City of Vancouver Rental Incentive Program Review

In April 2019, the City of Vancouver engaged CitySpaces Consulting to undertake a review of past and current rental incentive programs. This review documents 10 years of results of the City’s incentive programs, which were first introduced in 2009.

While the rental incentive programs have effectively increased the number of rental housing units in Vancouver, rental vacancy rates have been persistently low and there are growing concerns surrounding the affordability of rental housing. Council and staff are seeking solutions to address these concerns, and respond to the issues of choice, affordability, and availability in Vancouver’s rental market.

The Rental Incentive Program Review considers Rental 100 (the Secured Market Rental Policy), the Affordable Housing Choices Interim Rezoning Policy, and recently completed community plans that include policies that incentivize secured market rental housing. The report summarizes the outcomes and achievements of these rental incentive initiatives over the past decade, with regard to supply, take-up of incentives, affordability, form of development and public feedback. It also identifies the key challenges and limitations of the rental incentive programs and presents a number of key issues and opportunities for consideration as part of the upcoming policy development phase.

The results and recommendations were based on a comprehensive set of data and research findings that had been previously compiled by the City of Vancouver – an inventory of rental projects, internal staff survey, post-occupancy survey with renters, survey with Urban Development Institute members, and outreach/focus groups with key stakeholders. Due to the timeframe and scope of work of the project, new data collection was not undertaken or deemed necessary.