Increase In Vacant Homes In Vancouver

For the past ten years, the number of homes that are left empty or rented out to students from outside Canada for a short time has gone up, based on the study that was conducted by the acting director of SFU’s City Program.

One urban planner who goes by the name of Andy Yan said that since the year of 2001 till the year 2011, the non-residency occupancy rate increased from 3.5 per cent to 6.2 per cent.When numerically measured it equals to 27,564 at 3.5 per cent and 58,229 after its increase over the past decade. Another discovery smad by Yan, was that the units that were termed as non-resident occupancies were actually vacant.

In terms of increase, Vancouver mainly contributed to the rise, with the suburbs area like Surrey as well. Other municipalities are also looking to follow the steps of Vancouver, by having a tax imposed on foreign ownership and focus on dealing with the vacant homes issue.