{"id":28338,"date":"2016-03-08T12:21:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T20:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?p=28338"},"modified":"2016-03-24T12:55:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T19:55:13","slug":"release-vancouver-study-empty-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2016\/03\/08\/release-vancouver-study-empty-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Release: City of Vancouver releases comprehensive study on empty homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via:\u00a0City of Vancouver<\/a><\/p>\n

Responding to public concerns that empty homes could be impacting housing affordability and neighbourhood vibrancy, the City of Vancouver presented the findings of a comprehensive study on unoccupied homes to Council this morning.<\/p>\n

View the staff presentation to Council<\/p>\n

The study showed that, overall, there has been no change in the percentage of empty homes since 2002. Even though the rate of empty homes hasn\u2019t changed, Vancouver is still facing significant affordability challenges and the City remains concerned about the impact on the already limited supply of rental housing.<\/p>\n

Study examined housing occupancy using electricity consumption data<\/h3>\n

This study is the first of its kind to find out how many homes are sitting unoccupied on a long term basis. Working with consultant Ecotagious, anonymized information from BC Hydro from 2002 to 2014 was analyzed and then reviewed by a panel of external industry experts to evaluate the methodology and findings. To assess the validity of concern around unoccupied homes, the study looked only at how many homes were being left empty, but not the cause of why some units are unoccupied.<\/p>\n

Findings<\/h3>\n

The findings of the study, which looked at 225,000 homes in Vancouver, showed that:<\/p>\n