In BC, I don’t think increasing supply helps to increase ownership. I’ve seen some data from Stats Canada from the housing statistics program that shows the pe

In BC, I don’t think increasing supply helps to increase ownership. I’ve seen some data from Stats Canada from the housing statistics program that shows the percent of owner occupied apartments is decreasing over time. From 60-70% to somewhere in the 40% range. I haven’t been able to find reliable numbers on the number of new condos coming in, but looking around the city it’s hard to believe that we would not be increasing supply. For example, I live in a condo / townhouse development that has 450 units; before this was built, there were 4 single family homes on the same land. Stats Canada is starting to put out information on multiple house owners. The majority of the multiple unit owners own within the same city as their primary residence. People who see the headlines speculate it’s cottage owners, but it’s really not the case. From anecdotes, the other driver of non-owner occupied apartments are people who live at home but are able to buy an apartment to rent out. They do this because housing keeps going up here and they want to build equity to be able to afford a house once they are married and move out of the family home.