The term “missing middle” has become as common in today’s real estate vocabulary as “a hot market” or “location, location, location.” Cliches often have some truth in them — and in the case of the “missing middle,” it’s gaining traction in the Canadian real estate market in part due to the rise of a newer property type: multiplexes.

Changes in B.C. and Toronto

Multiplexes are residential homes that consist of multiple separate units within what would have traditionally been a lot designated for a single detached home. They can generally vary from two to eight units.

In 2023, British Columbia made amendments to their Housing Statutes (Residential Development) Amendment Act — more commonly referred to as “Bill 44.” That same year, Toronto’s city council adopted its own Official Plan Amendment and Zoning Bylaw Amendment to allow multiplexes throughout the city.  

Jasmine Cracknell-Young, vice president of market advisory at Zonda, saw that the rise of multiplex listings in Toronto jumped dramatically since these amendments. According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), in 2023 there were 115 listings and in 2024, 168 listings — a 46.1 per cent increase.

“I think because housing has become such a hot topic, we have all levels of government finally talking about it because they realize the crisis that we’re in,” she comments. 

A ‘tiny part of the market’: Legislation may not go far enough

Chris Spoke, builder and developer with Toronto Standard, has seen firsthand the impact of these legal changes on housing projects. Personally, he doesn’t believe the legislation goes far enough. 

“So we have five residential zones in Toronto. Two of those residential zones do support multi-unit housing, but the zoning bylaws paired with the city’s Official Plan and the language of it is if there’s any new development within the neighborhood’s designation, it has to respect and reinforce the existing physical character.

(This) means that even if the zoning technically allows for multi-unit housing, if it’s not consistent with the existing physical character, then you’re not going to get past this test,” Spoke explains. “We’ve still not seen a lot of activity because I think the multiplex bylaw doesn’t go far enough in terms of the permissions. So it’s still like a tiny part of the market.”

Optimism and opposition: Major Streets Study

However, Spoke is optimistic that multiplexes will continue to rise in popularity in Toronto, particularly with the momentum surrounding the Major Streets Study which “focuses on permitting gentle density — missing middle housing — on major streets in low-rise neighbourhoods across Toronto.”

“These are the major arterials in the city that have bus routes on them,” adds Spoke. “So this also opened up a new scale of development in parts of the city where it was not legal before.”

However, these policies are met with some opposition. When it comes to the Major Streets Policy, traffic is a big concern among current residents.

“It’s always traffic,” shares Cracknell-Young. “They just think it’s taking up road space.”

Bill 44 in B.C. addresses these concerns by eliminating new vehicles from entering neighbourhoods altogether in some cases: if a housing project is within 400 metres of a transit stop, no minimum parking is required. Transportation accessibility is poised to play a significant role in the development of multiplex housing.

Ottawa: Multiplex increases expected post-bylaw approval in 2025

Nachiket Kulkarni, an architectural designer with Architrix Studio, has worked on multiplex projects both in Vancouver and Ottawa, where he now lives.

“Ottawa would be two or three years behind Vancouver when it comes to that change,” he says. “So whatever happens in Vancouver right now, the same change would be in Ottawa two or three years down the line in terms of multiplexes.”

While Kulkarni has seen a big shift towards more multiplex development over the past couple of years in Ottawa, he anticipates that to increase even further after December 2025, when the new zoning bylaw is expected to have final approval.

“In Ottawa, they’ve consolidated the number of zones into just six zones now, just like Vancouver did,” adds Kulkarni.

In October 2023, the City of Vancouver implemented a new zoning designation, “R1-1,” otherwise known as “Residential Inclusive.” This was put in place to replace and simplify the previous zoning structure, which included various RS (One-Family Dwelling), RT (Two-Family Dwelling) and RM (Multiple Dwelling) designations.

And similar to Toronto and Vancouver, Ottawa’s changes will also aim to reduce parking requirements.

‘Citizen developers’ on the rise

Spoke believes that with these new changes, multiplexes will open the door towards something he refers to as “citizen developers:” where those such as home builders, general contractors and even everyday homeowners can actively participate in building up new housing opportunities.

