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The NDP budget forecast a drop in housing starts by as much as 30 per cent across B.C. over the next three years, sparking debate about whether there are too many, or too few, condos being built in Vancouver’s expensive market.

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Economists at major banks recently joined geographers in comparing Vancouver and Toronto when it comes to the ratio of condo units to number of households.

While population growth in Vancouver has been lagging that in Toronto, there are more newly completed but unoccupied condo units in Vancouver, according to Stephen Brown, a senior Canada economist at London-based Capital Economics. He found that at the end of last year, there were some 2,000 such units, compared to 1,500 at the beginning of 2018.

“By contrast, in Toronto, the number of (newly completed and unoccupied) units is just 500, despite the population being 2.5 times larger. … The supply situation will probably get much worse. There are currently 42,000 units under construction in Vancouver, compared to 71,000 in Toronto. Vancouver is therefore building 1.2 units for every person that arrived in Vancouver in the past year, compared to just 0.5 units in Toronto.”