Despite nearly 1,400 purpose-built rental apartments rising throughout the region, such as the nine-storey, 108-unit Wilson's Walk affordable housing development on Wilson Street, the City of Victoria recognizes more supply is needed -- as fast as possible. Citified.ca.
Approximately 1,400 purpose-built rental apartments are currently under construction throughout metropolitan Victoria with many more in planning, according to Citified's data.
The recent rise in development activity is part of a perfect storm of favourable lending rates, a low vacancy environment and a changing political outlook that may over time push depressed rental vacancy rates higher, at least in the City of Victoria.
At a Committee of the Whole Meeting held earlier today, Victoria councillors unanimously agreed that the concept of a fast-tracked development process for purpose-built rental projects is sorely needed in light of a looming housing crunch.
Despite the region-wide construction boom, south Island municipalities are faced with an aging housing stock that -- for a variety reasons -- has not been reinforced with meaningful levels of new capacity since the 1980's. According to local rental industry insiders, that translates to some 20,000 of the region's 50,000 rental units lined up for significant remediation within the next decade. And without sufficient inventory of new homes to lessen the burden on the existing stock, the ramifications could be severe.
David Hutniak, CEO of Landlord BC, applauds the City of Victoria's goal and says the key to solving a looming crisis is support from municipal, provincial and national governments for more housing stock.
"We encourage all levels of government to continue to work with our industry through the implementation of progressive policies and measures to facilitate the building of even more rental homes," Hutniak said.
City of Victoria's fast-tracking concept, if executed correctly, could play a key role in ensuring future purpose-built rental projects come to market faster thereby allowing natural market forces to soften quickly rising rental rates and provide a variety of price points for renters through attrition.
By the numbers
749 rental apartments are currently under construction in downtown Victoria. 134 are underway on the Westshore, including 30 newly completed and in the process of welcoming first-time tenants. 46 are underway on the Peninsula and 461 in the urban core area of the region, not including downtown Victoria. The regional totals include 260 affordable and/or subsidized apartments. In-planning throughout the region are an additional 1,600 units. C
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Article resources
- Find a new-build rental apartment in Victoria on Citified | Discuss and stay up-to-date on local rental housing issues on VibrantVictoria
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