BC Business
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According to a recent report from the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, Vancouver is in danger of becoming a “bedroom community” to the suburbs, which is ironic when you think that the suburbs were called bedroom communities for Vancouver for so long.
Here in Vancouver, we like to tout our fabulous lifestyle. Ocean, beaches, parks, mountains, laid-back cafe culture, ski and sail on the same day. All the cliches that we talk about forever to outsiders. What we don’t like to talk about much is that quality of life also involves money, lots of money. And that our community has less of it every day. Those perks are becoming more expensive, and there’s a growing dichotomy between them and our ability to finance them. As a result, according to a recent report from the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, Vancouver is in danger of becoming a “bedroom community” to the suburbs, which is ironic when you think that the suburbs were called bedroom communities for Vancouver for so long. Bedroom communities were so named because they were where people went after they left work. There was a time when that work was in the offices and factories in Vancouver, and the homes were on the fringes of the city and out in the suburbs. But not any more. Today, it’s the reverse. There isn’t an office building or an institutional building or square foot of land in Vancouver today that isn’t being eyed as possible territory for new condos, which seem to be springing up like mushrooms in the rain. But those condos aren’t and won’t ever be going cheap. In fact they’re the major reason Vancouver has some of the highest housing prices in North America. Nothing like a few hundred apartments in the million-dollar-plus range to really drag up prices for even the worst buildings and condo units. Certainly, the people who work here can’t afford to live in them. So they hustle farther and farther out into the burbs and are forced to trade long long commutes to low-paying jobs just so they can have the possibility of living in more than a high-priced shoe box. What’s concerning the VEDC is that businesses are starting to follow their workers because they can’t afford to be here either. According to a VEDC report, in BC labour productivity, GDP, exports, and employment income lags behind the rest of the country. Companies who want to do business in the city often can’t find space or employees to work in them, or guarantee that they’ll be safe from violent and property crime. As a result, jobs in Vancouver are growing at a mere 2% while in other parts of Metro Vancouver, they’re growing by 10%. And that’s jobs. Think about the effect of all those lost business taxes, which despite the proliferation of housing, still accounts for the majority of the city’s tax base that goes to fund all those wonderful amenities that make up our superior quality of life. So who’s buying up all those bedrooms that are being stacked up like orange crates in Vancouver? Rich people who are investing in properties to fund lives that are increasingly being lived outside the city. Or rich people who live in several places around the world and occasionally hang their hats here. Vancouver, it seems, is not only becoming a bedroom community for the suburbs, it’s becoming a bedroom community for the International set. Read Tony’s previous blog entry here. Read Tony’s next entry here. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Let us know your thoughts!