BCREA Agrees with Expert Panel’s Calls to Increase Housing Supply for Improved Affordability

Increasing and diversifying housing supply is part of a necessary, meaningful, and long-lasting solution to make housing more affordable in British Columbia. The British Columbia Real Estate Association is encouraged by the final report from the Expert Panel on Housing Supply and Affordability and its specific recommendations around housing supply.

“There is no question that, for British Columbians to access housing options within their means, the supply of housing has to increase. To do so, local governments must decrease barriers and speed up their approval processes,” says BCREA CEO Darlene Hyde. “We welcome these findings from the Expert Panel, which echo our own recommendations about housing supply. We are – as always – ready to work with governments to help them develop and implement thoughtful, evidence-based policies that will deliver results.”

Among the 23 recommendations from the panel, the report calls for the BC government to conduct a review of public hearings and consider alternative options for more meaningful, earlier public input in different formats. This eliminates the potential for a loud minority to skew and delay outcomes and timelines. BCREA is also encouraged to see the panel highlight challenges and opportunities outlined in the provincial government's 2019 Development Approvals Process Review (DAPR) report, which outlines solutions to the issue of needlessly long development approval timelines.

The provincial government has made some progress to facilitate more supply, but much more needs to be done as it is increasingly difficult to become a homeowner in BC.

Established by the governments of Canada and BC in 2019, the Expert Panel was tasked with examining housing trends for rental and homeownership and making recommendations to both levels of government.

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