“Multiplexes offer a form of development that’s accessible to people who haven’t worked professionally as developers,” Spoke says.

While multiplexes will likely not solve all of our housing problems overnight, they provide an opportunity to think of density in a more nuanced manner. 

“I think it’s a really great product form. You can have multiplexes go into existing communities and have people of different incomes and demographics able to access some of the best communities that we have,” says Cracknell-Young. “To stop the sprawl and have more people in our existing communities where it’s possible … I hope that we will see more of them.”

Image: ShapeYourCity.ca

The past half-decade has been a strange one for housing in British Columbia. After almost two decades of underproduction, municipal bureaucratic foot-dragging and a general failure to plan for future growth, affordability issues continue to worsen despite ongoing media fixation and an endless stream of governmental promises, plans, proclamations, policies, podium pontifications and proactive pronouncements.

The writ has yet to drop, but it’s expected British Columbians will once more take to the polls on Saturday, October 19, 2024. While housing and provincial affordability are top-of-mind issues, it’s the shift in public polling that’s particularly fascinating in the lead-up.

Two contender parties: Far-left and far-right

The destabilization started with B.C.’s Liberal Party rebranding in April 2023 into the ambiguously named B.C. United, which resonated with precisely no one. Perhaps this is because it makes them sound more like they should be playing against Manchester United rather than dealing with politics.

But the real story is the upstart Conservative Party of B.C. which has usurped much of the former Liberal following and is now practically equal in polling support to the in-power NDP (New Democratic Party) that once commanded a majority lead. This essentially means that in the coming B.C. election, the two contender parties are either a far-left or far-right option. Quite the ideological showdown in the making. 

What got us here?

B.C. is governed by a two-term progressive NDP government. When former housing minister David Eby took the reins from then-Premier John Horgan (who stepped down due to health issues), a notable shift was immediately enacted.

Eby came at housing policy extremely aggressively. Like or dislike the NDP, there is little argument that Eby arrived well-qualified to tackle the issues. Aside from ample ministerial and attorney general experience, he spent the early years of his career working with the PIVOT Legal Society, a Downtown Eastside non-profit that provides legal advocacy for the impoverished, and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

This was a case of a leader ascending to power with a hands-on background and the will to enact immediate steps to contain supply and affordability challenges paired with rampant drug issues and homelessness. What has transpired over his 22 months in power thus far is a litany of aggressive policies. Municipal housing targets, major rezoning, outlawing of short-term rentals and strengthened tenancy rights, to name but a few. 

B.C.’s housing system changes’ billion-dollar consequences should create heavy burden of responsibility

If there’s a notable criticism of Premier Eby leading into the election (and it’s one that will dog him in the months to come), it’s that he has ruled with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Repeatedly, this administration has acted more like a non-profit activist than a balanced government. Often over-focused on certain demographics while negatively portraying others, ignoring mayors and city councils concerned by the dictated pace of development and lack of matching infrastructure funding, protecting tenants with heavy-handed measures while ignoring the needs of the perceived privileged landlords — who are often just struggling families with a rental suite, not faceless corporations.

In short, it’s a complex housing ecosystem in B.C. and it needs to be navigated with extreme caution. Any change can have billion-dollar consequences, and that should create a heavy burden of responsibility. I don’t see enough of that burden with this government and that concerns me. 

So, what do we need going forward? 

Actual collaboration

If we’re going to take all the rhetoric out of the housing crisis and get down to actually building solutions, then the issue requires the proper resources to tackle it. Whatever party takes power, they need to establish a Permanent Housing Roundtable immediately made up of 12 or so carefully chosen policy experts selected from across the housing continuum of market, non-market and Indigenous housing.

Let’s dwell for a minute on who is currently drafting our legislation. As it currently stands, both federally and provincially, a collection of policy analysts staff the respective housing ministries. These are people transferred in either fresh from post-secondary graduate programs or shuffled over from other ministries with little on-the-ground experience. The reality at both the federal and provincial levels is that these staffers are not nearly equipped with the knowledge to tackle the size of the issues under analysis. And the policy we are seeing is reflective of that. The ideas often have merit but the execution is littered with problems.

