The real problem with Vancouver’s outrageous house prices

[Vin]

Seriously, you guys still think that adding density has nothing to do with the provision of affordable housing for working people in this city?

1. Vancouver's West End: If not for the intense build-up of high-density apartments in the West End district during the 60s, where would all the affordable rental apartments of downtown be today? The higher density walk-ups at Metrotown and other neighbourhoods that provide affordability are housing that the previous generation did not say NO to. Hence this generation reaps the benefits. Sure, they are getting old and would be torn down to be replaced by the even higher density condos. But if we don't build today, would the future generations have affordable housing to stay?

2. Downtown condos: Where would the many young professionals/students be living today if high-density districts were never implemented in Yaletown, Olympic Village, or Tinseltown neighbourhoods, or if these areas remain mostly industrial today? People would be renting in run-down basements all over East Vancouver, driving prices up even more over there, or living further and further out into the suburbs, creating nightmarish urban sprawls.

3. Same argument can be said about all the high density areas of Joyce, Metrotown, Brentwood, Lougheed, Coquitlam Central, New West Waterfront, Surrey Central, Richmond city centre, etc. Where would the thousands and thousands of people living in these areas go to? They would be spread out all over living in SFUs, owning personal vehicles and clogging up the choked road system even more.

Sure, condominiums today are getting very pricey, but without these high density residences, the affordability issue here would be much much worse.
Building more density isn't the only answer, but it has helped in the affordability of living in the Lower Mainland, and other cities all over the world, for centuries. The only time you don't need added density is when people are leaving town due to an economic collapse (Detroit), a major disaster (New Orleans/Chenobyl), or that you live as a hermit out in the woods.