B.C.’s housing affordability crisis is denying working class people the ability to own or rent a home that fits their needs. Rents are skyrocketing, and wages are not keeping up. To make life more affordable, we need to strike at the root of the housing crisis. An Affordable B.C. is possible.
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  • New report demonstrates vacancy control is a common-sense policy urgently needed to address housing crisis

    BURNABY, B.C. (Coast Salish Territories) – The B.C. General Employees' Union (BCGEU) today released Evaluating Prospects for Vacancy Control Policy in B.C.'s Housing Affordability Crisis, a comprehensive assessment of vacancy control policy (where rent control is tied to the unit rather than a tenancy agreement). The report finds no evidence that tying rent to the unit has had significant negative impacts on developing new rental housing supply. Instead, a lack of vacancy control represents a loophole in B.C.'s rent control laws that has allowed rents to rise between 10-23 per cent year after year since 2019 in major metro areas. 

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  • Evaluating Prospects for Vacancy Control Policy in B.C.’s Housing Affordability Crisis

     

    This report argues that vacancy control is an effective and necessary policy tool for addressing the extreme housing affordability crisis facing B.C. renters. In effect, vacancy control ties rent to the unit and means landlords cannot hike the rent when a tenancy turns over.

    Mainstream discussion has entrenched a viewpoint that argues rent regulation, and especially vacancy control, is harmful. A closer analysis of academic and policy literature suggests otherwise: there is in fact no consensus that rent control is bad policy, and there are significant limitations in the econometric methods used by opponents of rent control.

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