Some of the legislative and regulatory initiatives the British Columbia provincial government has pursued to create affordable housing are likely to be effective, while others will discourage new housing from being built, and will be costly and cumbersome to administer, finds a new report published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

"Given high housing and rental prices in B.C., it is perhaps not surprising that the provincial government has enacted legislation and regulations they say will increase the supply of housing, and particularly affordable rental housing, but will it?" said Steve Globerman, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Assessing the British Columbia Government's Initiatives to Make Housing More Affordable.

The study analyzes whether legislative and regulatory initiatives in B.C. aimed at making housing more affordable are effective mechanisms to increase the supply of affordable housing.

It finds that provincial legislation prohibiting local government limits on multi-unit housing and accessory dwelling units in residential neighbourhoods is likely to improve housing construction rates and housing affordability. On the other hand, strengthened rent controls and protections against tenant evictions will likely discourage the production of new rental housing units.

The government's numerous subsidy programs for rental housing are likely to be costly to administer. A more efficient approach to subsidizing housing for low- and moderate-income families is a housing voucher program.

Crucially, the main factor contributing to B.C.'s high housing prices is higher population growth driven largely by immigration and higher income growth that has outpaced the rest of the country in recent years.

"Faster population growth, particularly of wealthier immigrants, has been a major factor contributing to reduced housing affordability in B.C.'s metropolitan areas, especially metro Vancouver," Globerman said.

"While policymakers have enacted a mixed bag of initiatives to lower housing costs, there is little policymakers can do directly to slow the future growth in demand for housing, given immigration targets are set by Ottawa."

Report
Assessing the British Columbia Government's Initiatives to Make Housing More Affordable.