{"id":28262,"date":"2026-08-07T11:11:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?p=28262"},"modified":"2026-08-07T09:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:24:10","slug":"housing-starts-are-weak-in-metro-vancouver-unclear-a-canada-bc-plan-to-acquire-unsold-condos-will-restore-housing-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/08\/housing-starts-are-weak-in-metro-vancouver-unclear-a-canada-bc-plan-to-acquire-unsold-condos-will-restore-housing-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing Starts are Weak in Metro Vancouver, Unclear A Canada-BC Plan to Acquire Unsold Condos will Restore Housing Market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A large inventory of unsold condos in Vancouver is creating a difficult environment for new construction and causing housing starts to plunge, according to a Canadian think tank.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There were 2,008 housing starts in Vancouver in June, a 34.8% drop year-over-year, according to a July 27 analysis by Signal49 Research, formerly The Conference Board of Canada.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Weakness was concentrated in the apartment category, which saw a 40.8% decline year-over-year to 1,561 units in June. Single-family homes saw a 12.1% decline to 167 units, according to data sourced from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Robin Wiebe, lead economist with Signal49, said housing starts are weak in Vancouver partly because of the \u201cextraordinary overhang\u201d of unsold apartments, mainly condos. This prompted the recently announced Canada-BC plan to convert more than 2,200 vacant units into affordable housing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThat\u2019s the whole message behind the prime minister\u2019s visit out there a couple weeks ago,\u201d said Wiebe, who is based in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWithout some clearing of the backlogs, there can\u2019t be new construction, at least that\u2019s what the developers are saying,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They just can\u2019t carry all these unsold condominiums or unsold apartments on their books and hope to achieve strong starts in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another reason for poor housing starts is a falling population and shrinking labour force, he said. Vancouver has historically relied on immigration and foreign demand to fuel its market, but population growth has slowed more dramatically here than elsewhere in the country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the resale market, Vancouver\u2019s seasonally adjusted sales-to-new-listings ratio is weak at 41.3%, Signal49 said, citing data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. This contrasts with the national ratio of 50.2% in June.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This ratio is a measure of sales demand versus listings supply, Wiebe explained. If sales rise relative to listings, there is more demand and this should boost prices. By contrast, if listings rise relative to sales, there is more supply and this should depress prices.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Vancouver\u2019s ratio is a \u201cpretty weak number\u201d giving buyers the upper hand in negotiations, he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Vancouver\u2019s struggles are partly due to it being Canada\u2019s least affordable city and one of the world\u2019s most unaffordable cities. \u201cThat is a definite extra challenge for Vancouver,\u201d Wiebe said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">BC is also facing soft employment conditions and softwood lumber tariffs, though its services-based economy is not quite as exposed to US protectionism as Ontario\u2019s auto sector, he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is on top of nationwide challenges like elevated pressure on interest rates, low consumer confidence and geopolitical uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThere are a lot of reasons why Vancouver is some further way away from stabilizing than the rest of Canada. It does look a little tough out there,\u201d Wiebe said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jock Finlayson, chief economist with BC&#8217;s Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, agreed the Vancouver housing market is weak compared to normal long-term conditions and other Canadian metros due to its declining population and unabsorbed inventory.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThree or four thousand newly built or recently built empty condos obviously is a cloud hanging over the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cHaving a large inventory of empty, unsold condos in a declining market is absolutely a headwind for any kind of recovery, and I think that\u2019s going to persist for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Still, the Canada-BC plan may not make much of a difference, Finlayson said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt might slightly improve the outlook for future condo development, but there\u2019s no population growth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIn fact, we\u2019ve got declining populations and fewer households. Until that turns around, I just don\u2019t see much prospect of a meaningful recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Finlayson said he is projecting homebuilding to decline this year and next year, meaning at least two more years of declining housing starts, including in Metro Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIf we\u2019re talking about housing, I should put on some funeral music,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biv.com\/news\/real-estate\/unsold-condos-weigh-on-vancouver-housing-starts-says-think-tank-12603567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Think Tank : Unsold Condos Weigh on Vancouver Housing Starts<\/a> by Jami Makan | BIV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A large inventory of unsold condos in Vancouver is creating a difficult environment for new construction and causing housing starts to plunge, according to a Canadian think tank. There were &hellip; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/08\/housing-starts-are-weak-in-metro-vancouver-unclear-a-canada-bc-plan-to-acquire-unsold-condos-will-restore-housing-market\/\">read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,27,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-updates","category-pre-sale-projects","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Housing Starts are Weak in Metro Vancouver, Unclear A Canada-BC Plan to Acquire Unsold Condos will Restore Housing Market &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/08\/housing-starts-are-weak-in-metro-vancouver-unclear-a-canada-bc-plan-to-acquire-unsold-condos-will-restore-housing-market\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Housing Starts are Weak in Metro Vancouver, Unclear A Canada-BC Plan to Acquire Unsold Condos will Restore Housing Market &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"A large inventory of unsold condos in Vancouver is creating a difficult environment for new construction and causing housing starts to plunge, according to a Canadian think tank. 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