Does Pierre Poilievre have a point blaming city hall for Vancouver's soaring property prices?
CBC
Hot on the heels of his tour through British Columbia, federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has taken aim at Vancouver City Hall for "destroying the home ownership dreams of working class youth."
In a video monologue that borrows stylistically from Rick Mercer, Poilievre does a 180-degree spin on East 40th Avenue in Vancouver's Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood to breathlessly reveal a run-down 1930s house that's for sale for $4.888 million.
He then uses it as an example to show how municipal regulations add to the cost of property in the city's overheated market.
The property is a double lot that measures 66 feet by 140 feet (20 metres by 43 metres), according to B.C. Assessment. The real estate listing notes the house and a laneway home at the back of the property currently rent out for $5,000 per month combined.
In the video, Poilievre says the lot can be redeveloped into six units at the cost of over $1 million per unit, after which he poses a question he's keen to answer: "Why is it that Vancouver has the third most unaffordable housing market on the planet?"
One reason, he says, quoting a paper by the non-profit C.D. Howe Institute, is that housing regulation costs imposed by the city add up to $644,000 for every unit developed in Vancouver.
"That's the cost of getting approval, getting the zoning changes, getting the permit and paying all the fees directly to the city and all the gatekeepers," Poilievre says in the video — before pledging "to get the local gatekeepers out of the way so we can build more homes."
Of course, following through on this pledge assumes he first wins the Conservative leadership race and his party then wins the next federal election.
A member of Poilievre's campaign team told CBC the details of his plan would be released later.
In a statement, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the C.D. Howe study that Poilievre cites is flawed and "assumes any housing costs beyond construction are the result of policies imposed by local governments, ignoring things like developer profits, high land costs and speculative demand."
CBC contacted the author of the paper, C.D. Howe associate vice-president Benjamin Dachis, but did not hear back.
Poilievre's video has been retweeted over 2,000 times.
CBC asked three people with knowledge of Vancouver housing and property development to comment on his claims.
Jon Stovell, Reliance Properties president and CEO, Urban Development Institute chairman
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