In a bid to improve the availability of housing in Vancouver, a local resident has launched a website to gather data on the city’s so-called “lonely homes”.
Spearheaded by Christine Boehringer, LonelyHomes.ca acts as collection point and data mapper for houses or strata units in Metro Vancouver that have been flagged as vacant.
A recent survey from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggests that Vancouver’s vacancy rate has fallen to 0.7 per cent for two bedrooms units and under, while the average rent for two bedroom units has gone up by 5.7 per cent. Vancouver’s situation is extreme when compared to the rest of the country, where the vacancy rate currently sits at 3.4 per cent and housing prices have only gone up by 1.5 per cent.
Boehringer said that citizens have to do more than complain about the situation, and this is how her idea for the website came to life.
“[I wanted] to see if I can do something to try and help, and we do think an increase in the availability of rental housing over the Lower Mainland would help alleviate some of the challenges that we have right now, trying to find a place to live,” she said.
The website lets people log in and enter the data that they have on suspected empty houses in their neighbourhoods. The data will be sent to government organizations, Boehringer explains, to supplement the data that they already have from census responses.
Vancouver city council approved an empty homes tax last month, whereby affected homeowners will be subjected to a one per cent tax on the total value of their property. The first payments are due in 2018, and the houses have to be empty for a period of at least six months for the taxation to come into effect.
Boehringer said that the data the site gathers could be very important, as it has economic implications, as well.
“It has a financial impact on everybody in the Lower Mainland, and BC in general. It affects the taxing and it affects the other funds that Vancouver collects, and that can be applied to everything through general revenues,” she said.
Boehringer added that she feels home prices – and the housing situation in Vancouver, as a whole – are getting out of control.
“People are struggling to find a place to rent and live. I don’t know if there is any one single thing that can resolve it. I’m hoping that there can be more policies from the government around housing in the Lower Mainland,” Boehringer said.
