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Nearly a quarter of condos in Vancouver are empty or occupied by non-residents in some dense areas of downtown, a signal that investors play a significant role in the city’s housing market.

And the city overall has a much higher rate of empty apartments and houses than other Canadian cities, with a rate closer to places like New York and San Francisco at the height of their mortgage crisis in 2010.

Downtown, the rate is so high that it’s as though there were 35 towers at 20 storeys apiece – empty.

That’s the latest discovery that adjunct UBC planning professor Andrew Yan made when he analyzed 2011 census numbers to try to add more information to the contentious debate over whether Vancouver is turning into a high-end resort or offshore investors’ holding tank.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/real-estate/vancouvers-vacancies-point-to-investors-not-residents/article10044403/

Developing Story: Pacific Arbour puts Dunbar seniors’ plan on hold.

It could be weeks or months before Pacific Arbour decides whether to submit a revised application to the city for a senior’s facility it hoped to build on property on the east side of the 4600 block of Dunbar Street between 30th and 31st avenues.

Earlier this month, the city rejected its rezoning application to build a six-storey seniors residence south of Stong’s grocery store. City staff cited concerns about affordability and how it fit into the Dunbar Vision Plan, which envisions buildings up to four storeys.

President Peter Gaskill told the Courier Pacific Arbour is not working on a revised application at this time and that, in the company’s opinion, a four-storey building is not financially feasible at current land prices.