Vancouver Rental Market Discussion

[kikin]

hopefully things change in the coming few years and we start to see prices ramp up again, current prices are not sustainable

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by kikin

hopefully things change in the coming few years and we start to see prices ramp up again, current prices are not sustainable

You want rents to increase? Not sustainable for who?

[idunno]

Originally Posted by kikin

hopefully things change in the coming few years and we start to see prices ramp up again, current prices are not sustainable

Bizarre comment!!!

[kikin]

not sustainable for investment in building more housing that will be needed because immigration is not going away and will also increase again

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by kikin

not sustainable for investment in building more housing that will be needed because immigration is not going away and will also increase again

Then land and construction prices will have to come down if people working here can't afford the rents on offer.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by kikin

not sustainable for investment in building more housing that will be needed because immigration is not going away and will also increase again

You're contradicting yourself here. But this is supply and demand in action.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by kikin

not sustainable for investment in building more housing that will be needed because immigration is not going away and will also increase again

Even newcomers don't want $1m shoeboxes. Developers need to stop waiting for 2018 to come back and start planning for the new market (or rather, the old one).

[kikin]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Then land and construction prices will have to come down if people working here can't afford the rents on offer.

construction prices will definitely rise and land is a limited resource and will also rise

governments have to lower taxes and stop wasting money and let the economy grow as a result

[whatnext]

Article in BC Business on how pivoting from condo to rental isn't as easy as it sounds:

Opinion: Metro Vancouver developers are discovering rentals aren’t a silver bullet
As Metro Vancouver’s condo market slows, developers are increasingly turning to rental housing—but soaring construction costs, tighter financing and shaky project economics suggest rentals may not be the industry’s easy fallback after all.
By BC Business Guest Author / May 27, 2026

Written by Mark Goodman, Ian Brackett and Megan Johal, brokers at Goodman Commercial, which specializes in the sale of rental apartment buildings and development sites in Metro Vancouver.

Across Metro Vancouver, a rethink is underway in developer boardrooms. Strata condo projects conceived in a hot presale market are stalling. Buyers have balked, financing conditions have tightened, and proformas no longer pencil. So, many developers are contemplating the pivot to market rental – an option that might work in some cases. But jumping into rental as some kind of silver bullet could drag underprepared developers into a deeper hole than they are in already.

The appeal of the pivot seems obvious. Rental projects can launch without hitting pre-sale targets, and in a city with a chronic housing shortage, the demand case for rental seems straightforward. For a developer holding an approved site with sunk entitlement costs, the logic tracks: if you cannot sell the units, rent them instead.

The problem is that the rental market they are pivoting into looks nothing like the one that existed two years ago. Metro Vancouver vacancy rates, once near zero, have climbed as a wave of new supply has come online just as economic growth and immigration have stalled...

https://bcbusiness.ca/real-estate/vancouver-developers-condos-to-rentals-economics/

[kikin]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Metro Vancouver vacancy rates, once near zero, have climbed as a wave of new supply has come online just as economic growth and immigration have stalled...

it seems inevitable that we are going to have to pump up immigration rates again, it is one of the only big economic drivers we have left here

honestly, Vancouver feels pretty empty and quiet for the most part, our density is miniscule compared to other vibrant world cities