Housing affordability contributing to B.C.’s ‘brain drain’
Iain Reeve and his wife moved from rental home to rental home in Vancouver but their final solution for secure housing was to move to Ottawa and buy two houses — one for them and another for his parents.
He and his wife, Cassandra Sclauzero, are professionals in their mid-30s who wanted to start a family but couldn’t afford to buy in Vancouver.
“We wanted to own a home to have stability, and peace of mind and flexibility,” Reeve said.
“The rental market didn’t have stability. We both had settled into pretty good first jobs. But as much as we loved the city and had these connections it wasn’t worth it.”
They were “kicked out” of a few places in three years through no fault of their own, he said, adding that it was because people were selling or flipping properties.
Reeve grew up and went to university in Vancouver.
“I also have parents who live in the Vancouver area who don’t own a home and are working-class and (have) not a ton of money saved for retirement, and I’m an only child,” he said. We just couldn’t even get our foot in the door in terms of stable housing.”
Reeve said he knows a number of people who are thinking of moving out of the city simply because of the housing market.
“Life is challenging enough; it’s so hard when you have (housing) insecurity all the time.”
Statistics show that Vancouver, and B.C. generally, are losing skilled workers to other parts of the country.
CMHC spokesman Leonard Catling said one of the main reasons people between the ages of 21 and 25 come to Metro Vancouver is for university but they move out as they get older.
A December news release from Statistics Canada shows that B.C.’s population crossed the five million mark for the first time because of international migration.
However, it lost about 1,200 people to other provinces in the third quarter of 2018 after 21 quarters of gains. Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia had the largest gains in population from other provinces.
Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, said Vancouver is mostly able to attract people early in their careers, whether they come for education or a job, but it has a problem retaining talent.