Vancouver’s competitive rental market can be mentally taxing: post-secondary students

As the school year rolls closer and closer, some post-secondary students in Vancouver are having trouble finding a place to call home for the year — sometimes driving them to settle for less-than-optimal living situations.

College and university are enough of a challenge on their own — completing any kind of post-secondary program isn’t easy, and one University of British Columbia (UBC) student says finding a rental home in Vancouver’s vastly competitive housing market adds stress and anxiety into the mix.

“It was like, ‘I might be homeless, I might not have a place to live within the next few weeks,'” Sarvpreet Brar explained. “It was more frustrating in the sense that I have to be here since I am a UBC student. It’s not like I can get a job in another city and relocate, right? I have to be here because I go to school here — I felt like I didn’t have an alternative and I was stuck in a situation that I didn’t create.”

Brar tells CityNews that she eventually found a place in Vancouver’s Kerrisdale neighbourhood, but she didn’t exactly have a lot of options.

“I didn’t even see the house that I’m living in now,” she said. “It wasn’t clean, we spent like weeks having to scrub it … right now we have a mouse problem. That’s a stress that we have to deal with on top of dealing with going to school.”

“Two of my friends saw it and we signed the lease that same night. It felt like like we don’t have any options … you take what you can get.”

Brar says the exhausting experience of spending half of your summer worrying about having a place to live isn’t something that just goes away once you move in either. She says it creates a lasting effect.

“It felt like most of my energy was spent on the stress of dealing with housing … my friends and I were just having mental breakdowns because the thought of being homeless is very stressful,” she said.

To offer support, a section of UBC’s website is dedicated to health services and resources. It offers contact options for student health services, counselling services, 24/7 crisis support, as well as a Wellness Centre that features information on dealing with stress.

Brar says that, although the process of finding a place to live was taxing on her mental health, accessing these services wasn’t something she considered.

“Me going to a counselor or me going to UBC for mental health support isn’t going to get me a place to live … I feel like UBC is just doing a lot of on the surface things to be like, ‘Oh, we can offer support,'” she said. “We don’t need support, we need housing.”

“UBC needs to be doing significantly more to help students find housing because we live in a city where there is an active housing crisis, and it’s not a housing crisis that’s a secret.”

UBC’s website explains that it houses over 13,000 students on campus in 15 residence buildings — boasting the largest student residence in Canada. Further data shows the university has over 58,000 students enrolled in Vancouver.

The University of British Columbia (UBC) offers an array of student support services and options on its website. (Courtesy: UBC)

CityNews has reached out to UBC for more information on how students can access mental health services when dealing with stressful situations.

Vancouver’s competitive market puts international students at risk

International students face further risks when stepping into Vancouver’s competitive housing market — and as David Aste points out, it can put someone in a fairly undesirable situation when they’re in a rush to find an affordable place to live in a new country.

Aste says he came to Vancouver to attend Douglas College in March 2021, and he moved into what was advertised as an eight-bedroom, three-bathroom home.

He says, one of his roommates operated the home and sublet the rooms. He says this person acted as the “leaseholder” of the property, and as a result, he didn’t hold any of the rights a tenant would normally have.

The place was advertised as “perfect for international students”, Aste said. Instead, it ended up feeling like a trap, he added.

“Not too many international students know their rights … only now I know that because of the trouble that I’m still going through.”

Over the course of just over two years living at this house, Aste says he saw the “leaseholder” shuffle his roommates around to different rooms when he felt like it and threaten to kick people out when something bothered him.

“Threats like that were thrown around on the regular and everybody just kind of put up with it because it was cheaper rent.”

Aste says things took a drastic change when the “leaseholder” received a letter from the city about an inspection for illegal housing — prompting an inspector to take a look and find false walls and factors that deemed the home “illegal housing.” Aste says the ensuing chain of events resulted in him removing all of his belongings from the home and hiding his mattress in a van for a week — and all of this took place during finals week.

Aste tells CityNews that he and his roommates were either kicked out of the home or left on their own accord, and the “leaseholder” kept his security deposit. He says he made a claim at the time and is still dealing with the aftermath today.

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Aste says no one really prepares international students for the city’s competitive housing market and potential risks to watch for.

“It’s kind of like a known thing between everyone — like everybody says it, but not to international students,” he said. “Everything is painted in pretty bright colors like, ‘No, no, everything’s gonna be fine and you’re gonna have a great time,’ and stuff like that. I’m not saying you wouldn’t, I’m just saying there are some places that you can land in, like the one that I did.”

As he was attending Douglas College, Aste says he signed up for counselling sessions that were offered by the college, but he was unable to meet with a counsellor for support over the course of multiple scheduled Zoom sessions.

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The student support section of the college’s website says, “Douglas counselling provides free, accessible, confidential, and professional support to students. We provide one-to-one support and workshops to help you learn the skills to better handle stress, relationship issues, depression, increase resilience, manage sudden personal challenges, or just feel better.”

Aste tells CityNews that keeping a strong support group around him really helped his mental health, and says he eventually found a new place to live alongside some of his roommates from his last house — but finding a place still wasn’t easy.

“You would show up to the viewing and there was a lineup going into the street … a lot of the places that we would actually apply to, they were looking for a family which is understandable,” he said.

“We were lucky enough to find the place that we’re staying at right now because there weren’t as many people competing for this particular spot, but it’s because it’s not so close to UBC, or Langara, or anything like that. The closer you get to UBC, the more competitive it is for sure.”

Aste says — for any international students planning studying in Vancouver — it’s best to find a core group of friends and tackle the city’s rental market together, as “it is easier when you’re all going through the same thing.” He adds that it’s best to be aware and do your research before moving in somewhere, as living situations aren’t always what they seem.

Just how bad is Vancouver’s rental situation right now?

August 2023 data from Rentals.ca shows that Vancouver has the highest rental costs in Canada. The average cost to rent a 1-3 bedroom apartment is $3,340, marking a 12.2 per cent increase from a year prior.

August 2023 data from Rentals.ca shows that Vancouver has the highest average rental costs in Canada. (Courtesy: Rentals.ca)

Breaking those numbers down further, the price for each individual to rent with roommates in the city in July 2023 averaged out to $1,455 — $159 more than the next-highest average in Toronto.

In terms of how many units are available for prospective renters, Vancouver has a 0.9 per cent vacancy rate according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.