Prime Minister Trudeau was in Vancouver to discuss housing affordability after calling rising home prices a “significant crisis.” Various media outlets spoke with UBC experts who weighed in on the crucial issues.
BNN interviewed UBC economist Thomas Davidoff about how the housing market could play out in Vancouver.
“Vancouver can go in one of three directions. We can rock on with people barely able to make it… we might see continued price appreciation if foreign demand stays strong in which case we playground for the rich,” he said. “The third scenario of course is a price crash.”
Davidoff was also quoted on CBC, News 1130, Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Sun, the Province, and Regina Leader-Post.
Paul Kershaw of UBC’s school of population and public health also spoke to CBC and said Vancouver’s housing market is the canary in the coalmine for affordability issues across Canada.
“It used to take the typical young Canadian five years to save a 20 per cent down payment on an average home. Now, across the country, it takes 12 years,” said Kershaw.
The story also appeared on Yahoo News.
Business in Vancouver and Vancouver Courier featured work by UBC geographer David Ley who wrote about the link between increasing home prices and wealthy Hong Kong immigrants.
