Record new home construction needed to meet surge of new immigrants in B.C.
To tackle a country-wide skilled worker shortage, the federal government is increasing immigration targets. That means more permanent residents will be settling in B.C. in the coming years, and there’s concern the province’s housing supply isn’t keeping up.
A new BC Real Estate Association report found a record 43,000 new homes need to be built in each of the next five years to meet demand from hundreds of thousands of newcomers. That’s a 25 per cent increase over historical norms.
“We are at around 40,000 currently, so we would have to go up even from levels we are seeing right now, which are pretty close to a record, and then sustain it through a period where the economy might be in a downturn,” said BCREA chief economist Brendon Ogmundson.
While he thinks the immigration increase is good policy, he doesn’t believe the issue of where to house the new arrivals has been addressed.
“We need to plan for it, and that’s the one thing we never do properly. We make policy that affects housing demand without ever really thinking about the supply side,” said Ogmundson.
The provincial government is also concerned the federal immigration strategy doesn’t include a plan for where new permanent residents are going to live.
“I have spoken to the federal minister multiple times urging them to consider tying their immigration numbers to both housing starts and also affordable housing. We know it’s going to be critically important to build that stock for the amount of people that are coming,” said Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon.
Jamie Howard, the CEO of Woodbridge Homes, says developers want to help meet the demand from new immigrants and existing residents, but they need municipalities to get on board with greater density and shorter construction times.
“You’ve got the federal government controlling immigration targets and then you have municipal governments who are adjudicating land rights and saying how much density can go where and how quickly it can be approved,” said Howard. ”What we really need is the three levels of government to be cooperating and coordinating and trying to find ways to reduce bureaucratic processes.”
He’d also like to see less pushback from the public on new multi-family developments in what have traditionally been single-family home neighborhoods.
“If we can have the broader community coming into the construction process more constructively and cooperatively, then that would be massively helpful,” said Howard, adding, “NIMBYism is a real thing, and it’s a big problem in development.”
Ogmundson says if the target of 43,000 new homes per year isn’t met, the price of existing real estate will continue go up.
“Keep in mind we need to build a record amount of housing in the next five years just to get affordability back to where it was like right now,” he said. “To improve affordability, we would need to build a lot more.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.