Vancouver rent prices won’t fall: expert
Posted January 28, 2013 10:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – With Vancouver’s record in new rental units, can renters expect prices to fall?
A real estate expert says don’t count on first of the month payments to change.
The city says having a little over 1,000 new units in supply will make rent cheaper over time.
But Tsur Somerville with UBC’s Sauder School of Business says adding that amount of new units isn’t enough to make an impact.
“In a sort of total context of total rental supply, this new rental construction is relatively small, so you know, it’s not like this is reflecting any particularly dramatic changes in the market,” says Somerville.
“If this was a sort of a market response and a marketing increase in supply that would lower rents, and have an effect on prices as well, but the biggest piece is not resulting in some market reaction.”
He also says the city’s program which supports rental developers through incentives can make things a lot tougher for home and condo buyers.
“The way the city has things structured is that they’re essentially putting a tax on condo developers to help fund rental construction. The success of that program in some sense means that ownership housing and strata units are more expensive,” adds Somerville.
New rental housing stats in the city show the biggest increase in rental property building permits in recent years.
More than 1,000 units were approved in 2012; that’s three times the number in the two previous years.
