Ever been out east? Row housing is dense, but has a yard and is suitable for families in a way that a condo can never be.
> If you dropped the rent control, developers would be more likely to build apartments, with the possible result that rent might go down.
We're BARELY rent controlled. Kick your tenant out and find a new one, boom you can double the rent. Technically illegal, but done constantly. If you really want to make it legit you can do a minor reno.
> rents are actually pretty low in Vancouver
Unfortunately I can't live in Seattle, and that seems like a disingenuous apples-to-oranges comparison. Because of the border/citizenship issue, those are separate markets. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/vancouver-s-rental-rates-are-the-highe...
My understanding is that it's fantastically hard to evict a tenant in BC. I've heard stories of landlords taking a year to evict a tenant who wasn't even paying his rent anymore, and destroying the apartment in the process. Though I guess most people will leave when asked. And from what I remember, annual rent increases are capped at 4% or something? The first 3 years I lived in Seattle, my rent went up 50%.
Basically, though, rents aren't bad in Vancouver, and that's the most critical aspect of housing. People can afford to live there. The situation could be easily improved, especially regarding housing ownership...by encouraging more building.
> Basically, though, rents aren't bad in Vancouver
Your argument seems to be “it’s worse elsewhere so quit complaining. I’ll remind you, this is the least affordable rental city in canada.
And renter protections and limitations on rent increases are fairly strict in BC, which discourages the building of apartments. If you dropped the rent control, developers would be more likely to build apartments, with the possible result that rent might go down.
And having said that, rents are actually pretty low in Vancouver. When I moved down to Seattle from there, my rent went way up, in spite of the fact that housing was way more expensive in Vancouver at the time (2011). Last time I checked, that remained true: rent for a fancy downtown 2-br apartment in Vancouver was about $2k Canadian, equivalent in Seattle was over $2.5k USD.
Look to Tokyo for a city that eliminated zoning and rent controls, and is surprisingly affordable for a huge international city. You'll never see it on a cost-of-living list with Vancouver, New York, Paris, Sydney, etc.