Vancouver real estate: vacant home rate flat since 2002, says city report

The percentageof vacanthomes in Vancouverhas remained flat over the last 14 years despite longstanding complaints that investors are buying homes and leaving them empty, according to a new report released this morning to city council.

• LIVE UPDATESfrom city council
• Read fullreport

The report says Vancouver's non-occupancy rate was4.9 per cent in 2002 compared with 4.8 per cent in 2014, which is line with other big Canadian cities.

The report on Vacant Housing Units Research was presented tocouncil byMattBourke, a housingplannerwith the city, andBruceTownson, CEO ofEcotagious, a company thatanalyzedhome energy use.

Although the city's non-occupancy rate hasn't budged much in the last 14 years, the authors said the total number of empty homes has increased because the size of Vancouver's overall housing stock has grown too.

The interest in the number of Vancouver's vacant homesstems from a concern that they might be driving up housing costs.

Most empty unitsare apartments

The study foundthat more than 90 per cent ofthe city's 10,800 empty housing units were apartments.

While the report appears to contradict the notion that Vancouver has a serious problem with vacant homes, Mayor GregorRobertsonsaid the issue is still troubling.

"It's unacceptable that so many homes are left empty at a time so many of our residents are struggling to find appropriate housing," Robertson said in a statement.

"Housing needs to be first and foremost for people to live in, not to be treated as a commodity."

The city and policy analysts havelong argued more data is needed to determine the cause of the region's hot housing market an argument the provincial governmentrecently saiditagrees with.

The report came as a surprise to observers such asplanner and architect Michael Geller, whothought it wouldshed lighton what's fuelling Vancouver hot real estate market.

"What the studyseems to indicate is that indeed Vancouver is not that much different thanother municipalities," said Geller. He added that perhaps hype fromthe real estate industry and media have helped fuel rising prices.

The study looked at 225,000 homes in the city of Vancouver.

The report found that non-occupancy rates in the southwest area of the city which includes pricey neighbourhoods such as Shaughnessy and Kerrisdalhave been stable, down from 3.6 per cent in 2002 to 3.4 per cent in 2014.