Housing cost requires independent review

As housing in the Lower Mainland becomes ever more expensive, residents naturally are growing concerned and want reliable facts to explain the price increases. A recent attempt by the B.C. Real Estate Association to provide explanations, however, did not adequately meet this legitimate desire.

First, the association’s analysis provided estimates only, both of the effect of offshore buyers on the region’s housing market and the percentage of properties being left unoccupied.

Second, the association represents the interests of its 18,500 realtor members, 12,000 of whom work in Greater Vancouver. Thus, it cannot be considered a disinterested party.

Yet, the provincial finance ministry to date has relied on the association’s data and opinions in assessing whether to take action to calm the housing market.

Nor is the provincial government a truly disinterested party.

Tax revenues from a property market on full boil have been enriching government coffers.

While it is certainly possible both the government and the real estate association have the best intentions in advising the public, neither one can be considered a credible, unbiased source of information when it comes to assessing challenges and devising potential strategies to keep housing affordable for folks living here.

Accordingly, an association estimate that only five per cent of the housing market is affected by foreign buyers or that Vancouver has a belowaverage proportion of vacant properties in comparison with other urban centres in Canada, is being met with broad skepticism. Observers have quickly poked holes in the methodology the association used in its calculations.

The association contends some categories of housing are growing costlier for long-standing reasons — population increases and a limited land base in the region. Also, densification has created a run on a dwindling supply of detached homes.

Again, many residents are questioning such findings.

It surely is time for the various levels of government responsible for crafting policy and taxation on housing to jointly sponsor an independent study on the forces behind rapidly rising property prices and ways to address the situation, including an analysis of the effectiveness of specific policies already being deployed in other globally attractive cities.

To assist the work of a study group, the province should act immediately on advice from the real estate association, which recommends that a residency declaration become mandatory for all purchasers of property in Greater Vancouver.

A spaghetti bowl of ideas has emerged in the past year or so on how to deal with the affordability challenge in the region: a tax on vacant property, a property transfer surcharge on luxury homes, the lowering of municipally imposed development fees and levies.

Agreement on a way forward can only come from a common base of understanding of the problem, one that is accepted by the community at large.