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Housing expectations ran high after our last provincial election that saw a B.C. Liberal party win, then lose, thanks to a power-sharing deal between the NDP and Greens. But one could argue the 2017 election was really won and lost over housing as the Metro Vancouver region faced a chronic shortage of homes for all budgets, especially rentals. Now, two years later as we end the decade, let’s measure whether this new government’s significant market interventions and many experimental new taxes on housing, levied with zero economic analysis of impacts, actually improved affordability for all those millennials who want similar homeownership opportunities as their parents.

Here are the metrics that matter:

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Have vacancy rates improved?

They are still at less than one per cent in much of Metro Vancouver. Many rental-home builders are now choosing to build anywhere but B.C., in places like Seattle. Added to this are more draconian rent controls, which mean the rental shortage will become more acute, driving up rent prices, as our population and demand grow.