Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson formed a task force to explore how to increase the city’s availability of affordable housing for moderate income households.  The team is comprised of 14 representatives from the development, building, finance and non-profit sectors.

The task force’s recently published interim report supports increased housing density.  They focus this specifically around transportation hubs including:

• Southeast False Creek (former Olympic Village)
• Norquay Village (Kingsway and Nanaimo)
• Marine Gateway node at Cambie and Soutwest Marine Drive.

As the city council and planning department aims to increase density of housing around these areas the mix is expected to be more balanced. There is a recommendation of stratified condo projects and purpose built rental buildings.  Purpose built rental buildings have not seen since the 1980s when many of Vancouver’s low rise apartments were built.

With the city mandate for increased rental units, an apparent softening condo market, and very few good quality rental buildings for local, foreign, and institutional investors, purpose built rental projects could form a new breed in development in the near future.