Canada\u2019s overheated housing market is correcting. It\u2019s time for housing policy to start correcting with it.<\/p>\n
In the past decade and more, housing prices in Vancouver, Toronto, Victoria and other Canadian cities have spiralled upward into unaffordability, crowding out many families.<\/p>\n
Observers whose livelihoods have not depended on Canada\u2019s real-estate boom have long said what is needed is a \u201csoft landing\u201d \u2014 in which prices go down, but not so drastically as to ruin those who bought in at ultra-elevated prices.<\/p>\n
In January, the volume of home sales in both Vancouver and Toronto were at 25-year lows, according to analyst Steve Saretsky BC Assessment shows values down in most Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods, by anywhere from one to 13%.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Saretsky points out that, as Canada recently recorded its steepest population decline on record and growth was at a standstill in 2025, average apartment rents in Vancouver and Toronto are also more than 12% lower than two years ago.<\/p>\n
Given the earthward direction, many in the real-estate industry are in high anxiety, fearing the bubble is bursting. They\u2019re pleading with governments, in various ways, to come to their rescue.<\/p>\n
But just as stock-market analysts speak of over-exuberant markets needing a healthy \u201ccorrection,\u201d it\u2019s clear what is happening now in urban Canadian housing is an opportunity \u2014 for would-be buyers as well as governments.<\/p>\n
Here are 10 Moves to Consider :<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Buyers Could Take Advantage<\/p>\n \u201cInterest rates have stabilized, and it\u2019s definitely a buyer\u2019s market,\u201d says Vancouver realtor David Hutchinson. \u201cProspective buyers should think about seriously looking, doing research to see if the time is right for them.\u201d Sellers, he said, have to prepare for not getting the price their neighbour did last year.<\/p>\n 2. Keep Migration Rates Low<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost every day now you see someone in the real-estate industry claiming poverty due to the reduced immigration levels,\u201d says Hutchinson.<\/p>\n While many developers want migration levels boosted, and governments to again welcome foreign capital into the market, Hutchinson said \u201cprevious population growth was so extreme, and resulted in so many abuses, that I don\u2019t know if the public is conducive to increasing immigration all over again. It seems we\u2019re still reeling.\u201d<\/p>\n Many observers, including a coalition of 28 BC housing experts, are urging the federal government to maintain its gradual easing of international migration, which has been most responsible for population growth and related housing demand.<\/p>\n 3. Forget Supply, Supply, Supply<\/p>\n The correction is a time to recognize the failure of governments\u2019 \u201cmarket-driven, investor-fuelled, supply, supply, supply policy of the past 30 years,\u201d said UBC geography professor emeritus David Ley, author of Housing Booms in Gateway Cities.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has led to the most unaffordable housing market in North America, with Vancouver incomes far below purchase prices and market rents.\u201d Governments\u2019 fixation on drastic upzoning for more dwellings has not proved a solution, Ley said. It has mostly inflated the profits of landowners.<\/p>\n 4. Don\u2019t Bail Out Developers<\/p>\n Many BC cities, and the provincial government, are constantly creating more ways to make it easier, cheaper and faster for anxious developers to construct housing units and densify neighbourhoods. Politicians are requiring developers to provide fewer amenities, such as parks and community centres, while increasingly expecting taxpayers to shoulder costs for the extra infrastructure.<\/p>\n In contrast, Ley said, \u201cPublic funds should not be allocated to protect private developers who have made poor market decisions. Real estate is a cyclical industry and companies that have not made provision for downturns should harvest what they have sown.\u201d<\/p>\n 5. Build More Human-Scale Housing<\/p>\n \u201cSo much of what is being proposed is awful design that will be hard to rent or sell,\u201d says Vancouver architect Brian Palmquist, referring especially to the region\u2019s torrent of new apartment towers with small units, which aren\u2019t particularly affordable or livable, especially for families.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should pursue a model of human-scale development,\u201d said Ley, which respects the integrity of neighbourhoods and limits towers to select major transit nodes. \u201cSecondary suites, lane houses and four-plexes should be the prevalent modes of development in most neighbourhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of Metro Vancouver\u2019s \u201clove affair\u201d with environmentally costly glass-and-concrete towers, UBC professor emeritus Patrick Condon recommends pivoting to \u201ca pattern of four-to-eight-storey mid-rise structures made of wood or mass timber and enclosing green courtyards, as perfected in European cities like Berlin or Barcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n 6. Support Non-Market Housing<\/p>\n This correction is making private land less expensive for forms of non-market housing, say experts. \u201cLet\u2019s use this retrenchment to purchase land at fire-sale prices,\u201d said Condon, author of Broken City.<\/p>\n \u201cAs distress sales rise, land values fall more rapidly than home prices. Governments and non-profits can act decisively. Acquire depreciated lots for a public land bank that is immune to land speculators.\u201d Condon especially advocates \u201cresident-owned co-operatives.\u201d<\/p>\n 7. Don\u2019t Demolish Existing Rentals<\/p>\n \u201cWe should as a top priority preserve existing affordable rental units,\u201d said Ley. Experts join him in lamenting how dozens of three-storey rental blocks built in the 1970s, for instance, are slated for destruction in Vancouver.<\/p>\n 8. Consult with The Public Again<\/p>\n Top-down planning by the province and many BC city halls, including by prohibiting in-person public hearings, has eroded democratic engagement. \u201cNeighbourhood planning should be brought back and strengthened,\u201d said Palmquist.<\/p>\n 9. Build More Surface Transport Systems<\/p>\n Costly transit megaprojects, like SkyTrains, \u201cprimarily serve narrow corridors and largely benefit landowners along their routes,\u201d says Condon. \u201cIn a post-correction era,\u201d he recommends building more surface transport systems, like light rail and dedicated bus and bike lanes. \u201cThey can move massive amounts of people at a fraction of the cost of subways.\u201d<\/p>\n 10. Rethink Draconian Upzoning Schemes<\/p>\n The province of BC should reform the sweeping upzoning it has mandated for virtually all cities and towns, say experts. Specifically, in regard to Vancouver, specialists call for a pause of the massive Broadway and Cambie plans, the Jericho Lands project, the proposed development of 25 future \u201cvillages\u201d and especially the vast pre-zoning that\u2019s coming down the pike through the impending \u201cofficial community plan.\u201d<\/p>\n