It's no surprise that many would-be buyers are hoping to see housing prices fall in Metro Vancouver, but a newly released survey suggests nearly half of homeowners feel the same way.
According to Angus Reid's poll, 49 per cent of homeowners in the region want to see the market dip in the coming years, including one-in-five who said they're hoping for prices to drop significantly, by 30 per cent or more.
"These are the folks who bought into the market a long time ago," said Shachi Kurl, executive director of Angus Reid. "Their houses are generally paid for and they've appreciated in value, sometimes tenfold. These are the folks who say you know what, we can see a softening in the value of the home we're sitting in."
But the other 51 per cent either told pollsters they hope prices will stay put or continue climbing. Kurl said those are generally newer homeowners who stretched themselves thin to get into the market.
"They've scrimped and saved every penny, they are struggling to make a large mortgage payment every month. These are the folks who literally cannot afford to see the prices of their homes lower in value," she said.
Unsurprisingly, a full 86 per cent of renters said they're hoping for home prices to drop. But there was broad support among owners and non-owners alike for government intervention, with nearly four-in-five respondents wanting to see elected officials taking more action. Just 21 per cent said the government should stay out of the market.
When it comes to what policymakers should do to address ballooning prices, Angus Reid found widespread support for several different measures – including a limit on how many properties can be purchased by non-Canadian buyers, which was backed by 79 per cent of respondents.
The vast majority of those polled also said they support additional property transfer taxes on buyers from outside Canada and buyers who don't pay taxes in B.C. More than 80 per cent support the government collecting data on who is buying property and where they are from.
"There is a real desire to see government intervention," Kurl said. "All of those things are wildly popular."
But despite the support for various kinds of government intervention, most respondents said they don’t think there’s any real hope of making Metro Vancouver housing more affordable, regardless of policy choices.
"There is a sense of fatalism in this region," Kurl said. "On one hand, the majority want to see government intervening in order to make the market more affordable. On the other hand, two-thirds say it doesn't matter what government does, what levers they pull or what measures they introduce, it's really not going to make any difference."
Most of the people polled said they're no more satisfied with the housing situation under B.C.'s NDP government than they were under the previous Liberal government.
Given a list of factors potentially pushing up housing prices in Metro Vancouver, respondents were most likely to point to investment by foreign buyers and wealthy buyers. They also placed some of the blame on the region's desirability.
Angus Reid's survey was conducted online from May 25-29 among a representative randomized sample of 719 Canadian adults who are members of Maru Voice Canada, a market research community.
Surveys of that size carry a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
