Vancouver new condo inventory falls to zero
September 21, 2017
The inventory of new concrete condominiums and townhomes in Vancouver has plummeted to “zero” according to the Urban Development Institute (UDI) Pacific Region. At the end of the second half of this year, there were only 31 new condo apartments ready for occupancy across the entire Metro Vancouver region.
The shortage comes even as more than 4,300 new condo apartments started in the second quarter of this year, up 7 per cent from the same period in 2016 and 147 per cent higher than in the second quarter of 2015.
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Anne McMullion, president and CEO of
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“I can’t find any good news in this report,” said Anne McMullin, president and CEO of UDI.
McMullin blamed restrictive civic zoning and permit delays that she saYS have “throttled” the supply of all forms of multi-family housing.
“Just this month, a developer had to cancel a building project due to permit delays that led to financing cancellation. If municipalities need more resources to process building applications faster, let’s make that happen,” McMullin said.
Re-zoning of single family areas to allow multi-family homes, speeding up municipal approvals of housing projects, and improving the lengthy, contentious public hearing process would create “healthy competition and lower home prices,” McMullin said.
The condo shortage could get even worse
Registrations of new homes with the BC Homeowner Protection Office (HPO) are seen as a harbinger of new home construction, since warranty registrations are required before submitting building permit applications.
As of the first half of this year, HPO had received registrations for 1,788 new Vancouver condos, down from 2,488 units at the same time in 2016, according to a BC Housing data released to Home BUILDER.
