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VICTORIA — Some landlords in British are asking prospective tenants for too much personal information including credit card details, three months worth of bank statements and inquiring whether applicants were born in Canada, says the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Acting commissioner Drew McArthur said 1.5 million people live in rental housing, representing about 30 per cent of all households in B.C., but the vacancy rate is so low across much of the province that landlords are taking advantage of the power imbalance.

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“Housing is big business in B.C.: In one estimate, residential tenancy generates a greater direct impact on GDP than the mining or forestry industries,” McArthur said in a report released Thursday.

Nationally, the urban centres with the lowest vacancy rates are all in British Columbia, with the province’s overall vacancy rate at 1.3 per cent, he said, adding Vancouver’s rate is 0.9 per cent. The lowest rate is in Abbotsford-Mission and Kelowna at 0.2 per cent.