“It’s a lot more cost-effective to have me continue to provide that below-market, family rental housing … than it is for them to go and build it.”
B.C.’s property assessment and tax system, which landlords large and small say increasingly threatens Vancouver’s stock of older, affordable rental homes, is apparently causing agreement in some unlikely corners.
Many Vancouver landlords understand why the public — or governments — might not give them too much sympathy. They are, after all, not the most vulnerable group in Vancouver’s housing crisis. But the system appears to threaten older affordable apartment buildings — which is, of course, bad news for tenants.
Asked if the government might consider changes to the Assessment Act, Robinson said: “We’re absolutely monitoring it, it’s important that we do that, but our focus is really about driving the opportunity to create more vacancy.” Hutniak also supports the province’s efforts to get more rental housing built, he said, but this older housing stock is more affordable than new rentals built by the private sector, and the government “needs to focus on this specific issue right now.”
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