This is a great question. If it were up to the City of Vancouver and the BC Government, everyone would either live in their own property, or rent it out full time as a long term rental property. If only life were so simple! And besides, who is the City of Vancouver to tell individual property owners what they can and cannot do with their property? Do we live in 1950’s Communist Russia or China? I think not, although sometimes it feels that way.
1. The most popular reason for doing this is that some owners don’t live in Vancouver full time, but require a place to live in while they are in town. Like it or not, Vancouver is an International City, full of part time residents, and not everyone wants to stay in a hotel or Air BnB when they are in town, nor should they have to! Many owners live abroad, whether that be in parts of the USA, Asia, or Europe, and need a home base when they’re in Vancouver.
2. Another reason that owners choose not to rent out their Vancouver property is that their Strata doesn’t allow it. Strata Corporations can enact bylaws for any building constructed prior to 2010 that can prevent individual owners from renting out their property short or long term!
3. A third reason the some owners choose not to rent out their property is that their family may live their off and on. They may have kids going to school who require a residence, or family visiting from out of town. This is a very common scenario in Vancouver due to the many International schools and students here.
As you can see, there are a few good reasons that owners choose to leave their properties vacant. It’s easy for the media to villify “wealthy foreign owners”, but the truth is that most of these owners are Canadians with legitimate reasons for choosing not to rent out their property full time.
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