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Accountant Lotfi Fetoui and his wife are raising their baby in a one-bedroom apartment in an older, low-rise Metrotown building where they have lived for five years and where they can afford the $900-a-month rent.

But the building, like many others in this gentrifying area of Burnaby, has been purchased by a developer who has told residents to move out by April — so the building can be demolished and replaced with a condo complex.

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Fetoui, who works in downtown Vancouver and wants to live near SkyTrain, would love to stay in the neighbourhood, but rent in a similar building across the street is $1,650 a month.

“With these new prices we will be surviving, not living. We will work to pay the rent,” said Fetoui, adding he will vote for a mayoral candidate who will protect affordable rental stock. “I want to know: Who is the person who will take care of us, the middle class?”

Housing is the top issue for most voters in this municipal election, a recent report found, although some like Fetoui want access to affordable places to raise families while others are concerned about over-development.