A new report from Metro Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Regional District makes abundantly clear that more housing units are needed to keep up with the region’s anticipated population growth, despite record levels of construction in the last decade.
Over the past five years the region has seen an annual average addition of 23,424 housing units, the vast majority of which are condominiums and apartments.
But that rate needs to increase by more than 50 per cent, to 37,757 units annually until 2041, according to the 2025 Regional Housing Needs report released Friday.
The region’s residents could accurately say there’s never been more construction, as housing starts and completions have reached record levels in the past five years. But per capita housing completions are below historic averages dating back to 1970, the report notes.
The region is currently building eight units per 1,000 people but 11 units are needed each year until 2041.
The last time total and per capita housing construction needs were met was in the mid-1990s.
The specific need for affordable rental housing units — that is, units whose costs are pegged to about 30 per cent of a household’s income — is most dire.
Between 2018 and 2023 the region added only 433 such units annually. But close to 11,400 total units are needed in each of the next five years to keep up with demand, which amounts to a roughly 2,500 per cent jump.
As for purpose-built rentals, the region is only completing about 4,135 units per year but 15,226 are needed.
“More purpose-built rental is needed to meet the needs of renters and provide meaningful security of tenure. Most new rental housing is in the secondary rental market,” the report states, referring to rented condominiums, secondary suites and laneway homes.
In 2024, rental vacancy rates increased to 1.6 per cent, from a low of 0.9 per cent in 2022 and 2023.
A “healthy” rate is considered three per cent.
In terms of affordability, the core problem cited in the report is that “housing costs in both the ownership and rental markets have been rising faster than incomes for decades, and this trend has worsened in recent years.”
The report does not state why home prices have appreciated more than local incomes. But generally accepted measures that allow people to buy or mortgage homes without adequate levels of local income to match the sale price include , money loaned to homebuyers (), widespread and .
The report also stated the core problem in terms of total housing need is that “housing development has not kept pace with population growth, a challenge across Canada but particularly acute in this region.”
The district states in a separate housing development report tabled to the board April 25 that immigration is the primary driver of projected population growth, with an anticipated annual net inflow of 30,000-40,000 individuals to B.C.
Meanwhile, natural birth rates are projected to be negative by 2030, although in B.C. that pace has hastened. births (44,073) in the province’s history dating back to 1950, per Statistics Canada
The region may see up to 4,000 people coming in from other provinces but is also expected to shed close to 10,000 people moving outside the region to other parts of B.C. each year.
