Yahoo Finance Housing stock grew faster than population in Vancouver and Toronto, StatCan finds
The stock of housing in Canada’s two biggest cities grew more quickly than the population between 2019 and 2021, according to new data from Statistics Canada that adds a wrinkle to the national debate over housing affordability.
The report, released on June 13, shows the Toronto and Vancouver census metropolitan areas (CMAs) experienced moderate population growth alongside a noteworthy expansion in housing stock during that period.
The data showed Toronto experienced a 1.3 per cent increase in its population, while Vancouver recorded a 2.1 per cent rise. At the same time, Toronto’s housing stock grew by 3.5 per cent (equivalent to 61,320 units) and Vancouver’s rose by 3.6 per cent (28,085 new units).
Condominium apartments were the primary contributors to this growth. More than 38,000 new condominium apartments were added in Toronto, surpassing the net additions of both row houses (+12,825) and single detached houses (+8,425). Similarly, Vancouver mirrored this trend, with 19,970 new condominium apartments, 6,245 net new row houses and a net reduction of 3,680 single detached homes.
A lack of supply has been identified as one of the main culprits behind the rising cost of housing, which has priced many out of Canada’s biggest cities. Last year, a report from the CMHC found the country needed more than 3.5 million additional new housing units by 2030 to restore affordability.
While both cities experienced overall growth in their housing stock, diverging trends emerged when examining properties with multiple residential units — a key component of rental supply. According to the Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP), Toronto saw a relatively modest net increase of 55 properties with multiple residential units between 2019 and 2021. In contrast, Vancouver witnessed a substantial net increase of 6,020 such properties.
“A previous release from the CHSP indicated that in some urban markets, such as Toronto, densification has produced a high number of large housing structures (such as rental apartment buildings and towers),” CHSP said in the report. “In others, like Vancouver, more concentrated forms of density have emerged, such as single-detached houses with secondary suites or laneway units, duplexes, or triplexes. Therefore, the modest number of such new properties in Toronto is not proportional to the number of dwellings added to the stock.”
Vancouver’s efforts to promote multi-unit properties, such as laneway houses and secondary suites, have been aimed at increasing housing density and providing additional rental units. These initiatives have shown some success, contributing to the overall housing supply.
Toronto’s February 2022 rule change to make it easier to build backyard houses could portent a similar expansion in the city.
The effectiveness of this approach in Toronto will depend on various factors, including local regulations, zoning policies, infrastructure capacity, community acceptance and overall demand for such housing options.
Jean-Philippe Deschamps-Laporte, chief of the Canadian Housing Statistics Program, flagged one potential blind spot within the report.
“Toronto added a fair bit of new single-detached homes while there has been a reduction in Vancouver,” Deschamps-Laporte said. “That means these single-detached units could have been turned into multi-residential units that will include laneway homes, secondary suites, mortgage helper, all these kinds of secondary market for rental purposes. So once you add these units to a single, they turn into something else. They could also have been demolished, they could have been replaced by a condo. It is difficult for us to track every single home and what they turn it into.”
• Email: shcampbell@postmedia.com
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