Vancouver launches new strategy for market rental housing on city land

The City of Vancouver announced Thursday it is moving forward with a new initiative to deliver more market rental housing.

The plan will see the city working with partners, including developers, to build market rental housing on city-owned land.

When tenants move in, the city will still own the land and act as landlord.

“It’s a game changer for how we use city-owned land in the city of Vancouver,” said Mayor Ken Sim.

While the city already does something similar with social housing, this new initiative would be for middle-income families, which the province currently defines as households with an annual income of between $90,000 and $194,000.

“Too many of our people — young professionals, families, and essential workers — are struggling to find a place they can afford to call home in Vancouver,” Sim said.

The plan is starting as a pilot with five pieces of city-owned land. This includes the land at the corner of Pacific and Burrard, where the city is looking to develop two highrises expected to provide 1,100 housing units, from studios to three-bedroom apartments.

Brad Foster, the director of market rental housing for the Vancouver Housing Development Office, says as far as he is aware, Vancouver is the only city to try to do this.

“First order of business is to get these sites zoned through rezoning, and if that’s successful and we can get a couple of these projects financed and rolling, council can look at bolstering our supply,” Foster said.

Green Party Coun. Pete Fry is the lone opposition to the plan, saying he has reservations.

“From a transitional sense, it makes total sense: take valuable land, make market housing, pool money out of that,” he said

“But then what do we use the money on? Because there are a myriad of priorities, not all of which I share with this mayor and council.”

Sim says revenue would go back to the city, but Fry is concerned that some demographics will be left out of the equation.

“I don’t want to lose track of some of the vulnerable populations that the city seems less interested in supporting,” Fry said.

But the mayor says the city is trying to address housing for all Vancouverites.

“We’re going to be building market housing, but we’re also very committed to supportive housing, non-market housing as well,” Sim said.

The city hasn’t yet revealed how much money it could make through this initiative.