Percentage of Canadian homes sitting empty on the decline: study

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Toronto — A new report has found that the percentage of empty homes fell nationwide for the first time in 20 years, and dropped in more than half of Canada's most populous communities.

The report was prepared by real estate search company Point2Homes, using population and home occupancy data from Statistics Canada in order to calculate vacancy rates. Vacancy rates are defined at what percentage of private dwellings are not "occupied by usual residents."

In 2001, the nationwide vacancy rate in Canada was 7.8 per cent, increasing to 8.4 per cent in 2006, 8.6 per cent in 2011 and 8.7 per cent in 2016. However, the 2021 vacancy rate was eight per cent.

Vacancy rates also fell in 87 of the 150 most populous cities in Canada in the last 10 years. The community that saw the biggest drop was Saanich, B.C. on Vancouver Island, were vacancy rates plummeted 53 per cent from nine per cent in 2011 to four per cent in 2021.

On the other end of the spectrum, St. Albert, Alta., located just outside of Edmonton, was the city that saw the highest increase in vacancy rate. The vacancy rate was two roughly per cent in 2011 and four per cent in 2021, marking an increase of 93 per cent.

The four communities that had vacancy rates above 10 per cent were Kawartha Lakes, Ont., Wood Buffalo, Alta., Fort Erie, Ont. and Innisfil, Ont.

Looking at Canada's largest cities, the vacancy rates in Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa were largely unchanged between 2011 and 2021. Meanwhile in Toronto, the vacancy rate rose 36 per cent, from five per cent to seven per cent.

Vacancy rates in Vancouver, which had one of the highest rates in all of Canada, also dropped from eight per cent to seven per cent. Seven of the top 10 cities that saw the steepest drop in vacancy rates are located in B.C.

The drops in the vacancy rates in B.C. also coincide with the City of Vancouver and the B.C. government's implementation of taxes on empty homes. Vancouver first introduced these measures in 2017 in an attempt to cool the city's housing market, and the B.C. government followed suit with a provincial tax in the following year.

The City of Toronto also plans on introducing its own tax on empty homes in 2023, and the federal government held consultations last year on a proposed one per cent tax on vacant homes nationwide.

Advocates of these measures argue that a tax on empty homes would discourage real estate speculators from buying up houses as investments and keep more houses available for people looking for a place to live.

But despite these measures, housing prices have doubled in the Vancouver area. According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, the typical price of a detached house in February 2012 was $1,042,900 while an apartment could be had for $373,300. In February 2022, the average price was $2,044,800 for a detached house and $807,900 for an apartment.

Point2Homes also says that StatCan's definitions "have generated some discussions about what constitutes vacant dwellings." For example, homes occupied by university or college students would be considered empty under StatCan's definitions, as the agency defines the "usual residence" of students as their parents' homes.