New census counts 25,502 unoccupied homes in Vancouver, for 15 per cent jump over 2011
Number of empty homes up 15 per cent from 2011
JOANNE LEE-YOUNG
The Province
The latest census numbers for 2016 show there were 25,502 unoccupied or empty housing units in the City of Vancouver.
That’s 15 per cent higher than recorded during the last census in 2011.
Urban planner Andy Yan of Simon Fraser University’s City Program compared census data for Vancouver over several decades to see how the percentage of “unoccupied” units or ones “occupied solely by foreign residents and/or temporary present residents on Census Day” has doubled during that time. In 1986, it was four percent. In 2016, it rose to 8.2 per cent.
“Exact definitions and measures have changed slightly over 30 years and patterns should be interpreted as directional,” Yan writes in a report, also released Wednesday.
For Vancouver, the direction is up. The city far outstrips other municipalities with 25,502 units that are unoccupied or owned by temporary or foreign residents. Yan said most of these were concentrated in three areas: Coal Harbour, Marine Gateway and Joyce-Collingwood. Surrey came in second at 11,195, Burnaby at 5,829 and Richmond at 4,021.
The number of unoccupied units or ones occupied by temporary or foreign residents increased 25 per cent in Richmond between the 2011 and 2016 census and by 28 per cent in Burnaby.
However, some of the widest percentage jumps occurred between the 2001 and 2006 census.
The census numbers of unoccupied units are more than double an estimate released by city hall last year because a completely different set of criteria and data were used.
Assessing the extent of empty or underused homes can differ depending on “your measurement tools,” said Yan.
While the census might count a greater number of folks who are, say, on extended vacation during the census period, the city’s estimate was criticized for likely missing the number of units used for only short, seasonal periods, perhaps one or two months in the summer, but then are left vacant for the rest of the year.
There are arguments to be made for and against both, but Yan said the census figures show growing numbers over an extended period.
The census counts the number of “total private dwellings” and “private dwellings occupied by usual residents.” Its definition of unoccupied units means those that were vacant on Census Day, including properties for rent or sale, ones that have been purchased, but whose owners have not yet moved in, as well as furnished units that are second residences.
It also includes units that are used on a temporary basis and/or by foreign residents. In the 2011 census, just over 4,000 of the 22,000 units “not occupied by usual residents” were used by temporary and foreign residents, according to Ryan Berlin, senior economist at the Rennie Group, who made a custom request following the general census release to get the breakdown, which, for 2016, he hopes will be available from StatsCan in a few months.
The City of Vancouver in March 2016 commissioned a private firm to analyze the extent of empty homes by using B.C. Hydro data to see how much electricity was used over a certain number of months. Looking at 225,000 homes over a decade, it found that by 2014, under five per cent or 10,800 units could be considered unoccupied for a year or more. A whopping number 90 per cent of these housing units were deemed to be “non-occupied” and for all condos, the report found 12.5 per cent were vacant.
From this, in November 2016 city council voted to approve a tax on empty homes, the first in Canada. Based on self-reporting owners, the tax is a one-per-cent charge on homes that are not principal residences or are not rented out for at least six months of the year. The goal is to improve Vancouver’s tight rental vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent by encouraging owners of thousands of empty units to offer them up for renting.
The release of Wednesday’s census data from Statistics Canada reinforces the need to address the issue of empty and underutilized homes in Vancouver, and why the city’s new tax is an important step for freeing up rental housing, said city spokesperson Tobin Postma in a statement.
Postma said regardless of which data set is used, the census or the city’s, both show “there is a significant number of homes that sit empty in Vancouver at a time when we face an affordability crisis.”
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