vancouver also got a “D” grade for the proportion of the population aged 25-34
years. Sadly, these two indicators are becoming increasingly intertwined, as
housing costs are causing many millennials to assess whether they can stay in
Vancouver, or move here from other places.
I had the
opportunity to discuss this at two events organized by the Board of Trade’s
Company of Young Professionals following release of the report.
The first
was a roundtable conversation with Vancouver’s Chief Housing Officer Mukhtar
Latif and developer Brad Jones with 30+ millennials. This was followed by a
panel discussion before 300+ attendees at the Imperial Theatre at 319 Main St. Latif is
the softly spoken Chartered Surveyor brought to Vancouver from London, Eng.
where he had extensive experience in the delivery of non-profit housing. While
he is certainly not a household name in a city where housing affordability is
the number one issue, he is taking the lead on a number of interesting
initiatives.
One is
the creation of temporary affordable housing using relocatable modular housing
units on vacant sites around the city. I have written about this in the past
since it was the topic of my thesis at the University of Toronto 45 years ago.
He is
also involved with the recently announced ‘Shared Equity’ housing program in
which developers will be offered a density bonus on sites located close to
transit and commercial centres provided they sell a certain number of homes to
individual purchasers at below market value.
The city
will take an ownership interest in these homes equal to the difference between
the price paid and market value. It will then share in any future appreciation
when the home is sold. Conditions will apply to who can purchase.
Brad
Jones’ presentation addressed the question why is Metro Vancouver’s housing so
expensive. Starting with a map of Metro, he excluded the land in the
Agricultural Land Reserve. He then excluded land reserved for industry. He then
took out the land zoned for single-family housing. It quickly became apparent
that there is not a lot of zoned land left for more affordable forms of
multi-family housing.
While the
availability of suitably zoned land is by no means the only reason for our
increasingly exorbitant housing costs, it is one of the key issues that the
Board of Trade intends to address in the coming years, along with the need for
improved public transit and regional governance.
Otherwise,
when the 2018 Economic Scorecard is released, we may fall below Number 9.
- See
more at: http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/vancouver-s-ranks-ninth-in-economic-scorecard-1.2264220#sthash.MFhZCb4S.dpuf
Vancouver’s ranks ninth in economic scorecard
Vancouver earns ‘D’ on housing affordability
Michael Geller
|
Vancouver Courier
May 26, 2016 02:45 PM
May 26, 2016 02:45 PM
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