The only successful path forward is to gather a well-stocked working group of those with years of experience drawn from housing policy work in the private and non-profit sectors to work in collaboration with the government. This would add significant bench strength to the policy teams and would avail the opportunity to pressure-test new legislation before it’s announced for unforeseen consequences. 

Significant tax reform

Housing in B.C. has so many taxes heaped upon it that we need Robin Hood to rescue us. The review and repeal of some of the taxation overburdening the B.C. buyer since 2016 could immediately and significantly lower the cost of housing, as a huge percentage of the cost of housing is pure taxation. For example, the Property Transfer Tax was initially a wealth tax for the top 5.0 per cent of sales but now applies to virtually everyone. There is also the lack of transparency around how taxes are used, as most of it disappears into “general revenues”. 

In addition, significant focus needs to be placed on investor incentivization. This government doesn’t seem to distinguish between “speculative investment”, which they demonize, and all other categories of investment, which our economy is highly dependent upon. Furthermore, they need to stop using developers as a piggybank. Developers are not the solution to every municipal budget shortcoming that crops up amid supply expansion. 

Provincial trades education to offset immigration

It has frequently been said that high immigration numbers are necessary to import the skilled tradespeople needed to expand housing supply across the province. The Feds, however, have begun reining back record-high immigration as its causal effect on national housing pressures becomes more and more apparent.

The government’s Labour Market Outlook estimates about 65,000 openings over the next 10 years in the construction sector, with 55,000 necessary just to offset retirements. To tackle these issues, B.C. can set about incentivizing the next generation of skilled trades labourers in the province — start offsetting tuition costs, offering high school feeder programs, initiating recruitment campaigns for youth, expanding facilities at the B.C. Institute of Technology, etc. 

There is real job opportunity in B.C.’s housing trade sector for years to come. Why not focus on getting new graduates into these programs and upping trade graduate numbers ten-fold over the next decade? 

Foreign buyer ban exemptions

The Foreign Buyer Ban was a slick-sounding federal policy implemented in January 2023 that had very little statistical impact on anything. A major add-on negative for B.C. is that several ski hills (which happen to be incorporated as municipalities) all got captured in this ban.

Ski hills are a critical part of the B.C. tourism sector, already struggling to recover from a multi-year COVID-19 shutdown and then a terrible 2024 season. Now, to protect housing supply, foreign investors can’t invest in ski condominiums? The incumbent provincial government needs to prioritize working with the federal government to get this sorted ASAP in advance of the next ski season. 

Axe the rescission period

Allowing buyers three days to back out of a potential home purchase they have willfully entered into was and continues to be a bad idea. As adults, we all understand the responsibility that comes with purchasing property, and back-out clauses already exist in pre-defined categories. 

The rescission mechanism was put in place to overly coddle the buyer, treating them as ignorant innocents in a competitive market. What it neglects to account for is the symbiotic relationship between buyer and seller. These are intertwined roles, and once a house sells, the seller, in turn, typically becomes a buyer. Allowing “I changed my mind” back-outs of offers with no particular justification is a heavily disruptive tool that causes more harm than good. 

Short-term rental exemptions

Over-focus on housing supply at the cost of the regional economy is not well-thought-out policy. Tourism is still recovering post-COVID-19. Our wine regions are hurting. Multiple ski regions are beaten down by unintended foreign homebuyer bans. And now short-term rental stock is stomped out for theoretical transformation to permanent rental stock?

The data isn’t agreeing and hotels across the province have never cost more. Post-election, the government needs to start working out a litany of exemptions based on season, region, zoning and support of critical sectors such as remote medical workers, people travelling for medical care, film industry employees and students. 

Looking ahead

Regardless of who wins this election, B.C. can solve the challenges before it. To do so, it’s high time partisan politics were extracted from housing policy.

Let’s gather the smartest policy minds in the province. Let’s craft public-private collaboration. Let’s work together. And let’s get this done.

