Faced with skyrocketing real estate prices, some Vancouver parents are taking an unusual step to ensure their children won’t be driven out of the city when they grow up.
Those parents, and in some cases grandparents, have taken to buying property for young children then renting it out until the kids are old enough to move in.
Les Robertson’s daughter Amelia is just six months old but she’s already on track to getting a foot on the property ladder, thanks to her grandmother.
“Mom actually bought [a] house with her in mind,” Robertson said.
Despite being a business owner, Robertson said he can’t afford a home in Metro Vancouver, and he believes his daughter would have ended up in the same boat without her family’s help.
“It’s just not going to get any better for her at all,” he told CTV News.
Kristine Skinner, a financial advisor at Blueshore Financial in North Vancouver, said she’s helped five clients buy condos for their school-aged children so far this year.
Skinner said the properties, which are purchased through a holding company, help parents ensure their kids won’t be forced to move far away when it comes time to buy a home.
Purchasers are “people who live in the city, they’re people who want to stay in the city and they’re people who want their children to remain local as well,” Skinner said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson
