40 per cent of residents prefer single-family homes: Metro survey

Article content

A new survey by Metro Vancouver finds that more than 40 per cent of homeowners across the region still prefer single-family homes, but those preferences are shaped by income and the number of times they have moved in recent years.

Article content

Article content

The region is gathering data to better plan future housing options.

“There still is really strong demand for single-detached housing as a preferred dwelling structure in the region. But given our limited land supply and that we are becoming a much more high-density region, there is a little bit of a mismatch between (what is preferred) and the housing options that are not only available today, but the direction that they’re moving into in the future,” said Jonathan Cote, deputy general manager of regional planning and housing development at Metro Vancouver.

Article content

He said that a lot of the findings in the new report, which goes to Metro Vancouver board members this week, make sense — such as the younger generation moving more as they form households and the older generation with higher income-to-housing costs moving less.

The release of the report comes amid increasing uncertainty about the dominance of the single-family home as municipalities plan to build more duplexes, townhomes and condo towers near transit and compact urban areas

The survey of 3,000 respondents who are long-term residents across the region looked at how many Metro Vancouver households relocated or remained in their housing location between 2000 to 2023. It used federal income tax information, generalized land and census data from the last five years.

Residents were asked about four forms of housing: apartments, row houses, multi-attached and single-detached homes, digging deeper to see which kind of dwelling was preferred and how those answers might change depending on whether those households were considered stickers, movers or bouncers.

Article content

Article content

Stickers described households who had been in the same location during the study period, while movers described those who had relocated once, and bouncers referred to ones that had relocated at least twice.

About 70 per cent of Metro Vancouver households remained in the same location between 2000 to 2023. Nearly 30 per cent of them relocated with 20 per cent moving once and nine per cent moving at least twice.

There were the most movers in Ridge Meadows, which includes Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Bouncers were more likely to live in the northeast area of Metro Vancouver, including Anmore, Belcarra, Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Port Coquitlam.

Bouncers were more likely to be Millennials, between the ages of 25-44, or Gen Z, between the ages of 35-44, have a university degree and report household costs to income ratios of between 30 to 49 per cent. Movers were more likely to be older, between the ages of 35-64, have a partly completed college or trade degree, and report lower household cost to income ratios than bouncers. Stickers included a larger proportion of those between the ages of 65-74.

Article content

Households in Langley City, White Rock, City of North Vancouver and Richmond had greater preferences for single detached housing despite a proportionately lower number of these and a decreasing supply since 2001.

Homeowners in the Burrard peninsula — which includes Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster — reported the highest preference, at 32 per cent, for apartments.

“I think with everything, as communities get more used to different forms of housing, it becomes more accepted, more understood and more appreciated. But when it’s unfamiliar or it’s not the typical form of housing, it doesn’t have that same level of acceptance,” said Cote.

“I think this helps planners really recognize that there’s an evolution going on in our land uses in all cities, but to also recognize that residents are going to be in different places with where their preferences are and that that will evolve over time.”

Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, said understanding these preferences is important, but it’s key for planners to delve into what aspects of each housing form is most valued and why, and how physical infrastructure, such as transit, and cultural and recreational amenities, can shift preferences.

jlee-young@postmedia.com

Article content