Vancouver Homeownership Looks More Like London and New York, Desjardins Says
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Daily Hive reported on May 7 that Desjardins is comparing Vancouver and Toronto with global cities such as London, New York, and Sydney, where ownership has become much harder for ordinary households. The report points to Vancouver’s homeownership rate of 46 percent at the subdivision level in the 2021 Census, compared with 67 percent nationally.
The Desjardins view is blunt: in Toronto and Vancouver, renting may no longer be a temporary step before buying. For more families, it may become a long-term arrangement because prices remain too high relative to income.
Question
Why does this matter for today’s clients? Many households still treat renting as a short pause before ownership, but the income required to move from rent to purchase has become much harder to reach in Vancouver.
Editor's Comment
Desjardins is putting numbers to what many Vancouver households already feel: the “rent for a bit, then buy” path is no longer a default timeline, especially for families. With ownership rates well below the national average, clients need clearer planning conversations—what they can qualify for today, what trade-offs (location, product type, strata vs. freehold) actually move the needle, and whether an income-growth strategy is realistic. If more households rent for longer, the story isn’t just higher rents—it’s a structural shift toward demand for livable, family-sized rentals in good school catchments and near transit and daily services. That has practical implications for investors and developers: unit mix and functionality matter more than chasing the smallest “investor-friendly” layouts, because long-term renters will pay for space, storage, and usability.