scrubbedexpat091

More examples of hardships renters face in Canada.

NB seems particularly bad as they seem to have way less rights for renters in general.


One family living in a building the landlord stopped making mortgage payments on, bank foreclosed and evicting everyone.

Another building was bought, new owners evicting current tenants.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-b...urge-1.5812029

Renting is pretty stressful these days, no stability, can't settle in, never knowing if your going to wake up to notice to vacate.

One lady is paying 750 a month, been in her unit 10 years, now has to move, but now rents are double, and many wont be able to afford the market rent, and they are not exactly in a high cost area, so if your already in a lower cost area and can't afford the rent, your pretty much screwed.


If your mortgage doubled or tripled with little notice, could you afford it?

scrubbedexpat091

Kelowna tied with Oshawa on average rent for November.

Only looks like rent has dropped YOY any significant amount in a couple city's, but they started so high they are still too expensive....

#16 Abbotsford, BC is where you used to go when you couldn't afford Vancouver/Surrey/Burnaby and even its pretty high rent now.

scrubbedexpat091

Doesn't help when local city councils turn down BC Housing requests to build subsidized and supportive housing.

https://www.hopestandard.com/news/su...ouncil-agenda/

Apparently the shelter currently in place will also have to close after winter.

scrubbedexpat091

Hidden foreign ownership and housing, the official stats may not show the real picture. But that would certainly help explain how so many condos can be built and sold at prices far higher than local incomes can support.

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/col...prices-incomes

"The lack of connection between soaring housing prices and tepid local wages in Metro Vancouver is caused in large part by hidden foreign ownership, says a peer-reviewed study from Simon Fraser University that is being welcomed by the B.C. minister responsible for housing."

Gordon’s research set out to solve a puzzle in Greater Vancouver and, to a lesser extent, Toronto. How can tens of thousands of owners who tell Revenue Canada they are low income (earning less than $44,000 a year) consistently afford homes valued in the $2- to $10-million range?

scrubbedexpat091

No surprise here, home owners have higher income. I just love how the city chose the east side for market rates, the east side is least expensive area rent wise.

scrubbedexpat091

This article is from October, but just came across it today in a related reddit topic for Vancouver.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...rice-1.5757214


Holborn Holdings Ltd was sold property in Vancouver for $300 million by the previous BC Gov't, the BC Liberals in charge then. The company as so far made only a $40 million deposit, and the land remains empty for the most part.

The site was previously 244 units of subsidized housing.

Federal government ran it from the 1950;s until 2007, when it was downloaded to the province and within a year BC Liberals sold it off to Holdborn.

Holborn promised 1,400 market rate homes, and 234 subsidized units (still a net loss of 10 units) and the evicted residents were promised units in the new complex.

1 building (unsure how many if any are subsidized or how big that building is) has been built but the lot is largely sitting empty.

Then in the last few days Holborn put up stupid signs at the site. "Great Stories, Take Time To Write"

https://i.redd.it/m1w5egtgkl361.jpg

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/c...born_taken_at/


I wonder if BC Liberals had not kept power for 17 years if things would have gotten so bad in BC.

jeremy brewer

Hi
predictions of price rising again next year in vancouver area

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/biv.com/...ion-2021%3famp

cheers
jerry

scrubbedexpat091

Housing in BC is pretty much broken at this point and won't be fixed with free market. Rents especially really nowhere affordable in this province anymore rent wise if earning a lowish income. Even fairly unattractive small towns with limited employment have high rent compared to local wages, its crazy really.

CanadaJimmy

Problem is depending on private landlords to provide rental housing, should be more government built and owned rental buildings.

scrubbedexpat091

Yes, some reason the logic seems to be lets build $500,000 condos and people will buy and rent them out, well that doesn't really help since mortgages on the condos are so high.

In a healthy rental market where dedicated rental buildings are built even by private companies, rents tend to be lower, Seattle while no exactly affordable has way more rental dedicated housing being built and it's helped control rents better, they discourage condo building there where in Vancouver they seem to encourage condo building.

I doubt at this point Canada in general and BC in particular will ever have a truly affordable and health rental market, currently those making a low to modest income can't afford rent. BC Housing own income limits say a 1bed room with income less than 51,000 a year can't afford rent in Vancouver for example.

Stumpylegs

I guess in some ways that is the way of the world (not that its right) the one thing I have noticed is cities in NB/NS/SK etc (and the smaller towns, but realise people may not want to live in a small town in Canada) have way more affordable housing to buy than the UK - even if rent is similarly high.

The thing is, people must either be willing (or be forced) to live in super high priced housing, and demand is clearly outpacing supply - as landlords wouldnt be able to charge the rent they are if the market wasn't there.

scrubbedexpat091

Demand has been outpacing supply for a long time now. Didn't help that sometime in the last 30-40 years rental development just stopped for the most part with few rental buildings built. If you drive around Vancouver you see lots of 1960's-1970's era rental buildings but then almost nothing then a spattering of rental buildings in the last decade but nowhere near enough to meet the demand.

And small town BC is surprisingly expensive when it comes to rent, but then less rentals in small towns in general.

In the Spring when someone here mentioned Halifax, we looked into it, rent was a lot higher than I though it would be and our income would drop significantly to where while cheaper then Vancouver, it would have been no more affordable for us due to the income drop. But way cheaper still to buy there if you have the money, ability to get a mortgage and such, way cheaper to buy vs places in BC, more bang for your buck house wise.


And so many think subsidized housing is there, yes it exists but if you have tried to get into a subsidized unit, well its very difficult. It will be almost 6 years on the wait list come February with no end in sight, and we have higher priority than some, but there are still so many homeless, and others in higher need categories, so its unlikely we would actually ever see a subsidized unit.

Siouxie

Most people have to live where there is work.. and often don't have much choice other than to pay exhorbitant rental rates, if there isn't work in those 'cheaper' areas!

scrubbedexpat091

Exactly.

And often rent wise smaller towns are not any cheaper, as there will be increased costs such as needing a car vs maybe taking transit in Vancouver for example, there may also be a pay cut involved and in the end don't come out any better, food costs tend to be higher in smaller towns.

Pretty much all the viable previously affordable places in BC, no longer are affordable, the places that are, are often not economically sound tons or one industry type places.

Not to mention the instability of renting, its precarious being a renter in 2020 Canada.

scrubbedexpat091

Rent has decreased for 1 bedroom apartments in Vancouver a bit, but not by much. Kelowna came at the # 6 spot between Ottawa and Oshawa.

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/v...-finds-2883230