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1. Vancouver’s new government will face enormous pressure to grow the housing stock—quickly

   With a municipal election looming, here’s a statistic that crystalizes one of, if not the most, important issues of the campaign. Home prices in Vancouver have grown almost 70 per cent since the last municipal election in 2014. Add in ...

2. It’s time for Canadian cities to eliminate minimum parking requirements

   Last week was broadly positive for land-use and housing policy in North American cities. Along with Vancouver City Council’s decision to allow low-density neighbourhoods to add duplexes without rezoning, Cincinnati just joined a growing ...

3. More duplexes in Vancouver—one small step in the right direction

   Vancouver City Hall has certainly caught on to the fact that there’s plenty of room to grow in British Columbia’s biggest city. This week, at the city’s last council meeting before October’s municipal election, outgoing Mayor Gregor ...

4. Why a ‘renters rebate’ won’t help Metro Vancouverites

   In a recent interview, B.C. Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Selina Robinson reaffirmed the provincial government’s commitment to a “renters rebate” of $400 per renter household, annually. As appealing as this idea may sound to ...

5. Urban density doesn’t necessarily determine living standards

   Quality of living—sometimes called “liveability”—is a notoriously hard thing to define because, as individuals, we often don’t share identical preferences. Nevertheless, several organisations have tried to measure liveability across ...

6. It’s possible to build our way to housing affordability

   Housing continues to make headlines across the country, with many Canadians lamenting the high cost of homes particularly in our big cities. And yet, the best way to maintain broad affordability in prized housing markets is to build a ...

7. B.C. budget—housing plan anything but ‘comprehensive’

   The B.C. government’s 2018 budget was widely expected to include measures aimed at housing affordability in the province’s most expensive real estate markets. Unfortunately, the measures announced continue to target the symptoms rather ...

8. Focus on foreign buyers overlooks source of most housing demand in Canada

   The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), partnering with Statistics Canada, recently released much-awaited data tracking the share of home ownership by non-residents (individuals whose principal dwelling is outside of Canada) ...