Please note that it’s BCREA policy to not respond to comments on any of its online articles.

Century 21 Assurance Realty recently announced it will open two new offices in British Columbia’s growing southern Interior region — one in Kamloops and the other in Vernon.

With two offices and 100 agents in Kelowna and Castlegar, the brokerage has been a part of Century 21 Canada since 2004.

One of the company’s owners, Anna Carbone, says there’s a lot of opportunity in the area as more cities outside of the Lower Mainland continue to see growth. “Communities in the B.C. Interior have seen a lot of development over the past few years, and we’re really excited to help B.C. Interior agents and clients with our local knowledge and support systems.”

Co-owner Max Carbone explains that since markets in bigger cities are experiencing low inventory, more families are exploring other cities. “We are grateful and excited about the agents joining us in Kamloops and Vernon and we’re confident that many more will appreciate the value of our tools and training programs, so we’re ready to hit the ground running,” he adds.

Set up for success in a competitive market

Century 21 executive vice president Todd Shyiak sees a lot of growth potential in the region and shares, “Max and Anna have a strong vision for how they want to grow their operations and we’re excited to support them. It’s a competitive market throughout the province, but their experience and collaborative mindset combined with our innovative tools will equal success for C21 Assurance in the near future.”

Photo: Assurancerealty.c21.ca

The BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) recently found that former real estate agent Jake Singh Kanda committed professional misconduct when he did not inform provincial licensing authorities that he’d been charged with crimes.

British Columbia’s Real Estate Services Act requires licensees to notify the BCFSA’s superintendent of real estate in writing if they are charged with or convicted of an offense, and also to provide their managing broker with the notice.

The decision notes that Kanda didn’t partake in the BCFSA’s hearing process and has not been licensed under the Real Estate Act since February 2023.

34 charges involved, requested information ‘withheld, concealed, or refused to provide’

The decision posted on the regulator’s website includes nine charges from February 2019, 10 from January 2021 and nine from July 2021.

Six charges from October 2016 (before Kanda was a licensed real estate agent) were withdrawn, about which, in May 2021, he submitted “a false or misleading statement in writing in response to the Real Estate Council of British Columbia (RECBC)’s investigatory requests made April 7, 2021.”

Few charges were proven, and the 2019 and 2021 charges were similar, coming from the 2016 incidents.

The document also notes Kanda “withheld, concealed, or refused to provide” information requested by the RECBC and that, in May 2022, he “failed to promptly notify the superintendent in writing” after being convicted of two crimes: assault, and pointing a firearm at a person, both in October 2016.

The decision

After requests from investigators in April 2021, Kanda’s lawyer responded with a letter in May 2021 stating the charges were withdrawn “because they were false charges” and that the court decided to “drop the charges permanently, and no longer seek prosecution.” The decision notes this is false or misleading since Kanda and his lawyers would have known the case was still being appealed (about 15 days before their statement was made).

In February 2022, an investigator emailed Kanda’s lawyer, noting that the stay of proceedings for the 2019 charges had been set aside, and requesting an update and court documents for the 2016 charges. The same request had been made in July and September 2021. The update and documents were provided in August 2022, along with information for the 2019 and July 2021 charges. However, the decision notes there was “no explanation for the significant delay.”

The decision notes that prior to this, the BCFSA had not been provided any of the information or the November 2020 reasons for the stay of proceedings for the 2019 charges being granted, despite the April 2021 request.

The BCFSA concluded that Kanda was guilty of professional misconduct since he did not notify the superintendent or his managing broker of his charges and convictions.

Review the regulator’s decision in full here.

Last month in British Columbia, there were 8,075 residential sales, 11.6 per cent less than the same time last year, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA).

Average price and total sales

B.C.’s average listing price in May was down to $1 million, a 1.5 per cent drop compared to the average price of $1.02 million in May 2023. As well, total sales dollar volume was down in the same period by 13 per cent, to $8.1 billion.

