Vancouver Housing Plan Highlights Affordability's Price

A political proposal in Vancouver, Canada, to pause significant rezonings in favor of preserving current affordable rental stock reveals a tension common in urban development: how to build new housing without displacing existing residents. Colleen Hardwick, a former city councillor and mayoral candidate for TEAM For A Livable Vancouver, advocates for a moratorium on 'upzoning,' which allows for denser development, to safeguard older, more affordable secured purpose-built rental buildings. The party seeks to empower residents in determining future housing locations and push for government-developer partnerships to build middle-income homes.

This approach, while politically appealing, focuses on managing the symptom—rising rents—rather than the root cause of supply-demand imbalance. Older buildings often provide lower rents, classifying them as affordable simply due to age and depreciation. Protecting these structures through a 'no-growth' zoning policy in certain areas restricts the potential for new construction. If an area is deemed mature, further development faces opposition, limiting the overall housing stock. The Broadway Plan area, where TEAM has raised concerns, represents a significant corridor for potential density and transit-oriented development. Restricting this potential shifts development pressure elsewhere, likely to less integrated or less transit-accessible locations.

The real cost of this protection is seen in the long-term impact on housing availability. While the intention is to maintain existing affordability, a moratorium could inadvertently choke the pipeline for new units. Developers operate on incentives. If the path to approval for denser, more profitable projects is blocked, capital will flow to areas with clearer development prospects or even out of the city entirely. This reduces the overall stock of new housing, eventually driving up prices across the board for both rental and owned properties, including those aimed at middle-income residents.

The Vancouver proposal echoes debates across the Asia-Pacific, where cities grapple with rapid urbanization and the need for housing. In Bangkok or Manila, similar calls to protect heritage buildings or existing low-income areas often emerge. However, without a corresponding strategy to accelerate new construction, such measures can inadvertently exacerbate housing shortages. The question then becomes who pays for this constrained supply? Ultimately, future residents, particularly those entering the market for the first time, bear the burden through higher housing costs.

TEAM’s call for government to take a more direct role in housing creation alongside private developers is a recognition that market forces alone may not address affordability. Yet, the specific mechanism of an 'upzoning' moratorium creates a paradox: to make housing more affordable for some, it risks making it less available and thus more expensive for others. The outcome now depends on whether the focus remains solely on protecting existing structures, or if a clear path for new, efficient development emerges.