For Purpose-Built Rental, Lots of Hype and (So Far) Few Results

There has been a lot media coverage lately surrounding the return of rental apartment construction in the City of Vancouver, with some even referring to it as a “renaissance”. Many are praising the City of Vancouver for approving incentive programs that have resulted in over 2,000 rental units approved in 2012 and 2013.

Certainly some of this media focus is justified. Since 2009, incentive programs have regenerated interest from developers in rental apartment construction that had been largely dormant in the City of Vancouver for over 30 years since federal tax incentives for new rental apartment construction were scrapped and the condo trend took over.

But how are all these incentives doing in terms of delivering units? Nobody seems to be asking an important question: are rental apartment buildings actually being built under these programs?

Let’s back up and look at the history of the rental incentive programs that have been implemented during Vision Vancouver’s time in power.Shortly after Mayor Robertson took office in 2008 he sought to implement a strategy to address affordable housing in the City. The first step in this process was the creation of the Short Term Incentives for Rental (STIR) program, which was adopted by Council in June 2009.

STIR was developed as a pilot program that offered developers a variety of incentives to encourage the development of market rental housing. The primary incentives included: tax assessment breaks, DCL waivers, parking reductions, density increases and expedited rezoning and development permits. The main caveat was that the rental apartments were to be secured for 60 years minimum.

Because it was only a pilot project, STIR eventually ended in December 2011.After two and a half years, STIR resulted in the application for over 1,600 units of market rental housing in 19 projects. Despite Vision touting the program as an overwhelming success, only a couple of 100% rental projects actually broke ground during that period; one of which was Blue Sky Properties 106-unit building at 1142 Granville Street. Gregor Robertson used that groundbreaking as an opportunity to talk about the effectiveness of STIR, but behind the scenes, there was concern within the City that the majority of applications being submitted were, in reality, condo projects that were seeking to include a portion of rental to achieve some of the incentives in the program, while helping achieve other objectives such as increased density. The City was already looking for ways to address this problem.

After STIR officially ended in December 2011, the City undertook a review of the program and decided to keep the incentives going through a modified policy, now referred to as Rental 100. The main difference in the Rental 100 policy is the City’s stance on ‘mixed’ rental/strata projects. In Rental 100, only projects in which 100 per cent of residential units in the project are secured as rental tenure would be considered. Rental 100 was formally put in place in May 2012. The City projected that Rental 100 would create an additional 3,350 units by 2021.

A preliminary analysis of mixed strata/rental projects and 100% rental projects indicates that there have been over 3,800 units proposed (ie. at some stage of application), and yet only 1/3 of these units have been completed or are under construction, and most of these are in larger condo projects, such as PCI’s Marine Gateway, Intracorp’s MC2 and Westbank’s Granville & 70th.

Project/Site/AddressTotal Market Rental UnitsRezoning StatusPrimary Rezoning PolicyConstruction Status
275 Kingsway202ProposedRental 100
963 East 19th Avenue39Approved - 2014STIR
1418 East 41st Avenue35Approved - 2014STIR
1755 West 14th Avenue122ProposedRental 100
458-476 West 41st Avenue50Approved - 2014Rental 100
Oakridge Centre290Approved - 2014Various
2095 West 43rd Ave56ProposedIRPIAHC
7645-7675 Cambie St.138ProposedRental 100
Arbutus Centre45Approved - 2011Various
Beach Towers133Approved - 2012STIR
1215 Bidwell St.49Approved - 2010STIRU/C
3819 Boundary Rd.25ProposedRental 100
3002-3036 West Broadway83Approved - 2013Rental 100U/C
Burrard Gateway87Approved - 2013Various
4533-4591 Cambie St.35Approved - 2013VariousU/C
7790 Cambie St.27ProposedVarious
7350 Cambie St.96ProposedRental 100
MC2110Approved - 2012VariousU/C
1401 Comox St.186Approved - 2012STIRU/C
Rogers Arena Towers614Approved - 2012VariousU/C
33-41 East Hastings St.67Approved - 2013Various
3501-3523 East Hastings St.87ProposedRental 100
1142 Granville St.106Approved - 2010STIRComplete
Granville & 70th31Approved - 2011STIRU/C
508 Helmcken St.109Approved - 2013Various
Vancouver House98Approved - 2014Various
2768 Kingsway38ProposedRental 100
3068 Kingsway30Approved - 2013STIR
1568 E King Edward77Approved - 2013Rental 100
3120-3184 Knight St.51ProposedIRPIAHC
445 SW Marine Drive70ProposedVarious
Marine Gateway46Approved - 2012VariousU/C
3195 Oak Street39ProposedRental 100
1754-1772 Pendrell St.26ProposedVarious
3522 Porter St.192Approved - 2011STIRComplete
1396 Richards St.129Approved - 2013Various
4320 Slocan St.41Approved - 2013Various
1155 Thurlow St.168ProposedVarious
5648-5658 Victoria Dr.30Approved - 2013STIR
TOTAL3857

(this list is not intended to be fully comprehensive; but if you know of a project I’ve missed, please drop me a line)

Furthermore, only 567 units have been delivered (or are under construction) in 100% rental projects. These are Westbank’s 1401 Comox, Bluesky’s 1142 Granville and Cressey’s Porter.

Suffice it to say that the STIR and now Rental 100 projects have been successful in providing incentives, but the jury is still out on the ultimate success of these programs and whether the approximately 4,000 units will actually be built. The City’s recent decision to set limits on rents for new rental projects as a means of promoting “affordability” will only impede the viability of those projects listed above as well as future applications.

The final results are not in yet. In any event, some of the larger rental projects such as the Aquilini’s Rogers Arena project which is all rental, will ensure that the City can point to an increase in rental construction and ultimately view their policies as a success.