Housing: It’s a science — Bob Rennie and David Eby at UDI

As we finally begin to navigate in a modified post-pandemic world, new challenges are coming to the fore. Interest rates and inflation are rising, supply chain disruptions are affecting construction schedules, and the shortage of housing shows no sign of stopping. At the end of June, Bob Rennie, founder and executive director of the rennie marketing empire, and David Eby, B.C.’s Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing, sat down for a discussion in front of Urban Development Institute (UDI) members about the market going forward.

Government is on-side

Rennie, clearly a person who has great respect for Eby, drew good-natured chuckles from the crowd with his opening repartee. “When called [to arrange this meeting] I said, ‘Who’d a thunk my industry would like you?’” Acknowledging that politics can be, and have been, divisive, Rennie also noted that Eby’s constituents are finally seeing his suggestions for increased supply and density as a solution, and not as a way of lining developers’ pockets, a change of circumstances that comes as a relief, not only to Rennie himself, but to everyone in the room.

Eby said he was delighted and emphatic that “people are now ready for the supply discussion. Growth does have costs, including new infrastructure. But growth brings benefits, and people are willing to have the discussion.”

Who are we building for?

Almost immediately, Eby addressed one of the long-standing “toxic issues” associated with building more housing — foreign buyers. He said the province’s past problems stemming from international money contributed to local buyers concluding they were being shut out of the new housing market, a situation his office has been examining closely. “We can now say with certainty that foreign buyers in the market are less than two percent and have been for a long time. So people are now understanding the supply is being built for them.”

Responding to Rennie’s question of how to fast-track permitting in a culture where pro-density, pro-supply politicians find it difficult to get elected, Eby indicated his ministry has been going city by city to support municipalities that take a forward-thinking approach. Single-family, he noted, is the most expensive form of housing to build, and yet it almost never requires rezoning. But to build multi-family developments takes the full weight of city council and can take months, delays that drive prices up. “Knocking five storeys off a 25-storey building, especially for seeming arbitrary reason, will make no difference down the line. But it does make a difference in our current housing crisis. We need this housing now.”

Rennie agreed, and then reiterated his belief that if a developer wants to build a 100-unit building along an evolving neighbourhood like the Broadway Corridor, they should be required to build 150 units instead. He added that once the SkyTrain extends to UBC, where housing is 20 percent less than downtown and only slightly more than East Vancouver, there will be a need for far more new housing than the currently proposed additional 2.8 million sq. ft.

Eby said he also sees a need to expand housing for the UBC workforce, the people who “make the campus run. Daycare staff, firefighters, restaurant servers are getting priced out of the market there.”

Is it enough?

The minister did express alarm about a recent Union of B.C. Municipalities report suggesting the province, as a whole, is building more than enough housing to meet the province’s population growth, a statement he believes is completely disconnected from reality. The numbers support his concern. Last year alone, 100,000 people moved to B.C. That’s the highest immigration in 60 years despite the pandemic.

In closing, Eby encouraged developers and all levels of government to continue finding innovative ways of partnering to further the goal of providing more affordable housing throughout the province. “Meeting and working with your industry has always been a priority for me. We need to give hope to young people and young families.”

Visit udi.bc.ca for more information about UDI and the housing market.