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ubc, university endowment lands fuelling speculation, contributing to housing crisis, say faculty
douglas todd: the rate of investor ownership of housing at ubc and the university endowment lands is twice what it is across metro vancouver.
aug 23 2024
5 minute read
about half of the roughly 8,000 condos and detached houses under the auspices of ubc and the uel are not occupied by their owners.
douglas todd
the university of b.c. and the university endowment lands contribute to the housing crisis by welcoming investors and speculators at the highest rate in metro vancouver, say ubc faculty.
half of the almost 8,000 private condos and detached houses under the auspices of ubc and the uel are not occupied by their owners, but serve mostly as second or third properties for investors.
the rate of non-occupation by owners on the ubc campus and uel is twice the 24 per cent of metro vancouver, which has been ranked one of the least affordable real-estate markets in the world.
hundreds of ubc faculty and staff have signed a petition that says the “privatization” of ubc lands, particularly by encouraging investors both domestic and offshore, is adding fuel to the fire of speculation and unaffordability.
“frustratingly, it seems that the large majority of new market-rate homes built on campus since the ’90s are not owned and resided in by university students, faculty and staff,” said the petition.
“about half of these new strata units are investor owned, suggesting that ubc is a net contributor to housing price inflation, with recent housing efforts doing more harm than good.”
surprisingly, 2022 data from the canadian housing statistics program show it’s not only 51 per cent of the condos on ubc and uel lands — which have a median assessed value of almost $1 million — that are not occupied by their owners, compared to a metro condo average of 38 per cent.
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investors also own a whopping 54 per cent of the hundreds of detached dwellings on the uel— which are mostly mansions, with some reaching $10 million and more in value.
the number of detached houses on the uel that aren’t occupied by owners is more than three times that of the 15 per cent of metro vancouver detached homes that aren’t the owner’s principal residence.
it means more than half the uel’s detaches homes are business holdings.
ubc faculty and staff are among those arguing that non-occupant owners in and around ubc jack up the prices for families, first-time buyers and others who have to pay for homes to actually live in.
a house on the university endowment lands.
douglas todd
/
sun
the university of b.c. and uel are separate entities, with ubc overseeing about four of five residents. those who live on ubc lands tend to be in condos.
the two make up one of the largest unincorporated regions in canada, without a mayor and council. owners on ubc lands generally have extended leases, typically of 99 years. uel residents pay property taxes directly to the province.
ubc has plans to expand. it wants to add 24,000 more people over the next 30 years, for a total student housing and neighbourhood population of 53,000 in 2050. that would lead to the western edge of point grey being about the size of the city of port coquitlam.
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b.c. premier david eby, who has promised to pull out all the stops to reduce housing prices in b.c., owns one of ubc’s strata properties. the campus and uel is also within his riding of vancouver point grey.
even though both ubc and the uel are the responsibility of the province of b.c., faculty and staff directed last year’s open letter to ubc’s board of governors.
they charged the university — which has for three decades been using ubc properties trust to market hundreds of acres of land gifted to it by the province — with “adding to the speculative land inflation inferno.”
they said ubc and the province are missing a unique opportunity to ease metro’s housing prices.
“ubc is the only place in the lower mainland that need not contribute to this tragedy (of unaffordability). why? because ubc owns the land, or at least it does now. thus, it can produce housing for just the cost of construction,” says the public letter.
“(ubc) is the only institution big enough to single-handedly make a dent in our regional housing crisis,” said the faculty, who urged the university’s leaders to build thousands of housing units, particularly for those who work on campus.
ubc spokesperson matthew ramsey said this week the university has “ambitious” plans to offer a variety of benefits to faculty, staff and other campus workers.
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it already provides 14,000 subsidized dorm beds for students. and one third of the roughly 7,000 private properties on campus, ramsey said, are rentals prioritized for the ubc community, including some priced below market rates. some faculty are also offered low-interest loans.
much of the revenue raised by ubc properties trust goes into the “academic mission,” ramsey said.
that includes constructing new buildings and providing financial support for students, faculty and staff. speaking speculatively, he said the money may in future go toward a skytrain extension to ubc.
a spokesperson for the uel could not be reached by press time.
ubc professor patrick condon, of the school of architecture, was one of the dozens of initial writers of the letter, along with sara stevens of the same department, david ley and jessica wang of geography, plus regional planning professor penny gurstein.
condon said the revenue gained from ubc property sales is “much appreciated.”
nevertheless, condon said if ubc chose to provide more housing for faculty and staff on campus, it would put downward pressure on prices in the wider community. it would also lead to less air pollution because fewer people would commute.
“now ubc is basically off-loading the responsibility on how to house the university community,” he said. “as a result, their lands are being occupied by the investor class,” which he said artificially drives up the region’s price of lan d.
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black line shows boundary of the university endowment lands. ubc lands are marked by white zone.
sun
how can it be that 54 per cent of the high-end houses of the uel are owned by people who don’t live in them?
“it’s part of the larger problem, which is that housing is now an asset of investors. even with nobody living in these homes, they’ve so far been appreciating.”
condon urged eby to push for a new approach.
“ubc provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to capitalize on a huge public land asset,” condon said. instead, “like most other land developers, ubc and the province have chosen immediate profit over long-term sustainability.“
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