We recently completed our update of new rental projects in the under construction, approved and proposed categories for 2019 in Metro Vancouver. In reviewing these figures, and looking back at our historical summary, we unearthed something quite telling. Here’s what we found:
News
The market awakens — buyers advance from the sidelines to make their move
Spring has sprung and it’s time to update our readership on the state of the market. The last 18 months or so would rate amongst the most challenging we’ve seen in almost two decades. Massive provincial and municipal government intervention was the main driver with the rental apartment sector taking hits left and right. Here are some of the body blows that impacted this asset class:
Patience, perspective key to surviving real estate slump
Hayley Woodin, Business in Vancouver
April 15, 2019
And that downturn is more like a temporary standoff, panellists say
Vancouver apartment building with rents below Kitsilano market rates for sale at $4.9 million
Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight
April 4, 2019
It’s near the beach, and rents are reasonable.
A 10-suite apartment building in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver has been put up for sale.
Press release: Councillor files motion to ditch City of Vancouver’s rental housing program and log Stanley Park
The Goodman Report has learned from a City of Vancouver planning department employee that a City councillor has filed a motion recommending cancellation of the City’s Secure Market Rental Housing Policy and the deforestation of approximately 10% of Stanley Park which is not being used.
Urgent action required: City of New Westminster moves to arbitrarily downzone and devalue multi-family property
Goodman Report
January 25, 2019
The little City that could becomes the little City that won’t
Number of purpose-built rental units in Vancouver increased by just 7% since 1990
Kenneth Chan, Daily Hive
January 22, 2019
The volume of purpose-built rental housing stock within the city of Vancouver has grown by just 7.3% since 1990.
This is based on the Goodman Report’s recent breakdown of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data, which indicates the total purpose-built rental stock in Vancouver only increased by 3,960 additional purpose-built rental units in nearly three decades — from 54,170 units in 1990 to 58,130 units in 2018.
B.C. has lost millions to undervalued commercial properties, former assessor says
Kerry Gold, Globe and Mail
January 22, 2019
Recently retired BC Assessment assessor Derek Holloway says that for too long, large commercial properties, often slated for residential density, were being undervalued and money was left on the table. That’s money that could have been going toward funding social housing and affordable housing models, such as co-op housing.
Multi-family market booms as demand chases short supply
Peter Mitham, Business in Vancouver
January 23, 2019
Billions sold
Close to $3 billion worth of purpose-built rental properties changed hands in Greater Vancouver last year, according to the numbers crunched by the Goodman team at HQ Commercial.
The sun will come up tomorrow — believe it
Goodman Report
January 9, 2019
Nature’s historic headwinds, which buffeted B.C.’s south coast in mid-December, were not the only blustery forces impacting our geographic area. Metro Vancouver’s extreme, well-publicized lack of affordable rental housing and difficulties in generating significant new rental options, combined with the increasing militancy of tenant groups aided and abetted by misinformed politicians, meant that equally powerful gusts of a political nature were being directed at rental housing providers. The local apartment industry, made up of developers of purpose-built rentals and owners of older buildings, is very much on edge, increasingly concerned about shrinking returns, an added cumbersome bureaucracy and a not-so-level playing field.