Search

Search results

1. Squamish Nation’s bold housing plans put Vancouver City Hall to shame

   Appeared in the Globe and Mail, November 7, 2019 What happens when you remove onerous regulations that prevent new homes from getting built where they’re needed most? Just ask the Squamish Nation, which recently doubled the size of a planned residential ...

2. Three 'housing' priorities for Vancouver’s new mayor and city council

   Mayor-elect Kennedy Stewart wants to reach 85,000 new housing units over 10 years. ...

3. 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 ...

4. If the B.C. government wants to help renters, it should care about homebuilding

   British Columbia Premier John Horgan recently appointed a Rental Housing Task Force to advise the government on how to “improve security and fairness for renters and landlords throughout the province.” It’s encouraging that the ...

5. Empty Homes Tax—Vancouver City Hall barking up the wrong tree

   The City of Vancouver recently announced how many Vancouver homes are considered “unoccupied” and subject to the new Empty Homes Tax. As it turns out, very few homes qualify—meaning city hall should consider other ways to address ...

6. Amazon HQ2—you can grow Vancouver’s economy without making housing less affordable

   The City of Vancouver is keen to land Amazon’s “HQ2”—a second North American headquarters, which the company claims will house tens of thousands of new jobs and add billions of dollars to the local economy. Indeed, HQ2 aligns with the ...

7. B.C. throne speech acknowledges importance of housing supply on affordability

   In its recent speech to the throne, the B.C. government added a laundry list of measures that were not included in its election platform. Regardless of the motivations for this manoeuver, the speech included an important admission on ...

8. It takes three times longer to obtain building permits in Vancouver than in Burnaby

   The Fraser Institute’s latest study spotlights the difficulties homebuilders face at city halls across B.C.’s Lower Mainland. The study findings reinforce a recurring theme from almost three years of tracking this issue—there are huge ...

9. Vancouver’s tax on vacant homes misses the point—we need to build more homes

   Appeared in the Vancouver Province, November 25, 2016 Vancouver City Council recently approved an annual one per cent tax on the value of vacant homes, ostensibly to encourage their owners to rent them out and, in theory, boost the city’s rental housing ...

10. Backlog of development approvals aggravating housing woes in Metro Vancouver

    British Columbia’s Ministry of Finance recently divulged that 10 per cent of residential property transactions during a 34-day period in June and July, 2016 were sold to foreign nationals, prompting the province to introduce an ...