The Lack of Affordable Housing in Vancouver: A Critical Analysis of Policy and Law within the Vancouver Housing Market

The issue of affordable housing is shared amongst the majority of urban centres within Canada. This article specifically focuses on the city of Vancouver. The case of Vancouver has the potential to explore the underlying legal issues of urban unaffordability and seek solutions for urban cities across Canada. Three intersecting policy and law issues contribute to the current climate of unaffordability in Vancouver. The first factor is the issue of the financialization of the housing market, which causes housing speculation, further increasing the cost of housing and widening inequality. The second factor, which is distinctly visible in Vancouver, is foreign investment as it drives prices of homes and rent up; it also has the effect of pushing residence out of the market. The issue of foreign investment relates to the third critical factor–the lack of adequate tax around the housing market. By analyzing these three factors, this article examines the lack of policy around affordable housing and the laws that have aided a highly unequal and unaffordable housing system dominated by global wealth in Vancouver