“Markets could not match the surge in home sales that occurred this time last year,” says BCREA chief economist Brendon Ogmundson. “However, we are starting to see a pickup in sales activity to more normal levels, which, combined with rising inventory, is helping to keep markets in balanced territory.”

Year-to-date

So far this year, B.C. residential sales dollar volume is up 2.7 per cent to $31.5 billion, compared with the same time in 2023. Residential unit sales were flat year-over-year at 31,573 units, and the average listing price was up 2.6 per cent to $997,899.

Get more details here.

Buying or selling a home is the largest financial transaction most British Columbians will ever make. To protect their clients’ interests and help them make informed decisions, reaWe ltors have a professional obligation to provide all information about a property they believe their clients should know.

While every real estate transaction is unique, realtors working with a seller will often execute property information requests as part of the listing process. This information is typically shared through the listing itself and with prospective buyers. Providing this information to consumers in a timely fashion protects both buyers and sellers, saves consumers time and money and supports the efficient operation of local real estate markets.

Interior B.C. realtors face large barriers to vital information from local governments

Unfortunately, in the B.C. Interior, realtors are facing big barriers from local governments when it comes to accessing vital municipally-held information about a property. Chronic underfunding of municipal governments has led to a stunningly antiquated patchwork of rules, technology and processes surrounding how consumers and realtors obtain information necessary to buy or sell a home. 

To break down these barriers and modernize access to municipal property information, the Association of Interior Realtors (AIR) partnered with Real North Strategies to develop a policy report aimed at first surveying key municipalities in the region to define the problem and then building a plan to modernize access to property information in the B.C. Interior. 

The property information problem

To start, AIR’s report found a general lack of digitization of property records among municipalities in the B.C. Interior. In fact, of the 13 municipalities surveyed for the report, only two had completely digitized their property records and some were completely paper-based. In some municipalities, realtors looking to access building information must physically go to municipal offices to request, pay for and pick up the documents.

In addition, all municipalities are subject to the provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA), which further complicates the ease with which property information can be shared.

While some municipalities have managed to seamlessly integrate FOIPPA requests into this aspect of a real estate transaction, others require third-party consent or offer a tiered system for the dissemination of information per FOIPPA rules. This confusion means that realtors and their clients must, in some cases, obtain consent far in advance of their closing date and be subject to the discrepancy of municipal staff when it comes to getting information about their new home.

Above all, AIR’s report found that municipalities are woefully under-resourced when it comes to managing and administering municipal property information. This lack of staff resources and budgets has held back innovation, caused major delays in accessing documents (sometimes up to two weeks) and led to confusion and frustration among civil servants, realtors and consumers. 

The call for a digital revolution

Municipalities and the provincial government have a joint role to play in modernizing the way that information is requested and provided to better support consumers in their real estate transactions.

Provincially, AIR is calling for the creation of a municipal records modernization fund akin to an existing program in Ontario, which provides funding to municipal governments to effectively modernize existing services. Provincial funding is vital to helping municipalities bridge the resources gap. Digitizing FOIPPA through a partnership with the provincial government to shorten document-request timelines based on individual municipal need is another recommendation that would directly impact turnaround times.

At the local level, the theme of digitization is a common thread through the remaining recommendations, including:

1. enhancing the way that consumers can actually apply for and request property information through online forms,
2. ensuring that consumers can pay for documentation from municipalities online and
3. creating guidance and tracking so that consumers can continue monitoring other parts of the purchase or sale of their home while waiting for their documentation.

While challenges exist, avenues for improvement in municipal property processes in B.C.’s Interior municipalities are clear. Embracing modernization through provincial support and a commitment to digitization will deliver a better experience for end users and greatly enhance consumer protection — not just for the Interior but for the province as a whole.

Review the policy report here.

In the fall of 2023, with a stroke of the legislative pen, British Columbia’s government rezoned most single-family neighbourhoods in the province to permit 3 to 6 units per lot.

Policy move to address ‘missing middle’

It’s an ambitious and sweeping policy move, intended to increase the housing supply and address the “missing middle” of the housing continuum — that gap between increasingly unaffordable single-family homes and small condominiums. Municipalities have until June 30, 2024 to align their bylaws with this provincial legislation.

