Students struggle to find accommodations in Vancouver, Canada’s hottest housing market

[Vancouver, Canada’s most expensive real estate city, is making it hard for students to find rental housing with just weeks to the start of classes. CBC News]

Robin Dhillon graduated high school in Manitoba in June. In a few weeks, he starts classes at the University of British Columbia.

But the 18-year-old physics student has yet to find a place to live in Canada’s hottest housing market.

“It’s been tough. I’m still looking,” he says.

“They’re too expensive. They’re, like, $1,800 and I’m a student. That’s too much.”

Vancouver’s real estate market is one of the most expensive in the world and certainly the most expensive in Canada.

The benchmark price of a detached property in Metro Vancouver hit a record $1.5 million in May, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

But the rental market may be even tighter. With a 0.6 per cent vacancy rate, competition is tough.

Dhillon says he knew it would be costly but he didn’t realize how few options there would be.

As his search dragged on, he widened the search area, looking well beyond the pricey Vancouver neighbourhoods near UBC’s main campus.

Still nothing.

“I’m OK with an hour, an hour and a half [commute],” he says. “I’m willing to sacrifice time but nothing shows up.”

He’s downgraded his expectations, too, from a two-bedroom to even a studio, though he will be living with his mother. He thought they could make due until something else came along.

“A week or two ago I was so desperate I was like, even if it’s a studio I can work with that. But the studios were $1,000, $1,200. That’s still a lot,” he tells Yahoo Canada News.

Metro Vancouver has dozens of advanced education facilities, UBC and Simon Fraser University in Burnaby being the largest. SFU and other popular universities across the country face similar crunches.

UBC has an annual enrolment of more than 50,000 students at its main campus in Vancouver. The university has about 11,000 on-campus beds available.

“It’s a challenging market in Vancouver,” says Andrew Parr, managing director of UBC’s student housing and hospitality services.

Though the university has added 2,500 beds in the past five years, the wait list has continued to grow. Last year it peaked at 6,300 students. This year, it’s on track to hit about 5,700.

“It’s harder to find a decent quality place near the university and what you do find is more expensive,” Parr says.

And it’s not just cost.

University officials are aware that on-campus accommodations improve the university experience, with students more involved in sports, politics and other extra-curricular activities.

UBC has a policy guaranteeing almost all first-year students on-campus residence but Parr says 62 per cent of students would like to live on campus for the duration of their education.

The school has committed $400 million to building accommodations. By 2020, it will have 13,000 beds, with land set aside for another 3,500.

Last year, online classified website Kijiji released a list of on- and off-campus housing costs for post-secondary institutions across the country.

McGill University had the highest costs, with an average of $1,885 for on-campus accommodations and $1,671 for off-campus.

The University of Toronto took second place, with an average of $1,807 on campus and $1,721 off.

UBC was No.8 on the list but rents have since skyrocketed.

Parr says UBC does not charge market value for accommodations.

“We’re charging below market,” he says. “We could charge more and still be full, but that’s not our mission.”

And rental costs are likely to continue to climb by a staggering 20 per cent this year alone, says a report released this month by UBC’s Sauder School of Business.

To make matters worse for students still looking for a place to live, the Better Business Bureau of the Lower Mainland issued a warning this week to students beginning classes at any of Metro Vancouver’s dozens of advanced education facilities about roommate and rental scams.

Dhillon has an uncle he can stay with when he arrives in Vancouver to continue his search. He lands in Vancouver on Aug. 25 and classes begin Sept. 6.

“There has to be something but I’m still looking after almost two months now,” he says.