You Can't Complete What You Don't Start: Vancouver Purpose-Built Rental Homes

After years of neglect, Metro Vancouver’s purpose-built rental market is finally being tended to through the addition of thousands of new homes.

Across Canada, purpose-built rental markets have been the recipients of inadequate attention—at least insofar as new supply is concerned. Here in Metro Vancouver, the stock of purpose-built rental homes has, in fact, dwindled by 1% since 1991 as the population has expanded by 68%, resulting in one per-capita measure of rental housing prevalence—the number of rental homes per 1,000 residents—declining from 72 to 42 (a 41% drop) over that period. 

Has the tide turned in recent years? Data on rental housing completions suggest this might be the case. The region added an average of 5,400 purpose-built rental homes annually over the past five years versus an average of just over 1,300 annually over the prior 25 years. For the sake of a balanced rental market and affordable rents, let’s hope this continues.

Gain more insights into our housing market by reading the Spring 2022 rennie landscape.

Twice a year, rennie intelligence produces the rennie landscape, which tracks various demographic and economic indicators that directly and indirectly influence our housing market here in Metro Vancouver. Our goal is to provide our community with a basis for evaluating the trajectory of the factors that collectively define the context for the real estate market.