If The Youth Can't Rent, They Probably Won't Stay

Low vacancy rates are threatening to push younger populations out of Vancouver.

1 minute read

October 24, 2007, 6:00 AM PDT

"Talk to Vancouverites in their 30s or younger, and you learn why, despite a booming economy, a lot of them doubt they'll spend their futures here. Which can't be good for the city's own future."

"Young people, of course, tend to rent while taking a city's measure and working toward owning a home. In Vancouver, the rental vacancy rate is under 1 per cent. Landlords, therefore, can be very picky, and so a caste system has developed among prospective tenants. To be young is to occupy a bottom rung. To be young, male and not in graduate school, the very bottom."

"Almost all the new rental housing coming on line is investor-owned condos, and so those rents are in sync with the city's famously skyrocketing house values. The result, according to a report in the newspaper Georgia Straight, is a crisis placing hundreds of young Vancouverites at risk of swelling the homeless ranks."

FULL STORY: Why is Vancouver eating its young? Nothing cool about that

Monday, October 22, 2007 in The Globe and Mail

Housing Social / Demographics British Columbia

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Start Learning

Advertise with us

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.