It is a city cresting a golden wave. Global capital is pouring in, the population is booming and the state government is turning huge surpluses.

Meanwhile, house prices have accelerated at an unimaginable pace, pricing out everyone from the most vulnerable to those with professional jobs, as record numbers of homeless people move on to the city's streets.

Sound familiar? The city is not Sydney, but Vancouver.

It has been grappling a housing affordability crisis for over a decade, leaving it mired in the same problems that now grip Sydney, and dominate conversations from the backyard barbecue to the country's highest paid policy wonks.