The multiplex trend and restrictive land-use policies

In recent years, Vancouver and Victoria had already approved broad-swath rezonings to enable “multiplex” (duplex, triplex, etc.) development in single-family areas. This multiplex trend is not isolated to Western Canada, with municipal and regional governments across North America passing similar laws, including Toronto, Minneapolis, California and Oregon.

A 2023 report from the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) highlighted restrictive land-use policies as a contributing factor to elevated shelter costs in general, and in Vancouver and Toronto (Canada’s two most expensive housing markets) in particular. In this context, “blanket” upzonings can give builders a legible pathway to creating more residential density in undersupplied areas.

The planning rationale: An example

To help us understand the financial and urban planning rationale behind “missing middle” zoning, let’s review a representative example of an 11,000 square foot (sf) lot in Vancouver, currently improved with an aging 4,000 sf home.

Vancouver’s multiplex zoning permits a floor-space ratio (FSR) of 1, meaning you can build 11,000 sf on this lot, or six units of just over 1,800 sf each. Now we have six homes instead of one, some or all of them suitable for a young family, nestled on a tree-lined street.

In a major metro region like Toronto or Vancouver, these homes wouldn’t be cheap, but they would be materially more affordable than a new single-family home in the same neighbourhood. Even factoring in today’s elevated construction and financing costs, this sample project is, most likely, viable. It can get built.

Several fees apply

However, in our example, in addition to the typical slew of government fees (including Development Cost Levies, or DCLs, which contribute to infrastructure upgrades), the builder would have to pay a density charge to the municipal government of over $460,000 (or $76,000+ per unit). The purchaser would also have to pay GST to the federal government on the finished home. The quantum of GST would vary with the purchase price, but in this case would likely exceed $100,000 per unit.

Multiplex projects also incur other fees over and above what would be required to construct a single-family home on the same parcel, including development permit fees. These extractions make “missing-middle” projects both less feasible for the builder and more costly for the end-user.

The broader issue

This relates to the broader issue, explored in an earlier article, of the costs and restrictions imposed by various levels of government on the supply of housing. Given the numbers cited above, government charges are likely a contributing factor (along with design constraints) to why there have generally been relatively few projects initiated under multiplex zoning provisions. 

How ‘missing middle’ policy has played out

According to housing journalist Uytae Lee, in the first 11 months after California’s enabling legislation came into effect, there were just over 280 “missing middle” permit applications submitted – in a state with a population of some 39 million people. 

Closer to home, in Victoria, B.C., there were merely three applications in the first six months after the introduction of multiplex zoning. One builder, cited in a Postmedia report, indicated that the Victoria policy’s design parameters (including setbacks and height) created “unbuildable conditions” for multiplex projects. (It should be noted that the low uptake prompted Victoria’s city council to drastically revise its “missing middle” program last September.)

And while it’s too soon to judge the efficacy of Vancouver’s policy (which came out last fall), in the context of already elevated construction and financing costs, it’s fair to say that project feasibility and unit affordability are not enhanced by the taxes and charges outlined above. 

We have to decide what we want. Since it’s clear that we have a chronic under-supply of housing, we should remove unnecessary design barriers and reduce government fees and charges, starting with those that are extraneous to the infrastructure enhancements required by increased housing density. Otherwise, bureaucratic extractions and constraints will continue to impede much-needed supply in the middle rungs of the housing ladder.

Sotheby’s International Realty Canada announced the opening of its new Kelowna office in British Columbia’s Interior.

The luxury brand says this strategic move signals its confidence in the region and aligns with the robust growth and dynamic changes in the real estate landscape of the B.C. Interior:

“The B.C. Interior market has experienced a remarkable upswing in recent years, with a notable increase in demand for high-end real estate,” says Don Kottick, president and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.

