Statistics Canada data released Wednesday from the 2021 census said BC is Canada’s most unaffordable province for housing, largely due to the number of people paying high rents to live in downtown Vancouver. The data put BC’s unaffordability rate at 25.5 per cent, with Ontario next at 24.2 per cent. Canada’s home ownership rate has declined overall to 66.5 per cent in 2021 from a peak of 69 per cent in 2011. Statistics Canada reported that BC recorded the third-largest decline in home ownership from 2011 to 2021, to 66.8 per cent from 70 per cent, with Prince Edward Island seeing the largest decline. BC also leads Canada in the number of renter households, with Kelowna seeing an increase in renters of more than 54 per cent. First-time buyers in BC are overwhelmingly choosing condominiums as a “gateway to homeownership,” the report said. “BC had the largest share of apartment dwellers among the provinces in 2021, with 23.6 per cent of households calling an apartment home,” the report said. “Almost a third, 32.5 percent, of households in Vancouver lived in an apartment.” He said most of the tenant-occupied condominiums are privately owned and likely to be investment properties. “According to the Canadian Housing Statistics Program, over three-quarters, more than 77 per cent, of apartments in B.C. and more than two-thirds, nearly 70 per cent, of those in non-homeowner-occupied Ontario were owned by individual Canadian investors,” the report said. It also showed that improvements in household incomes across Canada are reducing basic housing needs, but nearly 1.5 million Canadians still live in conditions defined as inadequate, inadequate or unaffordable.