“The opening of our new flagship office in Kelowna is a strategic move to harness our team’s deep-rooted market expertise in the area, and our brand’s expansive national and global marketing reach to serve new and longstanding clients. This launch underscores our confidence in the region’s top-tier real estate market, and our belief that areas including the Thompson Okanagan, Shuswap and the Kootenay Rockies will continue to attract home buyers and investors from across B.C., Canada and around the world.”

“We’re seeing a significant uptick in demand for conventional and luxury real estate from locals, as well as newcomers”

Sotheby’s notes the new office launch capitalizes on the positive momentum in the region’s economy, interprovincial migration and population gains, and that these things are expected to help rebound sales activity across the region this year. The company also sees the area’s relative affordability and recent inventory increase to offer prospective buyers more selection and strategic opportunities.

Nathan Flavel, B.C. Interior office lead and regional managing broker, states, “Our expansion into the B.C. Interior is a strategic response to clear market signals. We are seeing a significant uptick in demand for conventional and luxury real estate from locals, as well as newcomers drawn in by the region’s allure as a premier destination for upscale living.

Known for its breathtaking landscapes, mountains, lakes and forests, the B.C. Interior has also emerged as a destination for luxury amenities including exclusive wineries, fine dining, a vibrant arts scene and premier ski and recreational activities. Favourable costs of living and real estate prices in comparison to other major Canadian metropolitan areas also add to the region’s appeal.”

The Fraser Valley Realtors Charitable Foundation (FVRCF) announced $90,000 in a second round of grants. The funds will support 10 local charities that directly work with vulnerable and marginalized youth in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley.

Funds to help disadvantaged youth across Fraser Valley

Funds received range from $2,000 to $10,000 to support work to help youth in Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, White Rock, North Delta and Mission. Programs and opportunities include those in housing, education, employment, mental health support, mentorship programs and more.

“At the heart of our mission is a commitment to support vulnerable and marginalized youth by providing resources, support and opportunities for them to succeed,” says John Barbisan, FVRCF board of directors chair. “It is an honour to extend grants to charitable organizations actively engaged in bettering the lives of at-risk youth in the Fraser Valley.”

This announcement follows the inaugural round of grants announced earlier this year, in May. In 2023, the FVRCF contributed $190,000 to Fraser Valley charities working to better the lives of vulnerable youth.

Grant recipients

Grant recipients include Alex House ($10,000), PLEA Community Services ($10,000), Take A Hike Youth Foundation ($10,000), Moving Forward Family Services ($10,000), Surrey Fire Fighters’ Nutritional Snack Program Society ($8,000), Shelter Movers ($2,000), Encompass Support Services Society ($10,000), Kindred Community Farm Sanctuary ($10,000), The Salvation Army Cascade Community Ministries ($10,000) and Youth Unlimited ($10,000).

With the country’s record population growth comes a labour shortage in certain professions – real estate being one of them. In light of this, British Columbia’s recent International Credentials Recognition Act was introduced.

Act to help fill labour gaps faster

The Act is meant to attract immigrants by fast-tracking the recognition of foreign credentials in certain fields (there are 29). The goal is to fill professions experiencing a shortage – real estate included.

“Skilled professionals from around the world move to B.C. hoping to put their skills to good use, but instead face huge obstacles and an often-confusing process to get their credentials recognized,” says Premier David Eby in a news release.

“With the skills shortage we have in this province, we cannot afford to leave anyone on the sidelines. That’s why we’re taking action to close the gaps in the system so people can get to work faster, fill in-demand jobs and provide much-needed services to people in B.C.”

Why real estate if no shortage?

It may sound surprising that real estate is included since B.C. is world-renowned for the industry. The province is home to about 29,100 real estate professionals, according to the BC Financial Services Authority.

In fact, the organization notes huge annual growth last year of 6 per cent – about three times the healthy 2 per cent population growth. That’s about one in 102 people in the industry, higher than the Greater Vancouver area last year (one in 146). In an average month, a home is sold for every four B.C. agents and brokers.

So, there’s clearly no shortage like other sectors are experiencing. Then why has the province included real estate agents, associate brokers and managing real estate brokers?

There may be many thoughts and theories, one being to gain more voices and impact policy for the industry to maintain a thriving market.